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State Senator Bill Perkins successfully pressured DOT into shrinking its plan for Select Bus Service on 125th Street in Harlem. Now that the city is moving ahead with a shorter bus lane, it looks like Perkins still might not pay any political price for sticking more than 32,000 daily bus riders with a slow ride.

Bill Perkins' opposition to better bus service "won’t impact our support," TWU says. Photo: NY Senate

The Transport Workers Union Local 100 has a long history of donating to Bill Perkins’ campaigns, dating back to his days on the City Council, giving $1,000 to the candidate in both 1997 and 2001.

After serving on the City Council, Perkins was elected to the State Senate in 2006, and reelected in 2010. In 2006, Local 100 contributed $2,000 to Friends of Bill Perkins. The union’s campaign contributions increased in 2010, with three contributions totaling $4,750.

When Streetsblog asked TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen about Select Bus Service in 2010, he supported the program. “Local 100′s in favor of better service for our New York City transit riders, and of course we’re in favor if more people start riding the buses, that’s more jobs for Local 100 members,” he said.

Local 100 spokesperson Jim Gannon echoed that sentiment on the phone with Streetsblog today. “The union’s position on Select Bus Service is that it’s a good thing, because it speeds buses and encourages bus ridership,” he said.

Perkins is up for reelection next year. Will his opposition to robust 125th Street SBS affect TWU’s support? “TWU does think that Select Bus Service is a good thing, but just because he opposes a portion of it, that won’t impact our support moving forward,” Gannon said.

So, after failing to come through for his bus-riding constituents, Perkins should still expect a check in the mail from TWU next year.

None of the bus riders Streetsblog interviewed yesterday afternoon were happy that Bill Perkins had cowed the city into trimming its plan for bus lanes on 125th Street. Photo: Stephen Miller

Yesterday we reported that State Senator Bill Perkins’ office has finally expressed satisfaction with the 125th Street bus improvement project, now that DOT has watered it down by shortening the dedicated bus lanes. Previously,  Perkins had called on the city to “slow down” the plan to bring Select Bus Service to 125th Street due to what he claimed was insufficient community input, even though DOT and the MTA had been holding public workshops since last September. Streetsblog hit the streets yesterday afternoon to see what bus riders on 125th Street had to say about the situation.

None of the riders I talked to over the course of 45 minutes had heard about the plan to bring bus lanes to 125th Street, nor had they heard of Perkins’ “emergency” town hall meeting last week. They were all disappointed that, under pressure from Perkins, the city had decided to shorten the bus lanes by half, ending at Lenox Avenue instead of Morningside Avenue.

“I think they should go to Morningside,” Margaret Fernandez said while waiting for the bus at St. Nicholas Avenue.

Other bus riders agreed. “You need it all the way over,” Disney Aaron said. “It’d be better for people, man. Better for traffic, too.”

A major feature of the camera-enforced bus lanes is that they would cut down on illegal double-parking, which slows down buses stuck in traffic. Streetsblog spotted an NYPD officer ticketing a delivery truck that had parked in a bus stop on 125th Street at Frederick Douglass Boulevard. “It’s mostly double-parking. There’s plenty of it,” she said. “It causes so much traffic.”

Congratulations are in order for State Senator Bill Perkins, who has successfully condemned more than 32,000 crosstown bus riders to travel on 125th Street at speeds that are often slower than walking. His pressure to revise a plan for dedicated bus lanes and other measures to prioritize surface transit — culminating in an “emergency” town hall meeting last Thursday — resulted in DOT watering down its proposal.

State Senator Bill Perkins' office has no position on improvements for bus service on 125th Street, but Perkins himself has called Select Bus Service a "failure." Photo: NY Senate

When asked how Thursday’s meeting went, Perkins’ office was sunny. “We are definitely pleased,” deputy chief of staff Linda Wood-Guy told Streetsblog, insisting that the senator’s office did not concern itself one way or the other with actual changes to the street — or improvements for bus riders. ”Our office was only concerned about the process,” she said.

That process began last September, when DOT and the MTA held a public workshop sponsored by local community boards and elected officials, including Perkins, that attracted nearly 100 people. A community advisory committee — comprised of community boards, elected officials, community development corporations, the 125th Street BID, NYCHA residents, and transit advocates – began meeting in November and met for a third time in March. The project team also hosted a walking tour with more than 50 people to gather feedback in January.

But when the process resulted in a plan to actually improve conditions for bus riders — by adding bus lanes and left-turn restrictions — Perkins’ office began to marshal opposition, claiming that community members were not being adequately consulted.

Despite his deputy chief of staff’s claims that Perkins does not have a position on specific changes DOT might make to the street, the state senator was full of opinions about Select Bus Service in his April letter to DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, ignoring the speed increases, ridership gains, sales receipts, and high customer satisfaction reported on other SBS lines. “The feedback that we have received,” he wrote, “indicated dissatisfaction and even failure.”

The plan would have converted the M60 to a Select Bus Service route serving six stops along 125th Street with off-board fare collection and signal priority technology to hold green lights for buses. A one-mile, camera-enforced dedicated bus lane between Morningside and Third Avenues would have cut down on double parking, which currently slows buses to a crawl. Metering more parking spaces would have improved parking availability, further reducing incentives to double-park. With one general travel lane in each direction, DOT was proposing adding left-turn restrictions at most intersections to keep traffic flowing.

The new plan, presented by DOT Manhattan Borough Commissioner Margaret Forgione at Perkins’ town hall, shrinks the bus lane in half, ending it at Lenox Avenue instead of Morningside. It also reduces the number of left-turn restrictions and scraps a proposal to add parking meters between Amsterdam and Morningside Avenues, according to DNAinfo. A copy of this plan is not available on the project website; Streetsblog has requested a copy from DOT but has not received a response. Update: A copy of DOT’s presentation is now available online.

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State Senator Bill Perkins is hosting an "Emergency Town Hall Meeting" tonight because DOT is proposing Select Bus Service improvements to 125th Street. Image: DOT

Spurred by transit activists demanding improvements to 125th Street buses that often crawl slower than walking speed, DOT and MTA have been moving forward with a project to improve bus service along the major crosstown corridor. But last month, State Senator Bill Perkins sent DOT a letter [PDF] in which he said Select Bus Service improvements were a “failure” and demanded  that ”the agency slow down” the process of bringing better service to bus riders on 125th Street.

Tonight, Perkins is hosting an “Emergency Town Hall Meeting” about buses on 125th Street. DOT Manhattan Borough Commissioner Margaret Forgione will give a presentation, followed by a rebuttal from the 125th Street Business Improvement District, Disabled In Action of Metropolitan New York, and members of Community Boards 9, 10, 11, and 12. In his letter to DOT, Perkins said that “issues and concerns” raised by some of these groups “are not being adequately responded to or respected.”

In the meeting flyer [PDF], Perkins says there are “major changes coming soon to 125th Street” and encourages people to “come and share your concerns, opinions, ideas and alternative proposals before it’s too late.” In his April letter to DOT, Perkins did not put forth any suggestions for changes that would provide improvements for bus riders.

The meeting is from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at United House of Prayer for All People, 2320 Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Perkins’s office is asking attendees to RSVP by calling his office at (212) 222-7315.

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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Linden Boulevard at Rockaway Parkway, where pedestrian Gerald Green was killed by a motorist who "had the light." Image: Google Maps

Three pedestrians were killed in separate crashes in Manhattan and Brooklyn last night.

At around 7:50 p.m., 85-year-old Richard Griffin was on his way to visit a hospital patient, according to the Post, when he was apparently struck head-on by the driver of a Jeep SUV on York Avenue at E. 69th Street. Griffin, of Staten Island, was taken to Cornell Medical Center and died soon after.

At approximately 11:30, Gerald Green was hit by the driver of a Jeep SUV while attempting to negotiate the hellish intersection of Linden Boulvard and Rockaway Parkway. Here’s how the crash was described by DNAinfo and the Daily News.

Green, who cops said was crossing against the light, was taken to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center and pronounced dead, police said.

Gerald Green, 52, was hit in East Flatbush as he tried to cross … against the light … cops said.

The Daily News story reported that another pedestrian was killed, in Harlem, some 90 minutes later. According to NYPD, a 35-year-old man was crossing W. 125th Street at Broadway when he was hit by a yellow cab driver at around 1 a.m. He was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt. Police had not released the victim’s identity as of early this afternoon.

No drivers were charged for any of these crashes, despite the fact that there is no indication that the fallen Harlem pedestrian or Richard Griffin were violating any traffic rules. That’s because NYPD tends to cite possible causal factors — who “had the light,” for example — only when they are attributed to the victim, i.e. the dead or wounded pedestrian or cyclist.

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The streets around Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem are wide and fast, creating barriers between people who live in the neighborhood and important public amenities, including the park itself. Local residents have been working with DOT to calm traffic, coming up with a proposal that extends sidewalk space, shortens crossing distances for pedestrians, and squares off street corners that drivers currently careen around at high speeds.

A painted sidewalk extension proposed for Mount Morris Park West. Image: DOT

The area in and around Marcus Garvey Park is home to P.S. 79, a new location of the Harlem Village Academy charter school, a library, a senior center, a public pool, and a recreation center. But walking to all these destinations can be treacherous, especially for children and seniors. Many crosswalks are unmarked and span very wide streets with speeding traffic.

Community members have clamored for fixes for decades, said Syderia Chresfield, president of the Mount Morris Park Community Improvement Association. ”In the past three years we’ve really been pushing it forward, and that’s because we’ve had so many accidents,” she said.

The most dangerous spot is Mount Morris Park West at 120th Street, where drivers turn left around the park, often at high speeds. A few months ago, Chresfield said, DOT reduced the number of lanes at the turn from two to one and installed a flexible post barrier, but it hasn’t been sufficient to tame traffic.

“We’ve actually had one accident since then,” she noted.

Under the full DOT plan [PDF], one motor vehicle lane will be converted to pedestrian space on Mount Morris Park West, painted sidewalk extensions will be added to several intersections around the park, and new crosswalks will be striped on 124th Street. Double turning lanes, which put pedestrians at heightened risk of being struck by turning drivers, will be converted to single turning lanes at three locations.

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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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Former Streetsblog reporter Noah Kazis noted in 2010 how NYPD had commandeered sidewalks and bike lanes outside Harlem’s 28th Precinct, on St. Nicholas Avenue between 122nd and 123rd Streets.

“These aren’t just squad cars positioned for a speedy exit in case of emergency,” Noah wrote. “Many of the cars appear to be personal vehicles bearing police union bumper stickers or other markers that the owner carries some official authority.”

Two years later, nothing has changed. A reader sent us these photos of cruisers and officers’ personal vehicles, still stored on the street in a manner that renders the bike lanes unusable.

“One of the only bike lanes in Harlem is constantly blocked,” our tipster writes. “As a result, bikes have to steer into traffic and risk an accident.”

To ask that NYPD stop endangering Harlem cyclists and pedestrians, readers can call the precinct at 212-678-1611, contact Giji James at Community Board 10, or file a complaint on the DOT web site.

Better still might be a visit to the precinct’s next community council meeting. The 28th Precinct council meetings happen at 6:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month at 2271-89 Eighth Avenue. The community affairs number is 212-678-1622.

Photo: Kristi Roberts

Reader Kristi Roberts came upon the scene of a morning crash that injured two people and sent two vehicles onto sidewalks at 141st Street and Convent Avenue in Hamilton Heights.

Apparently (this is from bystanders, I didn’t see it) a car was speeding through the light and hit a City College vehicle. When I got there, there were multiple ambulances, police, firemen, and their vehicles.

The car that hit the college car was on the north east sidewalk of 141st, and looks at it had driven ON the sidewalk and THROUGH some scaffolding. No one could figure out how that happened. Also according to other witnesses, the driver ran from his car but was caught by the police. The City College vehicle was on the south east sidewalk, further down 141st. Not sure how many but injured people were being taken away in the ambulances.

Drivers speed through this intersection all the time — it’s wide, with a downhill slope — and some people were saying they’d seen multiple accidents here over the years.

FDNY was summoned to the scene at 6:19 a.m. Two people were transported to Harlem Hospital in serious but stable condition, a spokesperson said. FDNY did not have additional specifics.

We called the NYPD public information office and asked if police had details. We had barely finished rattling off the location and time of the crash before a spokesperson replied, “No.”

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