34th Street busway proposed by DOT

34th Street busway proposal

FOX 5 NY's Kendall Green reports on the NYC Department of Transportation's proposal to create a busway for the 34th Street corridor.

NEW YORK CITY - New York City's Department of Transportation (DOT) has proposed a busway for the 34th Street corridor.

Busway

What we know:

The DOT is proposing this busway after the "remarkably successful installation" of a similar busway on 14th Street.

"After the busway was implemented on 14th Street, bus speeds increased up to 24 percent and crashes on the corridor dropped by 42 percent."

Only buses, trucks and emergency vehicles can make trips between 3rd and 9th Avenue between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on 14th Street. All other vehicles must make the next available right turn to keep traffic clear.

Existing bus lanes along 34th Street, from 11th Avenue to FDR Drive, will remain.

If approved, 34th Street would be New York City's eighth busway – the DOT assure the busway would "speed up bus service for 28,000 daily bus riders."

‘Connecting to the Core’

Improving bus priority on 34th Street was a key proposal in the DOT's "Connecting to the Core" plan.

The plan was created to improve car-free access to and through Manhattan's Central Business District in the wake of the implementation of congestion pricing; it includes 37 new projects for the years 2024 and 2025 and highlights 47 bus, bike and pedestrian projects implemented since 2019.

The report also outlined three dozen proposed or planned street redesigns.