Rosa Parks must be spinning in her grave!
A Brooklyn bus contracted by the city to operate a Williamsburg-to-Borough Park route — catering to Orthodox Jews but open to the public — is under investigation for allegedly forcing women to sit in the back of the bus, authorities said yesterday.
The B110 looks a lot like any other city bus on the outside — with a lit-up sign broadcasting its official route number.
Inside, however, is like taking a trip to the pre-Civil Rights era South.
“That’s reserved for men,” the bus driver told a female Post reporter when asked if she could sit in the front rows.
Signs written in Hebrew and English direct women to use the back door during busy times.
That edict is presumably to avoid men and women from coming in contact, which in most cases is prohibited by Hasidic tradition.
Several passengers also told the Post reporter that the front was reserved for men.
However, no one told her she had to move to the back.
It was a different story when Melissa Franchy boarded the B110 last week.
A reporter with the New York World — the news Web site of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism — asked Franchy to ride the bus to investigate whether women had to sit in the back of the bus.
They had their story almost immediately.
Franchy plopped down in front and was told by several male passengers to move to the back, according to the Web site.
She questioned why and was told by one man, “If God makes the rule, you don’t ask ‘Why make the rule?’ ”
At no point did the driver intervene to stop her from being moved.
The city’s Department of Transportation is investigating the incident after being alerted by the reporter.