Michael Coughlin Jr.
Several residents of East Boston vented their frustrations regarding the activities of Boston Public School (BPS) buses to Jackie Hayes, the Assistant Director of Contract Operation and Fleet for BPS, at the November 7 Harbor View Neighborhood Association meeting.
The idling and use of residential parking by BPS buses have pushed many residents to their breaking points as they ask for some sort of solution. Although there seems to be new frustration with the buses, some say these issues have been apparent for years.
One resident explained that for at least six years, buses have been idling, waking people in the wee hours of the morning and taking up parking spaces by the Bennington Street Cemetery.
“I think that is a long enough time to try and mitigate. You know, I understand that on a daily basis you’ll take complaints, try to mitigate it – again, that has been going on for six years – we need a solution,” said the resident.
Elsewhere on Bennington Street, others see the same issues continuously happening with seemingly no end in sight. The ideal solution, at least for residents, is for there to be off-street satellite locations for buses to wait before they eventually head out on their routes.
Unfortunately, for those who would like to see those satellite locations as a solution – it is not going to happen anytime soon, according to Hayes.
While Hayes indicated that BPS is seeking additional space for its buses, she said, “The reality is that space is at a premium, and when the city uses space, they have to pay for it, and it is expensive.”
“We do not have a budget at this time for additional parking lots around the city,” she added.
Hayes did emphasize that although a satellite location might not be in the cards currently, BPS will still work with neighborhood associations for alternative fixes for the issues.
For now, the solution seems to rest upon the residents, as Hayes suggested that individual incidents be reported online via the BPS transportation support portal. Hayes advised against sending incidents by email, citing that reports to the portal are the most efficient way to get incidents to BPS.
This resolution was not up to snuff for at least one resident, as they said, “With all due respect, I have been doing it [reporting issues] for the last six, seven years on a daily basis … nothing has been done – nothing.”
Even though it may seem like nothing has been done, Hayes assured residents that their work in contacting BPS with issues had led to the retraining of drivers as well as instances of speaking with drivers every time incidents occur.
She also defended the BPS bus drivers saying, “Frankly, our drivers work really hard, and they are under incredible stress every day… the vast majority of our drivers are lovely humans that decided to do work with kids.”
Overall, Hayes made it clear that the BPS will not stop working to quell the issues with buses around East Boston.
“We continue to be committed to trying to figure out how to make it work. We continue to be committed to taking every complaint or concern that is raised and running it down so that we can figure out how to make this work effectively for everyone,” said Hayes.