[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Springfield
as Title 5, Ch. 5.04, of the 1986 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
No person, except as otherwise provided in Massachusetts General
Laws Chapter 159A, shall operate any bus upon any public street or
way in the City for the carriage of passengers for hire, in such a
manner as to afford a means of transportation similar to that afforded
by a street railway company, by indiscriminately receiving and discharging
passengers along the route on which the bus is operated or may be
running, or for transporting passengers for hire as a business between
fixed and regular termini, unless licensed to do so as provided in
this chapter.
A.
Applications for licenses required by § 149-1 shall be made to the Traffic Commission on forms furnished by it and shall set forth the name, place of residence and post office address of the applicant, a brief description of the bus to be operated under the license, and such other information as the Commission may require.
B.
The truth of the allegations in such applications shall be sworn
to before an officer authorized to administer oaths.
Every license issued under this chapter shall specify the route
over which a bus may be operated.
The Traffic Commission may, with the consent of the licensee,
change any such route or transfer any licensee from one route to another.
Every such license shall be signed by the Secretary of the Traffic
Commission and bear the written approval of the Mayor.
No person operating any bus licensed under this chapter shall
refuse to carry any person offering himself to be carried as a passenger
therein unless such bus is occupied to the limit of its carrying capacity
under its license, or unless such person is intoxicated or disorderly.
No person operating any bus under this chapter shall solicit
passengers by outcry or make any noise for the purpose of soliciting
passengers.
A.
No bus operated under a license issued under this chapter shall be
allowed to stand to wait for passengers in any street, square or public
place, except on such portions thereof and during such hours as may
be designated therefor by the Traffic Commission.
B.
Such Commission may from time to time designate locations in streets,
squares and public places where, and the hours during which, such
buses may so stand, and may cancel or change such locations or hours
as and whenever the public interest seems to it to require such change.
Unless otherwise provided by law or proper regulation, no bus
regulated by this chapter shall be stopped to take on or to discharge
passengers at any place on any street except at the curb.
No person having charge of any interstate- or intrastate-operated
bus carrying passengers for hire shall receive or discharge such passengers
at any point upon a public way other than at the curb, except in an
area provided for receiving and discharging passengers.
Unless otherwise provided by law or proper regulation, passengers
shall not be permitted to enter or leave the bus except from the side
nearest the curb.
No person shall be permitted to sit or ride upon the top, door
area or side of any bus regulated by this chapter.
No person operating any bus under a license by virtue of this
chapter shall collect fares, make change, or take on or discharge
passengers while such bus is in motion, nor shall he have a lighted
cigarette, a cigar or pipe in his possession while any passenger is
being carried therein, use narcotics, nor drink any intoxicating beverage
of any kind, nor be under the influence thereof, while engaged in
operating such bus.
Any person who finds lost money or goods in any bus of the value
of $3 or more, the owner of which is unknown, shall within two days
report the finding thereof to the officer in charge at the police
station, or post notice thereof in two public places in the City,
or, instead of such report or posting, cause notice thereof to be
advertised in a newspaper published therein.
A.
No person shall smoke or carry a lighted pipe, cigar or cigarette
on a bus operated for the carriage of passengers for hire in such
a manner as to afford a means of transportation similar to that afforded
by a street railway company, except a chartered or private bus or
on that part of the bus where smoking is permitted by the company
operating the same.
B.
Any person violating any provision of this section shall be punished
by a fine of not more than $5 for each offense.
The owners and operators of all buses operated under the provisions
of this chapter shall be subject to such further orders and regulations
as may from time to time be promulgated by the Traffic Commission.
The Traffic Engineer shall have general charge of the enforcement
of the provisions of this chapter, including the inspection of buses,
the prosecution of violations of the provisions of this chapter, or
of any rule, order or regulation adopted by the Traffic Commission
relating to such business.
Whoever violates any of the provisions of this chapter, or any
rule, order or regulation adopted and published by the Traffic Commission
relating to such business shall be punished by a fine of not more
than $100 for the first offense and $200 for the second offense.
