By Joseph Morales

          Westchester County arguably has more diverse travel markets than anywhere in New York State. The majority of Westchester County is full of suburban communities similar to those you’d see throughout America, where most residents own cars. However, Westchester County is also home to a few mid-sized cities and even slightly larger urban areas, particularly in the southern portion of the county. The cities of Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and White Plains contain 40% of the county’s population. Many, though not the majority of residents in these cities and in other areas are low-income and rely on public buses to get around the county as well as to get into The Bronx. Other residents of both the cities and the rest of the county may use public transit solely for connecting to Metro-North trains to get to Manhattan. Overall according to video by the Westchester County Government, 85% of Westchester County residents own cars. While this rate may seem high to city-dwellers, this is still less than the U.S rate of 91.5% of Americans owning cars according to the U.S Census. 

              Unfortunately, due to this level of diversity when it comes to travel demand, Westchester County has struggled to find ways to serve those who use mass transit, particularly in mid-sized areas. This is in part because mass transit is very expensive to operate and rarely turns a profit. Thus, the Bee-Line system needs a certain number of riders on its buses to justify running frequent service. This puts mid-sized cities such as Port Chester in a difficult position. According to the Urban Action Agenda’s Port Chester Community Profile in 2018, 14% of the population of about 29,000 took public transit to work. While this is a significant portion of the city’s population, this only equates to about 4,060 transit riders not including those who primarily use Metro-North rather than Bee-Line buses, making it hard to justify frequent transit service here.

              Luckily, Westchester County has identified a way to bring on-demand and reliable public transportation to these areas in the form of microtransit as part of the Westchester County Mobility And Transit Plan. The goal of this plan is to redesign Westchester County’s public bus system known as the Bee-Line and establish new car-free modes for Westchester’s many travel markets.  Microtransit is an on-demand shared van service in which riders request a ride to a specific stop and can request a trip anywhere in a specified service zone as well as to specific destinations such as a train station or airport. This may make public transportation more compelling to those living in microtransit zones. The microtransit zones proposed by the Mobility And Transit Plan include Peekskill, Port Chester/Purchase, Hartsdale, Scarsdale, Western Yonkers , Armonk, Chappaqua/Bedford Hills, Ossining. Many of these zones serve mid-sized areas that are served by infrequent and/or indirect transit. Many residents may use microtransit to get to destinations such as shopping, work or other activities either because they do not have a vehicle or just do not feel like driving. Many may use to get to local Metro-North stations or other Bee-Line routes. There may also be a increase in riders using microtransit to get to the Metro-North once congestion pricing is implemented in order to avoid paying $9-$23 to drive into the Manhattan Central Business District below 60th Street.  Currently, residents of these areas are often forced to wait for buses that come every 30-60 minutes or even less. In addition, many buses have gaps in their schedules as to when a bus can show up. For example, the Bee-Line 16 which runs between Downtown Peekskill and the Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown Heights. On Mondays-Fridays, the 16 begins a trip from Somers Commons in Somers to the Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Peekskill at either 12:20 PM or 1:15 PM. There are also only 2 16 buses that go to the Peekskill MNR station, arriving there at either 6:55 or 7:30 AM and arriving there at 6:06 PM. These scenarios make it near impossible to plan transit trips. While riders can only expect vehicles within 30 minutes of requesting a trip, microtransit seems far better than the status quo. 

       While microtransit will replace most routes like the 16, some fixed route bus routes may still operate in microtransit zones that go to other areas of the county outside of a microtransit zone such as the proposed Bee Line-111 which will run between Ossining and Tarrytown.

               Microtransit is a major step in improving public transit in Westchester County. Access to quality and reliable microtransit in Westchester will ensure that residents can have more freedom without the use of a car. Should the plan succeed, this may become a nationwide model on how to build quality public transportation in the suburbs.

Acknowledgements

“Urban Action Agenda: Community Profiles:City Of Peekskill.” Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, http://www.pattern-for-progress.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Peekskill.pdf. Accessed 5 September 2022.

“Urban Action Agenda: Community Profiles: City Of Port Chester.” Hudson Valley Pattern For Progres, 2018. Accessed 5 September 2022

Westchester County Government/New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. “Summary Of Suggested Service Changes.” Westchester Mobility, 2022, https://www.westchestermobility.org/_files/ugd/b59736_39f85c952ba94d89bdb83e4ac83b6ff8.pdf. Accessed 5 September 2022.Westchester County Government/New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. “Westchester County Mobility & Bus Re-Design Story Map.” ArcGIS StoryMaps, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/56d6ca6dad194f7c807241bc16336ded. Accessed 5 September 2022