NY May Close Frum Bus Service That Has Women Sit In Back

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boro-park-willy-busReuters reports: New York City authorities said they will shut down a city bus service run by Orthodox Jews if the group doesn’t stop making women sit at the back of the bus.

The Private Transportation Corp, which operates the city’s public B110 bus under a franchise arrangement, has come under criticism following publicity about its practice of making women give up their seats in the front to promote Hasidic customs of gender separation.

New York City’s Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Gastel said the agency’s executive director Anne Koenig has asked the company to respond to the allegations and was waiting to hear back.

“Please be advised that a practice of requiring women to ride in the back … would constitute a direct violation of your franchise agreement and may lead to termination of that agreement,” Koenig wrote.

If such a violation is found, the franchise could be revoked, the DOT said in a statement.

The Private Transportation Corp declined comment.

The B110 bus runs through the sections of the borough of Brooklyn that are heavily populated by Orthodox Jews.

A student reporter at Columbia University in New York published a story about a woman told by other riders to give up her seat in the front. Other news organizations then sent reporters who encountered similar situations.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference on Wednesday that gender separation is “obviously not permitted” on public buses.

The DOT said the public bus has been franchised to Private Transportation Corp since 1973 and is not subsidized by city money. No exemptions have been granted to the company to comply with the city’s anti-discrimination standards, it said.

Deborah Lauter, director of Civil Rights for the Anti-Defamation League, said in an e-mail to Reuters: “We oppose the practice of gender-segregation on public buses as discriminatory and unlawful. If a community feels it needs gender-segregated buses, then they should not involve the city.”

{Reuters/Matzav.com Newscenter}


12 COMMENTS

  1. Dear Editor LOY”T:

    BiMechilas Kvodchem.

    Instead of merely republishing verbatim an obviously anti-Charedi article from Reuters, you should investigate and do your own reporting.

    Respectfully

  2. I take that bus very often & find the ride to be very pleasant. No one is hostile & no one forces anyone to do anything! I have a feeling who is behind this! And Dov, take it easy with Williamsburg! You don’t live here & BARUCH HASHEM you don’t represent us!

  3. please don’t make any accusations…start rumors or anything of that sort. We have to stop condemning our fellow brothers and sisters…

  4. if you want to enforce an unconstitutional and illegal gender separation, no matter how halachically correct it may be, do it on a private bus NOT one with a govt franchise

  5. The Monsey bus has one door; has a very narrow isle; and most busses have a bathroom.

    The BP-Willy bus has a two doors, very wide isles and does not have a bathroom. I’ve been on the bus several times and found the separation to be very dignified and fine. (In fact, the back seats are preferable. I believe elderly woman and women with carriages etc. enter through the women’s door).

    This is just petty games by silly people. Why Don’t they focus on the same-gender “couple” who dressed their six year-old adopted boy as a girl (no, not for a dress-up game. They did so all the time!)?? Stop bothering those who seek not to hurt anyone – but only to live a proper, dignified and moral life.

    The article says that they don’t receive any city money – so why do people who have no interest in riding this bus care? Sounds like the Dor Hamabul people who wanted to break Noach’s Ark.

  6. BS”D I agree with #3. As far as I am concerned, it ALLOWS us to sit in the back, separate from the men. I wish there was more available so I could be in New York more comfortable.

  7. We live in a country that is not ours that has laws against gender segregation. If you don’t like it, don’t take the bus. Chas vishalom someone should learn to drive!!! Or, if you feel so strongly, take a cab (with a driver of your gender of course)

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