Did they talk about any plans for adding bike facilities, perhaps connecting with the GWB?

No. The researcher mentioned that the bike lane on Ft Washington Ave disappears between 178th St and 181st St, however, and then at 181 only reappears on the uphill (n'bound) side.

The five buses to the Bronx have a huge ridership (around 28k daily), and no ideas to reduce bus service were brought up at the meeting. My take, courtesy of the engineer in charge of the project, is that they are trying to make improvements for all modes. Through drivers, who have the smallest constituency, will probably be inconvenienced most. Several times it was repeated that steps to reduce traffic at certain intersections or on certain streets would just make more traffic in other spots.

The fact that they suggest a shuttle bus indicates that they probably don't take the buses very often, if at all. The buses run pretty full, morning to night, seven days a week. It's hard to find a seat by the time they turn onto 181st. Replacing them with a shuttle bus and maintaining the current level of service would require running just as many buses, except they would require an inconvenient transfer for almost every passenger.

I hope someone goes into that meeting prepared with the numbers of people who pass through those blocks of 181st every day, on a bus, in a gypsy cab, in a car, on a bike, and on foot. I'd be surprised if the bus riders didn't outnumber all the other categories combined.

I also hope they've done some outreach to get people from the Bronx to come to the meeting. If it's only NIMBY's from Washington Heights represented and not bus riders, it's not a good sample.

In the thread last year, JD claimed that the buses are most intrusive when they're turning. The solution to that is to run them across the bridge and have them turn around in Fort Lee, or even in Paterson. Some other things we came up with last year:

- loading zones
- bus bulbs
- better enforcement against double-parking