Biz folks in no rush to add new busways
Advocates for businesses on crosstown Manhattan streets warn the city shouldn’t move so fast to replicate the Miracle on 14th St. — the so-far successful installation of a speedy bus corridor at the cost of curbing car and truck traffic.
Midtown groups aren’t sure the city can replicate its success on 14th Street on busier, car-choked corridors like 34th or 42nd Sts.
Fred Cerullo, CEO of Grand Central Partnership, said his group’s stakeholders are still waiting for “long term data” on the impacts of the 14th St. traffic regulations.
“Unlike 14th St., Midtown has some logistical obstructions that make access to 42nd St. even more critical for the crosstown link it is meant to be,” said Cerullo, adding that excess construction in the area makes all of the streets “important arteries for moving through the neighborhood.”
Joe Carella, a spokesman for the 34th Street Partnership and Bryant Park Corp., said both groups “will reserve taking any position until they’re in a better position to do so.”
“Every thoroughfare in Manhattan has its own characteristics, so it remains to be seen how any possible closure of 34th St. and 42nd St. would affect those streets,” Carella said.
Buses run about 30% faster on 14th St. since new traffic restrictions took effect Oct. 3 that ban cars from using the street as a through corridor. A trip between Third and Eighth Aves. now takes 10.6 minutes — down from 15.1 minutes in September 2018, Metropolitan Transportation
Authority data shows.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson last week said city officials should consider curbing car traffic on 34th and 42nd Sts., where buses run at slower than 5 mph.
“I think the 14th St. Busway is very exciting,” Johnson said.
But city Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg on Thursday agreed with some of the business groups’ sentiments — she called every street in the city “its own special snowflake.”
She said transforming other streets into similar corridors should be considered case-by-case. Trottenberg also noted that her team of experts can handle any street redesign project they deem viable.
“I do think part of why 14th St. is functioning so well is we did take the time to get it right,” she said. “On any other corridor we would go to we would obviously want to make sure we did that.”
The DOT got caught up in a bitter street fight over its 14th St. plan.
A lawsuit delayed the implementation of the traffic restrictions for more than three months, and Gov. Cuomo’s last-minute decision to “cancel” the L train shutdown left some critics wondering why the city needed to give buses priority on 14th St. at all.
At least one group representing businesses on a major Manhattan crosstown street is open to more traffic restrictions.
James Mettam, executive director of the Flatiron and 23rd Street Partnership, said the group “welcomes considering possibilities that make our streets and sidewalks safer and less congested while ensuring that the economic viability.”