16 The Courier sun • juLY 28, 2016 for breaking news visit www.qns.com Ride sharing app will now offer cost-friendly trips to JFK and LaGuardia By Charlie Perry [email protected]/@QNS A low-cost ride sharing app will expand their city operations to include JFK and LaGuardia airports. According to Crain’s, Via Rideshare will begin shuttling New Yorkers to and from the airports starting on July 28. “Riders have been consistently asking us for airport trips for quite a while,” Via’s general manager for New York, Alex Lavoie, told Crain’s New York. According to the app’s website, a trip from Manhattan to LaGuardia will cost $24.95. If travelers are looking at going to JFK, a ride runs $39.95. Each additional passenger will pay $5 apiece. Tolls are split evenly among all the passengers. “We’re covering the cost of servicing a ride to the airport,” Lavoie told Crain’s New York. “It takes longer to get to the airport, and the cost to drivers is higher as far as gas and wear and tear on the vehicle. This price point is still really competitive versus the other options out there.” According to Crain’s New York, the cost of a taxi ride from JFK to Manhattan is a flat $52, and $56.50 during peak hours. Travelers can expect to save between $12 to $17 using Via. Lavoie estimates New Yorkers can expect to save between $15 and $25 when traveling to LaGuardia. Photo via Google Play Courtesy of Wikimedia images Residents argue that the Department of Transportation has failed to incorporate community feedback to this proposal in the past. Woodhaven residents ready to rally against city’s Select Bus plan for two boulevards By Candace Higgins [email protected]/@QNS Residents of Woodhaven are not too happy about the proposed Select Bus Service (SBS) changes that might be coming to their neighborhood, and they’re hoping to do something about it. The Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association (WRBA) organized a rally for Saturday, Aug. 6, at noon to protest the new plan that would be making major changes to the entire stretch of Cross Bay Boulevard and Woodhaven Boulevard, from the Rockaways to the Queens Center mall in Elmhurst. The Department of Transportation and MTA plan to dedicate two already existing traffic lanes to buses only (in both directions), ban left turns off the boulevard, and move bus stops off sidewalks and onto medians. Safety is a main concern surrounding these proposed changes. “We are very concerned about the safety of the pedestrians crossing the boulevard,” Maria Thomson, executive director of the Woodhaven Business Improvement District, said, “and of bus riders of who will have to access buses from an island instead of the sidewalk.” The rally will take place outside the bank in Woodhaven, at the southeast corner of Woodhaven Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue. Residents, business owners, commuters and anyone else who wants to prevent the implementation of the plan are invited. The WRBA, the Woodhaven Business Improvement District, the Greater Woodhaven Development Corporation, the Task Force for a Better Woodhaven, and the Queens Public Transit Committee are all supporting the rally. Anyone interested in signing the petition to oppose this plan can do so at http://www. saveourstreets.nyc/.
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