Debunking More Myths About the Robert Moses Parkway. I Don't See the Truth in This Claim:

MYTH: The Parkway retentionists claim: the Parkway also is a vital transportation route that provides a significant return on investment for our region, including Niagara Falls and the communities of the lower Niagara River region.

FACT: NYS Parkway Rules and Regulations
Excerpts from the Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York

SUBCHAPTER E § 180.1
Special Parkways

PART 180
SPECIAL REGULATIONS REGARDING SPECIAL PARKWAYS

§ 182.31 Restricted vehicles.
The following type vehicles are not permitted on the Parkways within the Parkway system, unless authorized under an agreement with the New York State Department of Transportation:
(a) bicycles;
(b) buses;
(c) commercial;
(d) golf carts;
(e) hearses, except those operated by or for a licensed funeral director or undertaker while traveling to or from a funeral, interment, cremation, place of death or other destination for the acceptance and shipment of the body or remains of a deceased person;
(f) house coaches;
(g) motor-driven cycles;
(h) school buses;
(i) semitrailers;
(j) snowmobiles;
(k) tractors;
(l) trailers;
(m) trucks.

Definitions
§ 181.1 Definitions of words and phrases.

Authorized emergency vehicle.
Every ambulance, police vehicle and fire vehicle.
(i) Ambulance. Every motor vehicle designed, appropriately equipped and used for the
purpose of carrying sick or injured persons.

(ii) Police vehicle. Every vehicle owned by the State, a public authority, a county, town, city or village, and operated by the police department or law enforcement agency of such governmental unit. Any other-vehicle operated by a chief or deputy or assistant chief of a police department, a sheriff, undersheriff or regular deputy sheriff. A vehicle owned and operated by the law enforcement unit of a public or private corporation authorized by law to maintain a unit for the enforcement of law on the property of such corporation shall be a police vehicle only for the purposes of this section.

(iii) Fire vehicle. Every vehicle operated for fire service purposes owned and identified as being owned by the State, a public authority, a county, town, city, village or fire district, or a fire corporation subject to the provisions of subdivision 1 of section 112 of the Membership Corporations Law, or a fire company as defined in section 100 of the General Municipal Law. Any of the following vehicles shall be fire vehicles only for the purpose of this section:
(a) a vehicle operated by officials of the division of fire safety in the Office for Local Government of the Executive Department;
(b) a vehicle ordinarily operated by a chief or assistant chief of a fire department, or a county or deputy county fire coordinator, or county or assistant county fire marshal, or such vehicle when operated in an official capacity by or under the direction of such person; and
(c) a vehicle owned by a person, which is recognized and certified by the director of
such division of fire safety as being maintained for the purpose of fire-fighting on premises owned or occupied by such person.
(iv) Emergency operation. The operation, or parking, of an authorized emergency vehicle, when such vehicle is engaged in transporting a sick or injured person, pursuing an actual or suspected violator of the law, or responding to, or working or assisting at the scene of, an accident, disaster, police call, alarm of fire or other emergency. Emergency operation shall not include returning from such service.

Bicycle.
Every device propelled by the feet acting upon pedals, having wheels any two of which are each more than 20 inches in diameter.

Bus.
Every motor vehicle used for transportation of persons that is designed for carrying more than 14 passengers, or has more than four tires, or that exceeds 9 feet in height from underside of tire to the top of the vehicle, 7 feet in width or 19 feet in length,

Commercial vehicle.
Every type of motor-driven vehicle used for commercial purposes on the highways, such as the transportation of goods, wares and merchandise and motor coaches carrying passengers; including trailers and semitrailers and tractors when used in combination with trailers and semitrailers, and excepting such vehicles as are run only upon rails or tracks,

Highway.
The entire width between the boundary line of every way or parkway publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel.

House coach.
Any vehicle motivated by a power connected therewith or propelled by a power within itself, which is or can be used as the home or living abode or habitation of one or more persons, either temporarily or permanently. In the application of these regulations to house coaches, a house coach propelled by a power within itself shall be deemed a motor vehicle, a house coach motivated by a power connected therewith shall be deemed a trailer, and all house coaches shall be deemed vehicles.
Motorcycle. Every motor vehicle having a seat or saddle for the use of the rider and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, but excluding a tractor.

Motor-driven cycle.
Every motorcycle, including every motor scooter, with a motor which produces not to exceed five horsepower, and every bicycle with motor attached.
School Bus. Every motor vehicle owned by a public or governmental agency or private school and operated for the transportation of pupils, teachers and other persons acting in a supervisory capacity, to or from school or school activities or privately owned and operated for the transportation of pupils, teachers and other persons acting in a supervisory capacity to or from school or school activities that is designed for carrying more than 14 passengers, or has more than four tires, or that exceeds 9 feet in height from underside of tire to the top of the vehicle, 7 feet in width or 19 feet in length.

The Vehicle and Traffic Law of the State of New York further defines a School Bus as:

"Every motor vehicle owned by a public or governmental agency or private school and operated for the transportation of pupils, children of pupils, teachers and other persons acting in a supervisory capacity, to or from school or school activities or privately owned and operated for compensation for the transportation of pupils, children of pupils, teachers and other persons acting in a supervisory capacity to or from school or school activities."

Semitrailer.
Any trailer which is so designed that, when operated, the forward end of its body or chassis rests upon the body or chassis of the towing vehicle.

Taxicab.
A motor vehicle having a seating capacity for passengers of not more than seven persons, in addition to the driver, and used in the business of transporting passengers for compensation.

Trailer.
Any vehicle not propelled by its own power drawn on the public highways by a motor vehicle as defined in this section, except motorcycle sidecars, vehicles being towed by a nonrigid support and vehicles designed and primarily used for other purposes and only occasionally drawn by such a motor vehicle

Truck.
Every motor vehicle designed, used or maintained primarily for the transportation of property; provided, however, that a pickup truck or a van which is legally registered as a passenger vehicle and which has passenger license plates shall not be deemed to be a truck.

Vehicle.
Every device in, upon or, by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, except devices moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks.

Hearse.
A station wagon type vehicle equipped for transporting a coffin or remains of a deceased person.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Question:
May I use the Parkways with my tour bus/school bus/special organization bus?

Answer:
With limited exceptions, there are no permits issued for use of buses on the Parkways.

Two of these exceptions involve special circumstances. Westchester County buses, on a limited basis, are allowed to use the Sprain Brook Parkway and the Taconic State Parkway (between the southern end and Route 35 on the north). These bus runs, for the most part, are done without passengers. Another exception category pertains to special circumstances where a highway construction project causes a significantly longer detour for school buses. An example of the this type of circumstance occurred during the construction of the Miller Hill Road interchange on the Taconic State Parkway. School buses were allowed a limited usage of the Taconic State Parkway. Again, these runs were done without passenger involvement whenever possible.

Question:
Are State/County/Town trucks and buses allowed to use the Parkways?

Answer:
Governmental agency (State, County, Town, etc.) vehicles, whether they be buses, trucks, or other commercial vehicles, have no more rights to be on the Parkway system than non-government commercial vehicles. This, of course, excludes highway maintenance vehicles, or the "HELP" (Highway Emergency Local Patrol) Program vehicles.