Doesn’t the federal government have enough to do than to play traffic cop in New York City?
First, the US Department of Transportation went to battle with the MTA and the state for enacting congestion pricing; that matter is now in the hands of a federal court judge.
Then the Trump administration pulled billions of dollars in funding for critical infrastructure projects such as the Hudson River Rail Tunnel to improve Amtrak and New Jersey Transit service, and the Second Avenue Subway extension to East Harlem.
Now, the US DOT is attempting to halt the city Department of Transportation’s plans to convert 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan — one of the busiest and most congested crosstown streets on the island — into a busway.
In an Oct. 16 letter, Sean McMaster of the USDOT’s Federal Highway Administration demanded NYCDOT “cease and desist all activities to implement the 34th Street busway project immediately” until a sit-down meeting about the busway is held. The primary concern, the USDOT claims, is how the proposed busway would impact truck access, emergency vehicle routes, and compliance with national highway regulations.
The federal agency is threatening to withhold funding along with “project authorizations and approvals” if it doesn’t get a meeting and proceed in compliance with federal law, McMaster warned.
The argument is absolutely capricious. It’s not as if New York City hasn’t done a busway before.
In fact, a busway, which became the inspiration for the 34th Street plan, has been in place 20 blocks south, on 14th Street, for six years. Traffic is restricted during most hours to buses, emergency vehicles, and trucks making local deliveries.
The end result has been a net positive for the Greenwich Village, East Village and Chelsea communities. Bus speeds on the M14 line along 14th Street improved dramatically, as did ridership once people realized they were no longer walking faster than the buses themselves. The number of collisions along 14th Street also decreased due to the drop in traffic.
New York aims to replicate that success on 34th Street, where the M34 is among the slowest bus lines in the Big Apple due to the heavy congestion on the roadway.
It is laughable that the federal government thinks it knows better than the city’s Department of Transportation when it comes to managing traffic in Manhattan. While the NYCDOT says it aims to work with the feds on getting the 34th Street busway done, the agency should hold its ground and insist that New York streets be controlled by New York’s government.
In other words, it’s our streets.
