Nov 20, 2009 8:21 pm US/Eastern
Holiday Season Means NYC Bus Invasion
Thousands Come Into City Daily, Idle, Cause Congestion, Steal Valuable Parking; Will Get Worse In Coming Weeks
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Come one, come all … but good luck finding a parking spot.
As New York City enters the holiday gridlock alert season, discount tour buses are proliferating, but the parking spots are few and far between.
Welcome to tour bus city, otherwise known as Manhattan's West Side.
Thirty-year resident Christine Berthet said the neighborhood has turned into Disney World without a parking lot.
"Everybody wants to come here but there is no planning for parking," Christine Berthet said.
Some 6,000 tour, commuter and long distance buses come into the city every day. But after they drop off their passengers, their hunt for legal layover parking begins.
An area on 39th Street off Ninth Avenue is one of the few legal spots for bus parking. But drivers said getting a parking spot there is a challenge.
"We just circle corner from corner to corner and hopefully we find a spot from somebody's who's leaving that has a legal spot, 'cause if we don't we just end up parking wherever we can and then any given time you can get a ticket up here," bus driver Ricky Williams said.
"They are parking in front of schools, parks, you know, right in the middle of residences, and our neighborhood has the third highest rate of asthma in Manhattan," Berthet added.
Noelle Mooney said her pub "Stout" and "Fat Annie's" on West 33rd Street have become victims of idling buses.
"We have numerous bus companies here, parking on the street, idling on the street, unloading and loading on the street, blocking the whole sidewalk, blocking the entrances to our building, and also blocking the visibility of the business," Mooney said.
"You watch the bus and it's 20 minutes and the engine is still idling and then, of course, your air intakes are picking up diesel fumes and it's kind of unpleasant being in the building," business owner David Katz said.
"There are environmental, congestion, and commercial arguments against these buses being here. We hope the city will help us find a solution," added prominent downtown manager Dan Biederman.
So far the city hasn't done anything about the bus parking problem. But the Department of Transportation said it is concerned and looking to address the problem.
The Port Authority had planned to build a bus parking garage, but city officials said the project was dropped from the budget.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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