NYCDOT has another daring project planned for Midtown: the transformation of 34th Street through the addition of a physically separated busway and pedestrian improvements. The changes should speed up buses in a congested crosstown corridor and provide some breathing room for pedestrians who often walk in the street because of sidewalk overcrowding.
As pictured above, the project would create a two-lane, physically separated busway with stations at one curb and in the median. Non-bus travel lanes on 34th Street would become one-way, going westbound west of Sixth Avenue and eastbound east of Fifth Avenue. Between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, only buses would be allowed through; much of that block would become a pedestrian plaza and sidewalks along 34th Street would be widened. The route would add improvements used on NYCDOT’s existing and planned Select Bus Service routes, like off-board fare collection and giving priority to buses at traffic lights.
NYCDOT and the MTA envision a Select Bus route connecting the Javits Center and E. 34th Street ferry landing. Notably, they also envision that “the Transitway will be used by existing and expanded express bus routes from Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and New Jersey, buses connecting to the Pier 79/West 39th Street ferry terminal, and other local buses.” 34th Street is currently used by the M16, M34, many express buses, and NY Waterway Ferry buses. Weekday ridership on the M16 and M34 tops 17,000 passengers, according to an alternatives analysis study.
The transitway is expected to improve travel time for bus riders in the corridor by 35%, bringing end-to-end travel time on 34th Street from 31 minutes down to 20 minutes. This should help accommodate an expected increase in demand as the Hudson Yards development brings more residents to Midtown and the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel brings more commuters into the area.
The project still has a ways to go, since it is going through the federal environmental review process and NYCDOT may apply for federal funding. Once required scoping and other studies are finished and design is finalized, construction could take at least a year.
Unless each bus can be identified to monitors telling the route and destination of the next two buses, boarding could be chaotic given the number of different routes proposed for the reserved bus lanes. A streetcar or LRT would be a better use of the right of way where it could connect to the various bus routes at the ends of the line. Light rail would carry more people with less pollution and less disruption to pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
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