NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6076C
SPONSOR: Kellner (MS) TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in
relation to providing that in a city of one million or more flashing
purple lights may be affixed to and displayed on buses operated on a bus
rapid transit route
PURPOSE:
To permit the use of flashing purple lights on Metropolitan Transporta-
tion Authority (MTA) or New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) buses
that are used on the Select Bus Service (SBS) Routes with off-board fare
collection.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Amends subdivision 41 of section 375 of the Vehicle and Traf-
fic Law to add a new subparagraph 1-a so that. MTA and NYCTA buses that
are used on SBS Routes are permitted to use flashing purple lights when
running along Select Bus Service Routes.
JUSTIFICATION:
The Authorities' buses utilized on the SBS Routes had previously
utilized flashing blue lights to signal their approach to passengers.
However, under the current. law, blue lights are only authorized for use
by volunteer firefighters and EMTs on their vehicles. Although almost
all of fire and EMT emergency services in New York City are paid profes-
sional emergency responders, not volunteer, in the interest of avoiding
confusion with emergency vehicles, even relatively rare volunteer vehi-
cles, buses on SBS Routes should be authorized to use flashing purple
lights, which is a color not used by any emergency vehicle under VTL
section 375(41).
In addition, emergency vehicles are easy to distinguish from buses, so
the use of different colored lights is not an issue. Without the flash-
ing purple lights, passengers cannot easily tell when a SBS bus is
coming. This is critical for passengers boarding at stops that serve
both the SBS bus and the local bus, or are nearby. At such stops, which
are common to all SBS routes, Passengers have the option of-purchasing
their ticket from the sidewalk ticket vending machine, which is needed
to board an SBS bus, or using a MetroCard or exact. change to board a
local bus. Passengers at these locations must be able to distinguish
well in advance which bus is approaching in order to exercise one or the
other option in time to board the arriving bus. There are no SBS Routes
in Staten Island.
The flashing purple lights provide the necessary advance notice for bus
patrons. The absence of flashing purple lights on buses on SBS Routes
makes the commute for passengers less convenient and unnecessarily
stressful. This bill would allow the use of flashing purple lights on
buses that are on the-SBS Routes that are owned and operated by the MTA
or NYCTA, thereby remedying the problem.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6076--C
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 14, 2013
___________
Introduced by M. of A. KELLNER, QUART, KAVANAGH, COOK, GLICK, ARROYO,
HEASTIE, GIBSON, CRESPO, RIVERA, SEPULVEDA, BENEDETTO, GOTTFRIED,
BORELLI -- read once and referred to the Committee on Transportation
-- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended
and recommitted to said committee -- again reported from said commit-
tee with amendments, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to
said committee -- again reported from said committee with amendments,
ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to providing
that in a city of one million or more flashing purple lights may be
affixed to and displayed on buses operated on a bus rapid transit
route
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 41 of section 375 of the vehicle and traffic
2 law is amended by adding a new paragraph 1-a to read as follows:
3 1-a. In a city with a population of one million or more, flashing
4 purple lights may be affixed to and displayed on buses operated on a bus
5 rapid transit route. Such flashing purple lights may be used exclusively
6 by a bus driver authorized by the applicable mass transit agency on any
7 bus rapid transit route, provided that flashing purple lights may not be
8 utilized on any bus operating on a bus rapid transit route where the bus
9 fare is paid upon boarding. For the purposes of this paragraph, "bus
10 rapid transit route" shall include routes designated as such by the New
11 York city department of transportation and the applicable mass transit
12 agency, including but not limited to, those routes specified in section
13 eleven hundred eleven-c of this chapter.
14 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09767-07-3
