BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH | On Wednesday, the city announced that, starting in June, only buses, trucks and emergency vehicles will be able to use 14th St. between Third and Ninth Aves. as through traffic.
The new Transit/Truck Priority lanes are part of an experimental transit-improvement plan to help improve bus speed along one of the city’s most heavily used bus routes, the M14A/D. About 27,000 people take the M14A/D daily.
The new transit scheme is also intended to help mitigate travel impacts caused by the L-train “slowdown,” scheduled to begin on Fri., April 26.
Speaking at a press conference in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, Polly Trottenberg, commissioner of the Department of Transportation, explained that the inspiration for the TTP pilot plan came from King St. in Toronto. In 2017, Toronto implemented a similar pilot program that has since become permanent. According to D.O.T., travel times decreased while safety increased on King St. due to the transit and pedestrian priority lanes that were created.
“They saw an adjustment period — but traffic didn’t just concentrate on the immediate adjacent streets,” Trottenberg said. “It sort of spread out into the grid and the traffic effects were really not a big problem.”
The pilot program will last for 18 months. Painting of the street to designate the bus lanes is set to begin later this spring. Use of the lanes will launch in June to coincide with the start of the M14 Select Bus Service.
Local traffic will still be able to make pickups and drop-offs along along 14th St. and access garages on the street, but cars will need to turn right to get off the crosstown boulevard as soon as possible. Left turns will not be allowed.
Intersections along 14th St. will be designed with new turning lanes to ensure the bus lanes remain clear.
As for the priority lanes’ hours of operation, Trottenberg said it might be daily from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. — which was the plan under the original “busway” proposal for 14th St. when a full L-train shutdown was expected. However, at another point, she said the hours could be changed and are not set in stone. The idea is for the TPP plan to be in effect seven days a week.
In addition, D.O.T. will enforce the new TTP lanes with automated cameras along 14th St. The agency will publicly announce the beginning of enforcement measures, which will not kick in until at least 60 days after the new SBS route is up and running.
The new signals, known as “Transit Signal Priorities,” contain technology able to detect when a bus is nearby and adjust the length of a red or green light, so that buses spend less time waiting at lights.
