Somebody irked with dirty air in Port Authority bus terminal is
keeping their lines busy
Nobody knows who, but they are driving up 311 complaints in
Manhattan
March 14, 2022
After over a year of pandemic lockdowns that cut ridership in public
transport by around 80%, vehicles are back on the road and so are
idle buses and the smoke and fumes they emit at the Port Authority
Bus Terminal.
At least one person is very, very unhappy about it.
Since June 2021, when pandemic restrictions began to ease, calls to
311 complaining about air quality at Port Authority have set
records—and most of them are coming from 640 8th Avenue, right
across the street from the terminal building. In June, there were 55
calls, which are referred to the Department of Environmental
Protection. By September, that number rose to 391. Come January
2022, it hit 613, a new record, and remained elevated at 494 the
following month.
640 8th Avenue sees complaints about air quality rise...
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Aug 2016
Feb 2020
Jun 2021
Feb 2022
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Aug
2016
Jun
2021
Feb
2022
Feb
2020
...and they are driving Manhattan calls about dirty air
Number of 311 calls tagged as air quality concerns
Brooklyn
Bronx
800
complaints
600
400
200
0
2004
2012
2020
2004
2012
2020
Queens
Staten Island
800
complaints
600
400
200
0
2004
2020
2012
2012
2020
2004
No location specified
Manhattan
800
complaints
Complaints about
air quality surge
in Jan 2022
600
400
200
0
2004
2012
2020
2004
2012
2020
Complaints about
air quality surge
in Jan 2022
Brooklyn
Manhattan
Bronx
800
complaints
600
400
200
0
2004
2004
2012
2012
2020
2020
2004
2012
2020
Staten Island
Queens
No location specified
800
complaints
600
400
200
0
2004
2012
2020
2004
2012
2004
2020
2012
2020
Source: New York City Open Data
All calls were tagged as air quality complaints by the 311 database,
from odor and fumes emitted by idling vehicles. It's not just that
all the calls were coming from one building. Most of them were
coming from one number.
“It seems there is one person making most of these reports,” Edward
Timbers, communications director for the environmental protection
department, said on February 14. “He or she has made 12 reports
today and it's related to the bus terminal.”
Such barrages of complaints are nothing new. Sherif Alkabbani, 34,
who works at a Covid testing site in the area said he used to
complain to 311 about idling buses belching exhaust along 8th
Avenue. “It's very common during winter when buses keep their
engines on even while idle to keep their passengers warm,” he said.
The result is air pollution in a “very dense” Midtown location,
according to Lonnie Portis, policy coordinator at WE ACT, an
environmental advocacy group. “There's definitely a lot of build-up
of buses happening around that area so I wouldn't really be
surprised,” Portis said.
Built in 1953, engineers say the bus terminal located
downtown has been operating beyond capacity.
Source: New York Times
So it's not unusual for people to complain about those buses. But
Timbers has no answer for why almost all the calls are now coming
from a single number. Port Authority management has not responded to
requests for comment, and 311 management said through a personal
message on Twitter that they are only able to get limited personal
information about the caller “since you can submit complaints
anonymously.”
It is not just the swarming buses on 8th Avenue that is behind the
problem. Robert Paaswell, a civil engineer from the City College of
New York, said the bus terminal itself has failed to address
congestion in it, which in turn exacerbates ventilation and makes
the bad smells worse.
The current terminal was designed for about half a million
passengers a day when it was constructed in 1953. It could have been
twice as many passengers before the pandemic, Paaswell said. “It's
outdated.”
Relief, nonetheless,is on the way. Last month, the Port Authority
finally announced the construction of a
bigger terminal
based on a design approved by an eight-member panel that included
Paaswell. But, with initial operations targeted for 2030, commuters
will have to endure the current terminal for a while.
Hanna Nicole Daanoy, 24, is among of them. She used to be greeted by
the terminal's foul smells every week back in 2019, coming from and
going to Maryland to visit her boyfriend. Three weeks ago, she
passed by the terminal on the way to a job interview and assumed
things might have improved. She was wrong.
“It's just awful,” she said. “I'm applying to a new job now and if
all goes well, I will pass by that area everyday and just get sniff
of that smell,” said Daanoy. She landed the job and a regular
rendezvous with Port Authority.
Prinz Magtulis
This project is in partial fulfillment of requirements for master
of science degree in data journalism at Columbia University.See code and data
here.
