Our friends at OUR Streets OUR lives, have been tracking carefully the progress or lack thereof of the replacement of loud speakers with headsets in tour buses, as mandated by the legislation we all fought for in 2010.
Fleets with already licensed open-air buses would have to adhere to the following timetable:
By July 1, 2011 no less than 10% of each fleet
By July 1, 2012, no less than 40% of each fleet
By July 1, 2013, no less than 60% of each fleet
By July 1, 2014, no less than 80% of each fleet
By July 1, 2015, no less than 100% of each fleet.
On October 13, 2011, The Department of Consumer Affairs commenced proceedings against Gray Line New York Tours, Inc. for eight non-compliant tour buses and CitySights New York, LLC for six non-compliant buses.
So here is the report card for year one ( July 2010 to July 2011) and the settlement on fines agreed to in March 2012 by CitySights sa_CitySights_New_York_LLC.pdf and the settlement agreed to by Gray Line sa_Gray_Line.pdf for a grand total of $429,600 to be collected by the City for noncompliance in the first year.
It appears that companies will be compliant with the second milestone.