One configuration in the plan calls for a protected bike lane and a curbside bus lane. Image: MTA/NYCDOT

The MTA and NYCDOT released an outline last night for faster bus service and safer biking and walking on First and Second Avenues. The redesign is the flagship project in New York City's plans to enhance its surface transit system by improving bus service, a long-held priority for transportation advocates and a stated goal of Mayor Michael Bloomberg going back to his days as a first-time candidate for office.

At a joint presentation to a group of local electeds and community board members known as the Community Advisory Committee, the agencies laid out a preliminary plan [PDF] to redesign the corridor from Houston Street to 125th Street with protected bike lanes, pedestrian refuges, and a package of bus enhancements. Physically separated bus lanes, viewed by many transportation planners as the most effective method to improve travel times on highly trafficked streets, are not part of the plan.

Advocates and elected officials reacted with measured praise, characterizing the proposal as a starting point which they hope to improve upon. "What was presented tonight is a good beginning," said Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, who represents the east side of Manhattan, "but we haven't seen enough information from the DOT and MTA to say for sure if we're getting the best bang for our buck in terms of actual transit improvements." The window of opportunity to make adjustments will be dictated by the project timeline, with the first phase of the redesign slated for construction this October.

The design calls for buses to run in a dedicated lane along the right side of the street, either next to the curb or alongside a parking lane, depending on the location. Despite support for separated bus lanes from 19 elected officials, the agencies intend to rely on camera enforcement, not segregated rights of way, to keep the bus lanes unobstructed by traffic. Overall, the MTA and DOT estimate the bus improvements will reduce travel time along the route by 20 to 25 percent.

On most of the corridor, the plan calls for bike lanes along the left curb, protected by a floating parking lane. At dozens of crosswalks along the corridor, the design would also install pedestrian refuge islands in this parking lane. If built, it would constitute the longest on-street protected bike route in New York City. Still, as currently conceived, the protected bike lanes are not continuous.

For a larger version of the corridor map, click here.

Additionally, all changes to the street are on hold anywhere construction of the Second Avenue Subway is underway. For the time being, there will be no physical alterations to enhance bus service roughly between 70th Street and 100th Street on Second Avenue, and no protected bike lane on Second Avenue between 34th Street and around 100th Street.

When an audience member asked how drivers would know to stay out of the bus lanes, Ted Orosz, the director of long-range bus planning at New York City Transit, contended that the lack of a separated lane would actually make bus operations smoother: "Trucks are going to get to the curb anyway. There'll be a garbage truck. There'll be an oil truck. There'll be a Snapple truck. And the bus won't be able to get around it... A barrier to keep traffic out also keeps buses in." Orosz did suggest augmenting the city's terra cotta bus lane paint with "some sort of soft mountable barrier that communicates, 'Yeah, I'm not supposed to be there'" to drivers.

The plan uses two different bus lane configurations. In one design, planned for First Avenue south of the United Nations, an exclusive bus lane would be offset from the curb, meaning it would be situated between a parking lane and general traffic. In the second design, on Second Avenue below 34th, the bus lane would instead run right next to the curb, with the parking lane eliminated. While the offset bus lane is expected to reduce travel times the most, the MTA and DOT argued that it was inappropriate for narrower or busier parts of the corridor.

The "Design A" configuration: Class 1 bike lane, off-set bus lane.

The curbside bus lane poses a greater challenge to deliveries, according to Joe Barr, DOT's director of transit development. "We need to look closely at how this works with loading," he said, suggesting that a midday loading period might be necessary with the curbside design. On the Upper East Side, planners are still studying the business needs along the corridor and have not yet announced whether offset or curbside bus lanes will be installed.

Presenters said Select Bus Service on First and Second Avenues will make use of features piloted on the city's Fordham Road route. Fares will be paid before boarding; riders won't have to show anything to the bus driver, but fare inspectors could ask for a receipt at any time.

The new, articulated three-door buses will also have not-quite-level boarding. The bus floor will be three inches above the curb, less if the bus kneels. "It'll be a much easier and faster on-and-off, but it's not true level boarding like on the subway," said Barr.

Streetsblog will continue our coverage later today with reactions from transportation advocates and elected officials. Here are some plans of each configuration the MTA and DOT discussed last night.

Design A. Click for a larger version.

Design B. Click for a larger version.

Design C. Click for a larger version.

Note that at least one of the bus drivers quoted seems to see the virtues of eliminating cars entirely from this heavily trafficked area: 

David Woloch, a deputy transportation commissioner for the city, said that by early July the city will mark the lane that runs beside the bus bulbs as a bus-only lane, from Houston Street to Ann and Vesey Streets. And, he said, the Police Department will enforce the bus-only restriction by ticketing cars that encroach on the lane.

Bus drivers were skeptical.

"I think it's a waste," the driver of the M1 bus that was blocked by the cab and the double-parked truck said of the bus bulbs. He would not give his name because he said he did not want to draw the attention of his superiors at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. "It's not going to do anything. Get rid of the cars and that'll do something."

On another day this week, a driver on another M1 bus was also skeptical. He said that the police do not do enough to enforce bus lanes elsewhere in the city. "That's never worked," said the driver, who also asked that his name not be used. "It doesn't work on Madison. It doesn't work on Fifth Avenue because people park in the lane. Or cabs drop off in the lane."

Paul J. Browne, a deputy police commissioner, said 1,862 tickets were issued last year to drivers for using a bus lane. In addition, 4,205 tickets were issued for parking in a bus lane and 2,669 tickets were issued for parking at a bus stop.

That works out to just under 24 tickets a day in the three categories of tickets combined. He said the tickets were primarily issued in Manhattan.

So far this year, he said, 3,537 tickets have been issued for bus lane or bus stop violations.

"It may be a perception among some drivers, but in fact there is enforcement," Mr. Browne said of the bus drivers' complaints. "It may not be at the level they want or in an ideal world the level we want, but the fact remains we do enforce it every day."

Photo: Cary Conover for the New York Times

According to a more-than-a-little-snarky post on Curbed, the first of Lower Broadway's hotly anticipated bus bulbs has been constructed on Broadway south of Spring Street.

As Streetsblog wrote when the DOT announced the plan to construct the bulbs back in March, this is a noteworthy development for several reasons:

The benefits of bus bulbs include preventing buses from being delayed, reducing sidewalk congestion, providing space for bus shelters and other amenities, and reducing pedestrian crossing times.

In a small but very tangible way, bus bulbs may single-handedly change the pecking order on Lower Broadway by forcing other vehicles to wait behind or detour around loading and unloading buses rather than the buses having to defer to them.

Most promising, DOT appears to be taking a far more experimental approach in this particular project. Rather than allowing itself to become bogged down in complicated, expensive street engineering, it sounds like the agency will be creating the bus bulbs by putting down temporary curbs, filling them in with concrete, and just gerrymandering the drainage. The results might not look particularly pretty but advocates have, for years, been calling on DOT to show more willingness to conduct quick-and-dirty street design experiments.

And now that it's done, this one doesn't look half bad after all.

Photo via Curbed

Tomorrow, the Department of Transportation will make the first public announcement of its Lower Manhattan Transit Priority Plan. We don't have all of the details but the redesign plan for Broadway south of Houston Street sounds like it is oriented around making bus service faster and more effective, providing more sidewalk space to pedestrians and bus patrons and, perhaps most significant, making the changes happen much faster, cheaper and with far less bureaucracy than usual.

Sources say the plan calls for the creation of "bus bulbs," a design in which the sidewalk is extended into the street at bus stops. Bus bulbs allow a bus to stay in its lane to pick up and discharge passengers instead of having to pull over to the curb. The benefits of bus bulbs include preventing buses from being delayed, reducing sidewalk congestion, providing space for bus shelters and other amenities, and reducing pedestrian crossing times.

In a small but very tangible way, bus bulbs may single-handedly change the pecking order on Lower Broadway by forcing other vehicles to wait behind or detour around loading and unloading buses rather than the buses having to defer to them.

Most promising, DOT appears to be taking a far more experimental approach in this particular project. Rather than allowing itself to become bogged down in complicated, expensive street engineering, it sounds like the agency will be creating the bus bulbs by putting down temporary curbs, filling them in with concrete, and just gerrymandering the drainage. The results might not look particularly pretty but advocates have, for years, been calling on DOT to show more willingness to conduct quick-and-dirty street design experiments.

The Daily News and New York Sun will have the details tomorrow morning.

And here is more information about bus bulbs than you could ever want: The Federal Transit Administration's Evaluation of Bus Bulbs (PDF).

Photo: Aaron Naparstek, July 2006