By Dan Murphy
A group of 45 high school and college interns working at the Greenburgh Town Hall this summer, after brainstorming for an initiative that would make a difference in their community and was something that they could all lobby and gain support for, have proposed that the Westchester County Bee Line Bus service provide free bus rides for all students across the county.
Greenburgh Town Clerk Judith Beville called the idea, “a progressive policy initiative that our interns have come up with.” She explained that the town’s summer internship program, available for high school and
college students in Greenburgh, has grown from 6 to 45 students this year. “This is one of the most amazing groups that we have had. They represent a mosaic of the cultural diversity in Greenburgh and they represent a picture of our future.”
We spoke to four of the summer interns who have led the effort to highlight, promote and lobby for their initiative. Three are heading back to college shortly, while one student is a Senior at Ardsley High School.
“We all wanted to learn about government and so we interned at Greenburgh Town Hall. But we also wanted to find an issue to lobby for and make a difference on. We came to agreement on increasing student accessibility to public transportation,” said Dominic Polycarpou.
Currently students in Westchester County pay for their bus fares on the Bee Line Buses. In Yonkers, students in the Yonkers Public Schools have their monthly passes paid for by the city. Westchester County government has provided students with free bus passes during the COVID pandemic, but that program is scheduled to end in September.
Intern Emily Boviero explained that many Westchester students that they spoke to, “need transportation outside of school. We, the Free-Bee Initiative, wanted to go beyond transportation to school and provide a new level of accessibility to travel all around the county.”
Intern Alex Dalal said that the free rides during COVID, “inspired us to try and expand the plan to include all students all of the time. Our large numbers in this intern program is one of our biggest strengths. We split into different groups to work on petitioning, social media, and research, and came up with a good overall strategy.”
Intern Aayush Bhargava said “the logic behind the expansion is that most Westchester students have parents working and by having an expanded free busing program, students would be allowed to travel more freely and have more flexibility.”
Clerk Beville explained, “What they are presenting is a proposal to extend the free ridership and make it more inclusive of all students, from elementary school through college, and would allow them to travel
to cultural institutions and to other municipalities. Parents would also be encouraged to ride the bus and take their kids. The interns are passionate about this idea of obtaining some form of free ridership for
all students.”
“Anyone under the age of 22 would be eligible,” said Polycarpou. “We wanted to make it easier on the bus drivers, so they wouldn’t have to check the ages of students getting on the bus. We didn’t want to give them any extra work during the pandemic.”
A petition created by the interns was circulated and signed by 400 residents. Social media outreach started in August, to explain the initiative and gather additional support. Many Greenburgh high school and college students back from breaks currently take the Bee Line #40, 12, and 13 lines.
The group has been in discussion with County Executive George Latimer’s office, and with the Board of Legislators, to explain their plan. “We want them to understand that while there is a temporary, free ride
policy in place, we want a more holistic approach,” said Boviero.
Deputy County Executive Kenneth Jenkins is scheduled to meet with the interns before the summer program ends. While no cost analysis has been made to the initiative, Dominic Polycarpou explained “if there is no significant increase in ridership, there will be no significant increased cost other than the lost
fares. If our program does increase ridership significantly, there may be a cost effect.” The group also examined similar proposals in Kansas and California.
Bhargava added, “there is currently some room for increased ridership on the bus routes. But if there is some lost revenue, we believe that it is a reasonable cost for the county to bear. It’s worth it and it’s nice to have our voices heard.”
Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner said, “This summer we had 45 summer interns from almost every school district in Greenburgh. The students are smart and met with nationally known speakers. We want to encourage students to become activists and to learn how to get government to act on issues of importance to them. I hope that today’s interns will be tomorrow’s Governors, US Senators and Nobel Prize winners! “
