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Pedestrians walk faster than NYC crosstown bus
Transportation advocates and local lawmakers including New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, raced a crosstown bus to make the case for a car-free busway on 34th Street. FOX 5 NY's Richard Giacovas has more on what local leaders and New Yorkers are saying.
MIDTOWN - Local leaders and transportation advocates are celebrating the advancement of a rezoning plan for Midtown that would create a busway on 34th Street, a notoriously slow corridor where local leaders claim pedestrians can walk faster than the M34.
Miracle on 34th Street
What we know:
The New York City Council's Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises voted in favor of advancing the Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan. One major aspect of this rezoning plan would be a busway for the 34th Street corridor.
The busway would only allow buses, trucks and emergency vehicles to use the street for most of the day.
New York City's Department of Transportation (DOT) is proposing this busway after the "remarkably successful installation" of a similar busway on 14th Street.
Local leaders like Assemblymember and Democratic nominee for New York City's mayoral race Zohran Mamdani, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez joined other transportation advocates to race the M34 bus – the bus, which runs on 34th Street, is the third-slowest bus in the entire city.
The group of people did, in fact, beat the bus; after racing for over a mile, the pedestrian group beat the M34 bus by two entire blocks.
Councilmember Erik Bottcher told FOX 5 NY's Richard Giacovas, "New Yorkers are sick and tired of sitting in gridlocked traffic when they're on the bus."
What's next:
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."
The New York City Council is expected to vote on the rezoning plan sometime next week.
Other aspects of the plan
Dig deeper:
Other highlights of the agreement include the construction of over 9,500 new homes, subway station renovations and street safety enhancements.
Other aspects of the Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan can be found here.
The Source: This article includes reporting from FOX 5 NY's Richard Giacovas.