Streetsblog New York City

State Sen. Bill Perkins wants to slow down a plan to bring dedicated bus lanes to 125th Street. Image: DOT

For years, crosstown bus riders on 125th Street — more than 32,000 per day — have had to put up with a ride that’s slower than walking. After months of planning, fixes are in sight, but State Senator Bill Perkins is objecting to the city’s effort to bring faster bus service to Harlem.

During rush hour, buses on 125th Street crawl at barely more than a third of the already-slow 7.7 mph average pace of other New York City buses. Six out of every ten minutes a bus spends on 125th Street, it’s standing still. A major culprit: double-parking drivers. On the busiest blocks, double-parked cars block at least one traffic lane more than 40 percent of the day, according to a DOT study.

More than three quarters of the households in Bill Perkins's State Senate district don't own cars. Photo: NY Senate

Last fall, after Upper Manhattan transit advocates demanded improvements, DOT began planning better bus service for riders along the corridor. The agency has surveyed merchants, held three Community Advisory Committee meetings, three public workshops, presented before three community boards, and according to DOT spokesperson Nicole Garcia, attended more than 30 private meetings as the plan moved forward.

But that isn’t enough for Perkins, who wrote a letter to Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan asking her to delay the plan because of what he calls a lack of consensus [PDF]. “We believe that your proposal is being forced and implemented without our opinions, suggestions and comments taken seriously,” he wrote.

Perkins goes on to claim that the speed increases, ridership gains, sales receipts, and high customer satisfaction reported on other SBS lines aren’t indicative of success. “The feedback that we have received,” he wrote, “indicated dissatisfaction and even failure.”

Perkins, who was the lone committee vote against closing a loophole in the state’s careless driving law last month, doesn’t say what types of bus improvements he and his constituents would like to see implemented. His only demands are that “the agency slow down” and present “alternative plans and proposals.”

In the meantime, outreach for the project continues. On Tuesday, DOT and MTA held a public workshop to gather feedback on the proposal [PDF].

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This woman waiting for the M4 in Washington Heights may have to wait a lot longer: it is the city's least reliable bus. Photo: Susan NYC/Flickr

Since 2006, Streetsblog has provided red carpet coverage of the annual Pokey and Schleppie awards, given out by the Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives to the city buses with the slowest average speed and the least reliable service, respectively. This year, Manhattan buses took the crown in both categories.

Although the awards spotlight the routes most notorious for crawling through traffic, stopping at every block, and bunched three in a row, there is a bright spot: Select Bus Service has been living up to its promises — with more routes set to get the speedier service in the coming years.

In the survey, the Bx12 SBS on Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway traveled at 7.9 mph, 19.6 percent faster than the Bx12 local’s 6.6 mph. Meanwhile, on First and Second Avenues in Manhattan, M15 Select buses moved along at 7.8 mph — 50 percent faster than the M15 local, which lumbered at 5.2 mph.

These numbers didn’t come from nowhere: Although not as robust as Bus Rapid Transit in other cities, SBS features limited-stop service, camera-enforced bus lanes, off-board fare collection and, in many cases, transit priority at stop lights. Buses without these improvements remain stuck in gridlock.

The result? This year, there is a tie for the Pokey award, with the M66 and M42 crosstown buses both clocking in at 3.9 mph. In a statement, Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said these buses “would lose a race to an amusement park bumper car,” which can hit top speeds of 4.3 mph.

Straphangers and TA analyzed bus data citywide, and each borough has its very own Pokey award winner. The full list, plus the highly-anticipated Schleppie award results, after the jump.

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Every day, 32,000 bus riders traverse Manhattan on 125th Street, crossing Harlem at a glacial pace. Improvements are on the way as part of the next round of Select Bus Service improvements, with DOT and the MTA recently holding a second public workshop (PDF) for the project, though the precise changes that bus riders can expect remain to be determined.

A bus is stuck in traffic on 125th Street at Madison Avenue. Photo: Google Maps

The M60 is the busiest of the street’s four major lines, carrying 9,600 passengers per day, with most of them making local trips (only one in ten M60 riders take the bus to LaGuardia Airport). As it moves down 125th Street, the M60 spends 60 percent of its time stopped in traffic and moves at an average of 2.7 miles per hour, according to a DNAinfo report on this Monday’s workshop. That’s not any faster than the typical walking speed, and far below the citywide average bus speed of 7.7 mph.

What’s causing these delays? A big part of the answer will come as no surprise to anyone who takes the bus in Harlem: Illegal parking. Bus drivers must constantly weave around illegally parked cars and jockey with traffic, slowing their trips to a crawl.

DOT set up a camera on every block of 125th Street between Second and Amsterdam Avenues, taking a photo every 60 seconds from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The camera between Fifth and Madison Avenues captured double-parked drivers 41 percent of the day, according to DNAinfo.

At the first public workshop, DOT and MTA announced that 125th Street is in line to receive a slate of improvements similar to those seen on other Select Bus Service corridors, including dedicated bus lanes, off-board fare collection, low-floor buses, priority for buses at stop lights and reducing the number of stops served by SBS buses. Scheduled for completion by 2014, the changes are projected to speed rides from Morningside Heights to LaGuardia by at least 12 percent, with the biggest gains coming between Lexington Avenue and the airport, where trips will be up to 18 percent faster.

The rampant illegal parking also highlights the need to price the curb and enforce the rules so double-parked vehicles don’t block the bus lane.

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The SBS stop coming to the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Empire Boulevard. Image: NYC DOT

The first Select Bus Service route in Brooklyn is on track to start speeding bus trips next year, after Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and NYC Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced yesterday afternoon that the project has secured a $28 million federal grant.

The B44 route on Nostrand, Rogers, and Bedford Avenues, which runs between Sheepshead Bay and Williamsburg, is one of NYC’s most used but least reliable bus lines. Plagued by bus bunching, the B44 took home the Straphangers Campaign’s “Schleppie Award” in 2009 and consistently ranks as Brooklyn’s most unreliable route. After it’s converted to Select Bus Service, the B44 will feature off-board fare collection, dedicated bus lanes along most of the corridor, and 12 bus bulbs to improve speeds and cut down on the amount of time buses spend standing still.

The B44 links Brooklyn residents to Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn College, Kings County Hospital, and SUNY Downstate Hospital, as well as several subway lines. Weekday ridership currently stands at about 44,000 passengers. Not only will they see faster, more reliable service, but the improvements should attract more riders. Following SBS upgrades in Manhattan and the Bronx, more passengers started riding those routes, cutting against a citywide trend of declining bus ridership.

“I think everyone who saw Sandy from near or afar recognized the critical role buses played once the subway system went down, underscoring the value of these types of investments in our transportation infrastructure,” Sadik-Khan said in a press statement. “SBS continues to bring enhanced service to densely populated areas in need of transportation enhancements.”

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At the beginning of the National Association of City Transportation Officials’ “Designing Cities” conference last week, NYC DOT released new data showing that retail and restaurant sales have tended to increase after streets are redesigned with Select Bus Service, protected bike lanes, and pedestrian plazas. It turns out that there’s more information on the way. Last week’s document was a teaser for a more comprehensive report due out in the next few months.

Businesses in Jackson Heights opposed this plaza at first. Now, they see it as an opportunity. New data bolsters the idea that retail businesses see stronger sales after the implementation of public plazas. Photo: Office of City Council Member Danny Dromm

DOT has hired consultant Bennett Midland to measure not just sales tax collections, but also commercial rents and property assessments after the completion of sustainable streets projects. The news came during a panel on the economic impact of transportation policy at the NACTO conference, where Bennett Midland’s Eric Lee discussed some of the report’s preliminary findings.

The research dispels a myth often employed by opponents of livable streets projects, who claim that plazas, bike lanes and a reduction in the number of parking spaces will be crippling blows to small businesses.

“We can say in New York today that bicycle lanes, pedestrian improvements and plazas — the removal of travel lanes and parking — do not do damage” to retail sales, Lee explained. Although the research does not say that bike lanes and plazas directly cause increased retail sales, Bennett Midland studied 11 retail corridors with street improvements and found that eight have bigger sales increases than nearby commercial streets and the borough-wide average.

The sales tax collections data used for the study was acquired from the Department of Finance. Now that DOT has established a channel with the Department of Finance and has begun using research service CoStar for information on commercial rents and vacancies, economic data on the impact of street design changes may make more appearances in the agency’s future presentations, alongside information on safety metrics like traffic injuries and the incidence of speeding.

Image: NYC DOT

Leading transportation policy decision makers from around the country are gathered at NYU today for the National Association of City Transportation Officials’ “Designing Cities” conference. It’s an exciting moment for livable streets and sustainable transportation, with the people who are implementing a new generation of complete streets, surface transit improvements, public spaces, and parking policies sharing their expertise and helping to spread innovation to other cities.

Streetsblog will have coverage from the conference throughout the next few days. To start off we’ll share some of the new findings from NYC DOT about how local commerce is faring in some specific places after the implementation of safer, more sustainable streets. The case studies are part of a DOT report, “Measuring the City” [PDF], explaining how metrics like safety, transit ridership, bike ridership, and economic performance can be applied to streets — a far more productive approach for cities than purely car-centric metrics like Level of Service.

The most interesting stuff in the report is the data on retail sales and commercial vacancies, which the Daily News and the Post both picked up today. Usually, before and immediately after a new bus lane, bike lane, or public plaza is installed, you can count on at least a few naysayers among nearby businesses. No matter how dysfunctional the status quo may be for pedestrians, cyclists, bus riders, and drivers, if a project helps to solve those problems but happens to take away a few parking spaces, there will be gripes.

The case studies, using retail sales receipts from the Department of Finance, commercial vacancy data from the firm Co-Star, and surveys collected by DOT, show that the fears are misplaced. In each case, a jump in local retail activity (large chains were excluded) followed projects that improved bus service, made biking and walking safer, or added new public space. A few highlights from the report:

• After the installation of Select Bus Service on Fordham Road in the Bronx, local businesses along the route saw a 73 percent increase in retail sales. It’s not just the tentative economic recovery that explains the improvement: Borough-wide the increase has been just 23 percent. This same project, which eliminated some curbside parking and added parking meters on side streets, was repeatedly blasted by some local merchants soon after it debuted. But with a 10 percent increase in bus ridership, added foot traffic seems to be providing a retail boost.

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Image: Port Authority, MTA and DOT. Full-size map available here.

Mayor Bloomberg, NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and MTA Chairman Joe Lhota this morning announced a long-anticipated plan for Select Bus Service to LaGuardia Airport, which should speed travel times to and from neighborhoods in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens while improving service for local transit users.

On the table are three routes: a Select Bus line on Webster Avenue in the Bronx, to extend across the Triboro/RFK Bridge to the airport via Astoria Boulevard; an SBS upgrade for the M60, which runs along 125th Street in Harlem and is currently the busiest LaGuardia bus route; and a new direct route from Woodside and Jackson Heights via the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

The Webster Avenue line would offer a one-seat ride, and could reduce travel time between LaGuardia and Fordham Plaza from 83 to 43 minutes. Proposed options for Webster Avenue SBS include dedicated center lanes with elevated boarding platforms, which would allow for quicker speeds. The extension of the Webster Avenue route to LaGuardia is “still being evaluated as the public outreach continues,” according to a media release.

Advocates in Northern Manhattan have been active in lobbying for Select Bus Service for 125th Street, where passengers spend 60 percent of their time on stopped buses. The M60 Select Bus route should shorten cross-town trips by at least five minutes, and airport trips by nine minutes, while providing improved reliability. Twelve subway lines and Metro-North connect to the M60 for service to and from LaGuardia. Over 32,000 riders board one of 125th Street’s four bus lines every weekday, according to West Harlem Environmental Action.

Proposed SBS for Queens would bring new bus service to Woodside and Jackson Heights, potentially cutting trip times between LaGuardia and Penn Station by almost 32 percent, and over 60 percent between the airport and 74th Street at Roosevelt Avenue. Adjustments would be made to preserve local service while also providing airport connections.

While overall city bus ridership has declined, more transit users are turning to Select Bus Service, which features faster trip times thanks to pre-paid fares, all-door boarding and dedicated lanes. In addition to air passengers, the new LaGuardia service will speed commutes for thousands of airport employees.

The public input process for Webster Avenue is already underway. Further route and service specifics will be hammered out through a series of public hearings, the first of which was held Wednesday night at Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights. The new service is expected to launch in 2013 and 2014.

Select Bus Service begins on Hylan Boulevard this Sunday, aiming to speed bus rides by 15 minutes between Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and the Staten Island Mall, cutting trip times by 20 percent on Staten Island’s second-busiest bus corridor. Mayor Bloomberg, Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and MTA Chairman and CEO Joe Lhota marked the occasion at a press conference near the Staten Island Mall this morning.

Select Bus Service on Staten Island begins Sunday. Sections marked in red include bus lanes. Image: NYC DOT

Responding to its suburban context, SBS on Staten Island includes a different mix of features than what’s found on other SBS corridors. For example, because relatively few people board the bus at each stop along the 17-mile route, there is no off-board fare collection.

Unlike other SBS corridors, Hylan Boulevard features “advance signals,” which allow buses to stop closer to a red light than the rest of traffic. This can not only give buses a head start, but simplifies right turns for motorists when a bus is present.

Transit signal priority, which holds green lights for approaching buses and has already resulted in faster bus trips on Victory Boulevard, is scheduled to be added in 2013 and 2014, along with repaved concrete roadways at bus stops.

DOT is improving pedestrian safety along one of Staten Island’s most dangerous streets by extending concrete medians to provide pedestrian refuges at nine intersections. DOT is also building sidewalks to bus stops that do not already have them.

The corridor carries 44,000 vehicles and 32,000 bus riders daily, with riders evenly split between express service to Manhattan and existing local bus routes, according to DOT. MTA ridership analysis shows that 20 percent of all commuters who live near Hylan Boulevard take the bus to work, making up one in three Staten Island bus commuters.

Early concepts from the MTA and DOT featured a center-running separated peak-direction bus lane for the length of Hylan Boulevard to Richmond Avenue. The final design does not mark separate bus lanes along the entire corridor, instead including them at key locations where congestion is worst.

The longest stretch of bus lanes, which will be used by local, SBS and express buses, runs for about two miles on Hylan Boulevard. These lanes are camera-enforced on a peak-hour, peak-direction basis (6 to 9 a.m. northbound; 3 to 7 p.m. southbound). Drivers who enter the bus lane must either quickly drop-off or pick-up a passenger, take the next right turn or face a fine of up to $150. A shorter stretch of bus lanes on Richmond Avenue is in effect at all times.

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Crosstown bus service on 34th Street runs faster, more frequently, and has attracted more riders since DOT and the MTA began phasing in Select Bus Service improvements four years ago. Compared to 2008, travel times for buses on 34th Street are down 23 percent, or 7.5 minutes along the full corridor. And according to an update released by DOT yesterday, ridership is up 12 percent, with weekday ridership regularly reaching 20,000 passengers. A quarter of riders say that they use the buses more often because of the service upgrades.

Longer buses will come to 34th Street next year. Photo: DOT

The gains outpace those made on some other SBS routes, in part because crosstown buses have the most room for improvement. In 2003 and 2004, the Straphangers Campaign awarded the M34 its “Pokey” award for slowest bus in New York.

Dedicated bus lanes first arrived on 34th Street in 2008. In November 2011, off-board fare collection, expanded bus lane camera enforcement, and new buses that match the blue SBS color scheme were added. Those changes improved the efficiency of the route to the point that the MTA was able to schedule 24 more bus runs a day, Monday through Saturday.

Originally, 34th Street was slated for a river-to-river traffic-separated busway featuring a block-long pedestrian plaza between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. That version of the project was scrapped after major real estate interests objected. It was replaced by DOT with a scaled-back proposal to run buses between the curb lane and the general traffic lane.

To get the buses away from the curb, where they currently have to deal with illegally-parked cars, DOT and the MTA are planning to build bus bulbs — sidewalk extensions where passengers wait for the bus. In early 2013, the route will also begin using articulated buses, like those seen on other SBS routes, that carry up to 85 passengers.

DNAinfo erroneously reported that the project has spent $36.5 million to achieve the benefits realized so far, but in fact, many of the improvements that have been budgeted for have yet to be built. Update: Since 2008, DOT and the MTA have spent about $4.3 million on bus lanes and off-board fare payment for 34th Street, according to a DOT spokesperson.

In the next two years, 13 bus bulb stations and three other curb extensions are scheduled for installation to further speed the boarding process. East of Lexington Avenue, construction is scheduled to begin in late 2013, and will last for up to two years. Two bus bulbs between 10th and 11th Avenues, constructed by the Hudson Yards Development Corporation, are scheduled for completion by summer 2013. The rest of 34th Street west of Lexington Avenue should see construction begin in spring 2013 and wrap up in early 2014.

Here’s a question for the tabloids: if Janette Sadik-Khan is really a “psycho bike lady,” why isn’t there a protected bike lane on First Avenue in midtown Manhattan? To ask the question is to answer it. Under Sadik-Khan, the Department of Transportation has been implementing more innovative and progressive policy than under previous administrations, but anything that would increase congestion remains off-limits. That’s true even on First and Second Avenues, home to what is perhaps New York’s most ambitious complete streets redesign.

If DOT is out to impede drivers, why isn't this a protected bike lane? Photo: Noah Kazis

Ryan Russo, the assistant commissioner for traffic management at DOT, said as much at last night’s Community Board 8 meeting. When cyclist Paul Gusmorino asked whether it would be safe to install protected lanes on First Avenue on either end of Midtown but leave cyclists vulnerable in a shared lane between 49th and 59th Streets, Russo explained the decision to install shared lanes “reflects the reality that we’re dealing with in having to tailor the design to traffic.” The entire project, he said, is designed “so that we’re not going to cause a traffic nightmare.” Later, when a bike lane opponent argued that the narrowing of the street might slow down traffic speeds, Russo referred back to the midtown gap in the protected bike lane to show DOT wouldn’t let that happen.

Bus improvements are similarly constrained by DOT’s unwillingness to risk greater congestion. Russo explained last night that where the First and Second Avenue Select Bus Service runs in the curbside lane, as opposed to the more effective offset configuration, the intent was to keep travel lanes available for existing traffic volumes.

Last May, DOT bike and pedestrian director Josh Benson also said that the Midtown protected bike lane gap was created in deference to drivers. “We need all five lanes for cars,” he said. On the Queensboro Bridge, as well, bus improvements were held back by the mandate to not slow private vehicles.

From a budgetary perspective, too, the projects on First and Second Avenues devote more resources to private vehicle travel than to bike or bus improvements. As part of the work, the streets will be repaved, which Russo said costs 15 to 30 times as much as the construction of the bike lane and pedestrian islands. “The cost is a fraction of just filling the potholes,” he explained.

That’s consistent with regular operations for DOT. As Matt Chaban reported in the New York Observer, under Sadik-Khan, DOT’s capital spending has increased by 50 percent, but only 1 percent of it goes to bike lanes and pedestrian plazas.

When finished, First Avenue will boast six miles of camera-enforced bus lanes and six miles of parking protected bike lanes. It’s as progressive a redistribution of street space as has been implemented anywhere in the city, yet even there, DOT won’t tamper with traffic capacity. Janette Sadik-Khan isn’t a radical with a war on cars; she’s an innovative department head, unafraid to try new things, who’s found an enormous amount of low-hanging fruit.