IKEA’s shuttle buses make it easier to get to the Red Hook superstore—but awfully difficult to navigate local roadways, according to a steady chorus of critics.
In Brooklyn Heights and perhaps surrounding areas, the buses’ bad reputation is building.
Community Board 2 member Bill Harris was first to alert the board about the problem.
“I was alarmed when they weren’t turning their engine off after three minutes, and they were lingering,” he said.
The free buses follow two routes. One stops in front of Borough Hall, and the other make stops at Smith/Ninth Street and Ninth Street and Fourth Avenue.
As part of the agreement IKEA hammered out with the city’s Department of Transportation, the buses, which operate between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m., are not permitted to idle for longer than three minutes.
Harris said the coach-style buses—which are roughly the size of a city bus—cause back-ups on Joralemon Street.
He said bus drivers keep their engines running because otherwise, it would be too hot inside the vehicles.
Beside traffic problems, diesel fumes pump out onto the street. “You don’t see the poison that comes out of their tail pipes,” Harris said.
Robert Perris, the district manager of Community Board 2, agreed that the buses pose both traffic and environmental concerns.
“These are not the cleanest buses—they are spilling diesel exhaust into the air,” he said.
He said his office has been in communication with city and store officials, trying to remedy the problem.
“We have already seen considerable improvement,” he said.
IKEA spokesperson Joseph Roth said officials have already instructed the bus company, Corporate Express, not to idle.
“We have reminded them and we are monitoring them along the way,” Roth said.
He said he was unsure why the drivers lingered at their stops. “Sometimes you have an irregular route schedule or if you’re ahead of schedule, you wait,” he suggested.
But that won’t be tolerated, he assured.
“As people contact us, and observe idling, we contact the service provider and take care of it,” Roth said.
Before the store opened, IKEA officials promised to convene a ‘state of the store’ meeting with the local community boards. The meeting is scheduled soon, Roth said, and the issue of the shuttle buses, if it is brought up, will be addressed there.
Ted Timbers, a spokesperson for the DOT, said his agency heard the complaints, which have mostly originated from Brooklyn Heights.
“The agreement with the city was that the buses would only drop off and pick up, and there would be no idling,” he said. “The bus stops are set aside for more than just the shuttle buses.”
