By Angel Torres

Special to the Eagle

The Jamaica Center transit hub can be a chaotic place, especially for someone unfamiliar with the area.

A total of 28 bus lines stop at the station. So do three different subways and the Long Island Railroad.

There’s also a lesser known, but equally important, mode of transportation: the “dollar van,” which makes up Queens’ sprawling alternative transit network. For many commuters, the vans are the most efficient — and sometimes only — way to get home.

Throughout the day, dozens of dollar van drivers park outside Jamaica Center and shout destinations like “Rosedale,” “Q5” or “Q4,” their voices cutting through the dense crowds. Jamaica commuters have become familiar with the shouting drivers, as well as their vital function.

Dollar vans are large vehicles that provide a taxi carpooling service for New Yorkers, especially residents of “transit deserts” with little access to reliable public transportation. The dollar van name is slightly misleading: A trip usually costs $2 — still 75 cents less than a MetroCard swipe.

The vans often drive along the same routes as buses, and van networks exist in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and the boroughs' Chinatown. The dollar vans — licensed and unlicensed — can transport more than 20 passengers at a time, and operate via a word-of-mouth system that depends on the loyalty of the communities they serve.

“Most of the van clients, I would say, are Carribean folks, Afro-Americans, Spanish,” said an unlicensed driver who asked to remain anonymous. “Folks want to get home to their houses to avoid being robbed or whatever, and the vans will drop them off at their houses, So there’s an element of reduced crime in the neighborhoods. Because of the vans, there’s an element of safety.”

A loyal following

The vans first began serving New York City neighborhoods in the 1980s when a transit strike complicated commutes for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, according to a 2018 New York Times article. The idea stuck and the vans developed a loyal following.

“[People] take the vans so they can get to work faster than the bus because the vans don’t stop regular like the bus,” said David Clarke, a driver who has driven folks through Rosedale for about 20 years. “And if there’s traffic, the driver can take a back street coming to the subway to let them out. It’s faster and more reliable.”

The Queens dollar vans line up at the corner of Parsons Boulevard and Archer Avenue in Jamaica, where passengers get on by simply approaching the drivers and handing them a couple bucks.

Hailing a van on their route is much like hailing a yellow taxi — passengers will stand on street corners and stick their hands out to signal that they need a ride. Once inside the vans, riders are often greeted with music of the driver’s choice. There’s no “Stop Request” button — getting out means yelling the name of the street where you want to exit, or saying words like “corner” or “at the light” to the driver.

“Taking a van is interesting,” said Roxanne Lim, a 23-year-old Queens resident who often commutes via dollar van. “If you’re new, you kind of have to figure out where to stand. They usually pick out straphangers, cause you’re standing awkwardly on the corner ... Vans will usually pass by and honk and you can flag them down by waving at them.”