PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Leroy Morrison, President of NYC Commuter Van Association, on Commuter Van Services
0:31:08
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126 sec
Leroy Morrison, President of the NYC Commuter Van Association, testifies about the importance of commuter vans as a lifeline transportation service in New York City, particularly in underserved neighborhoods. He emphasizes their role in filling gaps left by the MTA and their reliability during various crises.
- Morrison highlights that commuter vans have been operating for over 38 years, providing essential services during strikes, emergencies, and in areas with limited public transportation.
- He points out that commuter vans serve low-income and minority neighborhoods, often operating in areas where MTA has cut services.
- Morrison argues for fair treatment of commuter van operators and requests support to prevent harassment from law enforcement.
Leroy Morrison
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Anyway, I'm good, Sherry.
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I wanna say, good morning.
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Thanks for having this hearing and the commuter vans.
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As you know, commuter vans are lifeline transportation in New York City.
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Over 38 years now, we've been filling a lot of gap that MTA did not fill when the bus strike, the city call them the commuter vans.
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When their train strike, they call them the commuter vans.
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When the yellow cab, they call them the commuter van.
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Everything MTA does, they call them the commuter vans and the city in New York also.
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And we the 911, we was here.
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Storm Sandy, we was here.
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At a certain time at night, you gotta understand the ridership is out there, people out there trying to get home when empty had cut the services, especially in Southeast Queens.
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It take an hour 45 minutes.
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Someone work at JFK Airport They wanna get to work.
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MTA will take them a hour 45 minutes to get to work.
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They gotta get to Jamaica Avenue, and then they gotta get back to JFK Airport.
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That's not fair.
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What about the ladies who sat on the street corners at night?
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They could get robbed and they could get raped on the corner.
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MTA cut their services.
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And people are desperate out there for transportation in the underserved neighborhood.
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And as you know that every other transportation come to New York City, Commuter van is always here, the lifeline, the backbone for New York City, and we gotta understand also to commuter vans look out for the MTA drivers.
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Most of their drivers get into work.
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They still ride on the commute van.
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On the record.
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They still ride commuter vans.
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The drivers that rush to go to work to catch their empty and bus to drive that they still do.
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And you gotta understand a lot of people are neighborhood.
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They've been underserved.
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They treated like they were from underground with a commuter van.
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When they need us, they pull us out underground.
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When they don't need us, they put us back underground.
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We wanna be treated like 1st class citizen in America.
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We are minority.
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We are low income neighborhood.
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We are commuter van is always operated.
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And what this bill does, ma'am, is save us from getting harassment pulled over by NYPD.
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We are paying eye insurance.
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Thank you for having us here.
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Thank you.