Bill de Blasio has been criticized for the fact that he announced in June a program of highways that favor city buses (the so-called busways) virtually failed.
Some streets were meant to be closed for vehicles altogether, making an exception only for buses and trucks for local transportation. What for? So that during the epidemic, “key” employees have the opportunity to move around the city faster. The mayor’s plans were to equip 20 miles in this way. By the end of the year, only 0.8 miles had been completed, which is practically nothing. The change only took place on a small stretch of J Street in downtown Brooklyn.
When de Blasio announced his initiative, he promised that there would be public discussions. But nothing of the kind happened.
The opinions of the inhabitants of the city were expressed only through protests. For example, when it became known that Flushing, Queens was about to introduce a 0.6-mile busways program from North Boulevard to Sandward Avenue, local businessmen filed a lawsuit complaining that the project was destroying parking spaces and depriving their clients. Protestants staged a demonstration under the slogan “Business life also matters.” City Council deputy Peter Ku joined them.
The Queens Supreme Court has ordered a temporary suspension of the project.
The attitude to the initiative of the mayor in the city is ambiguous. The leadership of the Department of Transport is skeptical. They say that such a program needs stable funding, but now money is tight. By contrast, MTA is convinced that the busways idea deserves attention.
“We are calling for 60 miles of priority bus routes in New York to speed up traffic, reduce congestion and a cleaner environment,” said AIT spokesman Ken Lovett. “The new traffic pattern on 14th Street is an example of how when bus priority is truly respected, our passenger numbers grow markedly.”
De Blasio does not intend to abandon his original plans. They are only postponed to next year. After all, the problem of unacceptably slow movement of city buses has not been solved. Now their average speed remains the same as it was in 2019: 7.9 mph, despite the fact that traffic has decreased during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Newspaper headline:
The bus driver is my best friend
