Letter to New York City'a Mayor regarding bus-only lanes

june 22nd 2020
Dear Mayor de Blasio,

As New York City prepares to reopen under Governor Cuomo’s New York Forward Plan, public transit will play a key role in ensuring the city’s return to normalcy. In particular, a robust bus system will be crucial as workers look to return to their offices. It will also help alleviate crowding on the streets and underground. But to make buses a more attractive option for commuters, they must be able to move freely around the city.

It’s for that reason we are urging the city to add 60 miles of bus lanes and busways citywide. This represents a nearly 42 percent increase over the existing 144 miles of bus lanes. We can further improve efficacy by increasing enforcement on existing bus lanes and busways, as well as implementing Traffic Signal Priority on streets across the five boroughs.

We have identified the most urgent corridors as a start towards meeting the 60-mile target. These must be implemented as quickly as possible.

Our priority corridors for new or upgraded bus lanes include:

What good are the subways then if they’re afraid to use them?

Will construction on Phase II of the 2nd Avenue Subway continue?

As far as a return to 24-hour service, it might be more reasonable to consider a continued closure of some lines during the 1AM-5AM period or short turns on some lines to a connection with another line.