Comments on: New York Plans Transitway on 34th Street, but It’s Not BRT, for Better or Worse

By: limo Vancouver Counsultant

limo Vancouver Counsultant — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 09:17:41 +0000

You’re very right that this isn’t BRT. It’s what Paris calls regular limo bus service.

By: DBEtoday —MWBE-SBE Urban Circulator Grants Promise Better Rail and Bus Service to a Select Group of Cities

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:54:04 +0000

[...] project, which will connect the Navy Pier and Union Station with dedicated bus lanes. New York’s transformation of 34th Street into a mix between bus transitway and pedestrian mall, received more than $15 million, as did [...]

By: Tim H

Tim H — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:14:12 +0000

E 34th St is a neighborhood street, not a “Transitway” or a “Corridor”. Thousands of people including the elderly and children live on the blocks from Madison Avenue to the river and approximately 100 neighborhood shops (Most owned by small business men and women). The restriction of the two northern lanes of 34th St east of 5th Avenue to only dual directional bus traffic and the isolation of those lanes with a concrete barrier will block day to day access and emergency service access to apartment lobbies, medical offices and stores.
The BRT will throw off increased pollution and noise into adjacent apartments increasing the risks to the health and well being of the residents of 34th St. Additionally the excess traffic will have to migrate to neighboring streets from 30th to 40th that will create log jams from re-routed trucks and cars on streets where schools, day care centers, houses of worship and many thousands of more apartments exits.
This is the modern-day equivalent of the South Bronx’s “One Mile” where Robert Moses, according to the “progressive” traffic planning of the time sliced a close neighborhood in two with an expressway creating the demise of the neighborhood.

By: Patrick M

Patrick M — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:59:21 +0000

In the USA, we have come to term “anything other than openly hostile thinking about bus service” BRT. Compromises in terms of service quality and speed are always made in the name of saving money, and yet politicians continue to compare the BR(sic)T to light rail, which is of course hokum.

If you see someone promoting a BRT project in the US and they’re not talking about grade-separated bus lanes, assume they have no clue what they are talking about.

By: Woody

Woody — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:03:04 +0000

I’m with Poncho:
“an alternative to congestion charging . . . a network of dedicated, separated bus/emergency vehicle lanes on every avenue and major cross street . . . cars, trucks, taxis, etc . . . can all fight over the remaining street space.”

If we get good bus service on the main routes for people who live and work here, and meanwhile all the other streets get so congested that commuters from Scarsdale decide to leave their BMWs parked and take the train to Grand Central, to me that’s the goal. Then if the rich want to drive faster in Manhattan, let them pay tolls for the privilege. We can use that revenue to further improve public transport.

By: Cameron Slick

Cameron Slick — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:24:37 +0000

There are designated stops but it doesn’t like they’ll have stations, as in Curtiba. One must remember that many of these buses will be coming from Queens & New Jersey, continuing through Midtown instead of just terminating at the Port Authority Terminal.

By: poncho

poncho — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:11:57 +0000

Its seems more like BRT than most BRT proposals. Afterall it has a dedicated set of lanes the whole length. I’d say its BRT in infrastructure, though I’ll agree, not in operation.

I dont know how you could speed it up more since you have to stop at every N-S avenue. Even an express or limited bus would pretty much have to stop at all avenues given their importance.

My thoughts regarding an alternative to congestion charging was to create a network of dedicated, separated bus/emergency vehicle lanes on every avenue and major cross street, and whatever street space left over would be available for cars, trucks, taxis, etc for which they can all fight over the remaining street space. Then I could honestly care less whether that street space is constantly clogged and not moving.

Woody, I’m with you on walking. Streets are for people, so please move your piece of scrap metal out of my way.

By: Woody

Woody — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:11:18 +0000

As a New Yorker, I believe in my right to jaywalk as needed. So I don’t want buses moving too rapidly on 34th, or any other street. And yes, that applies to bicycles, trucks, taxies, limos, and private cars as well. I will accept fast-moving fire trucks and police cars with lights flashing and sirens wailing. Otherwise, slow down, I’m trying to walk here.

By: Brett

Brett — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:22:01 +0000

A more accurate way to describe this would be “enhanced bus.” This is basically BRT without the R. Most studies I’ve seen in other cities about service improvements refer to this option, what NYC is doing, as “enhanced bus.”

By: BruceMcF

BruceMcF — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:18:49 +0000

What Matt said. With pre-paid boarding, preemptive signal changing and dedicated rights of way increasing seat throughput capacity, then if there are enough buses to push toward that capacity during peak demand, it might in fact be Bus Mass Transit (an even rarer thing than BRT) …

… in BRT those are all means to a combination of relatively high throughput capacity and relatively high effective trip speed.