Tag Archives: tour bus

Battery Park City to be inundated with tourbus congestion.

Tour Buses to Pay Meters in Lower Manhattan

News, Politics, ,
Battery Park City to be inundated with tourbus congestion.
Do we need more tour bus congestion in Battery Park City? (Courtesy: quiteallright.blogspot.com)

NY1 reports that tour buses will now be expected to pay parking meters in Lower Manhattan, since the September 11th memorial is expected to attract around five million visitors annually. The influx of visitors will be brought downtown by charter buses, which lead to air pollution, noise pollution from idling vehicles and loads of traffic congestion! While tourists and visitors are encouraged to take mass transit to the region, there will still be lots and lots of buses converging on the area.

“The real issue with the tour buses is one of pollution, it’s one of traffic congestion, it’s one affecting the residents and the small businesses down here,” said Julie Menin, chairwoman of Community Board 1.

Buses will be allowed to drop passengers off and pick them up at Trinity Place and Church Street bus stops during off-peak hours. The buses can wait at already existing bus layover zones or at newly created ones. Drivers will be expected to feed muni meters, which might cause bus fare to rise, as well. The price buses will have to pay has yet to be determined.

To minimize traffic overflow, 1,500 visitors will be allowed into the memorial per hour.

Do you think this parking meter plan will work?

Battery Park City to be inundated with tourbus congestion.

Is Battery Park City Ready for the Tour Bus Invasion?

News, , , ,
Battery Park City to be inundated with tourbus congestion.
Do we need more tour bus congestion in Battery Park City? (Courtesy: quiteallright.blogspot.com)

Think the traffic in Lower Manhattan sucks now? Well, chances are it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

When the 9/11 Memorial & Musem opens at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2011, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the attacks, even more tourist-filled buses than usual will be descending upon our beloved Battery Park City. We say “even more” because a recent survey shows that Lower Manhattan already gets about 80 tour buses daily, and that does not count the bevy of MTA buses running their daily routes.

The 9/11 Memorial is expected to attract 2 million additional tourists per year, and as many as 7 million in its first year. And guess what? The camera-toting, finger-pointing masses are going to need a way to get down to Ground Zero. Translation: Prepare for the tour bus invasion.

But wait, you say, plans for this memorial have been in the works since 2002, so the Port Authority must have devised some kind of plan for dealing with the increased traffic from tour buses. Actually, they haven’t — at least, not yet.

According to AM New York, Community Board 1 official Michael Levine told the city council on Monday that, “It’s a major concern for us that we have not seen a plan for the buses.” He continued: “We have too many tour buses out there. We are concerned about the health, safety and security issues.”

While a Port Authority spokesman claims that the agency is working to formulate “an appropriate plan to accommodate tour buses,” he declined to say when that plan would be released.

Meanwhile, Battery Park City residents appear to be split on the issue. Some believe that BPC and the Ground Zero area are already too crowded and that the influx of more tourists will be a burden to the families currently living in the area. But others, business owners mostly, are salivating at the prospect of these bonus consumers.

Either way, one thing is certain: Beginning next year, you’re going to want to be extra careful to look for buses when crossing the BPC streets.