They wanna turn 125th St and 181st St into Busways (New York: mortgage, transfer)

[HellUpInHarlem]

Gale Brewer is asking the city Department of Transportation to study the potential for busways on 125th and 181st streets.

UPPER MANHATTAN, NY — The 14th Street busway has been a rousing success for Lower Manhattan bus riders, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer wants the city to explore implementing similar traffic changes uptown.

The borough president sent a letter to the city Department of Transportation last week requesting a study on the potential for busways on Harlem's 125th Street and Washington Heights' 181st Street. Bus routes on these Upper Manhattan streets carry about five times as many passengers as on 14th Street, Brewer wrote in the letter.

"It is vital that we not only apply proven methods for bus service at a time when ridership continues to fall, but that we ensure equity as we do so. Northern Manhattan bus riders deserve to reap the same potential benefits that riders in Lower Manhattan have seen," Brewer wrote.

Despite high ridership numbers on 125th and 181st street buses, the routes are some of the slowest in the city. The nine routes have all been given either D or F grades by the Bus Turnaround Coalition, which is made up by members of transit advocacy groups such as the Riders Alliance, TransitCenter and the Straphanger’s Campaign.

Brewer described the 14th street busway's effects as "transformational." Both ridership numbers and bus speeds have spiked since the plan went into effect. The area is also more pleasant for pedestrians now that cars and traffic have been removed from the street, Brewer wrote.

Timing is right for the busway studies on 125th and 181st streets because the city is currently working on its Bronx Bus Network Redesign and the Better Buses Action Plan, according to the borough president's letter. The plans should allow city and state officials to look at bold redesigns on the streets, both of which connect to the Bronx.

The New York Daily News was the first to report on Brewer's request for a study. A DOT spokesman did not commit the agency to a study of 125th or 181st streets when asked about Brewer's request, according to the report. The spokesman did say that the city agency would review data from the 14th Street busway and whether the city should create additional busways in the future.

https://patch.com/new-york/washingto...hattan-busways

Borough presidents letter

https://www.scribd.com/document/4368...Bronx-Redesign

[livingsinglenyc]

I'm all for it! 125th doesn't have a subway either like 14th street going cross town so it could come in handy. Only thing is its too bad you can't do more than 1 free transfer. I could take the 2 to the crosstown to the C.
They need a cross town bus in the bronx without cars badly.

[OyCrumbler]

Well, sure, sounds pretty good. If they do 181st, wouldn’t it make sense to do parts of the Bronx leading up to 181st? Are they going to put a bus lane on Washington Bridge?

[speediestevie]

sounds good, but can any proposal be done in this city without using words like 'equity' ? I'd rather they leave that word alone , to mean boring things like common stock or value of mortgage after debt. Brewer of all people should understand that 14th street will always be more essential to the city than 181st or 125th streets. There was really little need to mince words like she did, but perhaps that's what it takes to score political points. But as far as I'm concerned it's a nauseating bifurcated, nanny state gimmick that the sheeple have become so used to.

[Javawood]

125th st is the M60, so I'm all for it.