The lingering feud between the TLC and underground “dollar vans” boiled over in Brooklyn Thursday, when the fed-up driver of one of the illegal shuttle buses jumped on the roof of his van and refused to come down for an hour — or pay a hefty $4,000 fine.
More than a dozen cops had to be dispatched to the scene on Flatbush Avenue between Clarendon Road and Bitmas Avenue around 8 a.m. after the unidentified driver’s escapades drew an angry, unruly crowd.
“We’re here to take a stand because this keeps going on back and forth,” said one driver who identified as Kevin and who was part of the angry crowd. “We’re not out there killing nobody. We’re making an honest living for our family. But they’re coming out here ganging up on our drivers.”
The discount shuttle vans have been a thorn in the side of the Taxi & Limousine Commission — and transit bus drivers — since they first surfaced during the city’s 1980 transit strike.
Nonetheless, they have become a lifeline for poorer immigrant neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens, and Chinatown, typically charging local commuters $2 to $3 to get on.
The van that sparked Thursday’s unrest was pulled over on Flatbush Avenue by TLC enforcement agents in an unmarked vehicle. The agents were writing up the fine when the irate driver climbed onto the van.
“They’re harassing me,” he screamed. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
He finally came down about 9 a.m. and was taken off in an ambulance. The nature of the man’s injuries is not known. Police said they were only at the scene assisting the Taxi & Limousine Commission.
The NYPD was called in after the angry crowd gathered.
“TLC has been harassing us for years,” said a man who gave his name as Gio. He said the vans “helps us commute in and out of work every day. When there’s no bus, when it’s rain, sleet, and snow, they still find a way.”
Said another man, “the entire precinct shouldn’t be out here for a man trying to get a dollar, trying to feed his family.”
Officials at the TLC said Thursday that they were looking into the incident.
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