New York City says it doesn’t need a “Miracle on 34th Street” to make the roadway faster and safer.
The city’s Department of Transportation unveiled Tuesday a new proposal to transform a key stretch of Manhattan’s 34th Street into a dedicated busway, aiming to increase bus speeds by 15% for tens of thousands of daily riders.
The plan, seeking to replicate the success of the 14th Street busway, would create a bus-priority corridor from 3rd to 9th Avenues, serving more than two dozen bus routes, including the M34/M34A Select Bus Service, 22 express lines, and additional commuter and tour buses.
‘Refining the design’ of 34th Street busway
If implemented, other vehicles, such as private cars and taxis, will be permitted to turn onto the corridor, but they must make the first available and legal turn off the busway.
“After seeing tremendous success on 14th Street—where buses have sped up, traffic has virtually disappeared, and far fewer New Yorkers are getting hurt in crashes—we are excited to propose a similar design on 34th Street,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez on Tuesday. “We look forward to refining the design with the community.”
Rodriguez said the project would deliver “world-class, fast, and reliable buses” to Midtown commuters. Like the 14th Street design, the proposed 34th Street busway would prioritize buses and trucks while maintaining local access for pickups, drop-offs, and loading. Non-transit vehicles would be required to turn off the busway at designated intersections to avoid penalties.
According to the DOT, following the implementation of the 14th St busway in 2019, bus speeds along the corridor increased by up to 24%, and traffic crashes dropped by 42%.
“Busways and bus lanes are proven to move buses faster and provide riders with more reliable commutes,” said MTA New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow. “Converting 34th Street to a busway would improve speeds for 28,000 daily riders by up to 15%.”
In addition to speeding up buses, the proposal includes new pedestrian safety features such as painted curb extensions and enhanced intersection visibility. According to the agency’s plans, curb space would also be freed up for deliveries to businesses along the bustling commercial strip.
DOT said it would maintain existing bus lanes on 34th Street outside the proposed busway zone, which stretches from 11th Ave. to the FDR Drive.
On Tuesday, the agency also outlined a separate plan to extend Madison Avenue’s northbound double bus lanes from 23rd to 60th Streets.
The corridor currently serves 92,000 daily riders on 34 local and express bus routes. Officials say the extension would further reduce travel times during rush hour, where buses already carry the majority of street users despite taking up only a fraction of the road space.
DOT cited previous improvements on Fifth Ave., where similar upgrades increased local bus speeds by 6% to 12%, and express routes by 11% to 20%.
The DOT said both the 34th St. and Madison Ave. proposals will undergo a community feedback process before implementation, with final plans expected to be presented by the summer.
‘Game to hear more’
Both preliminary plans were presented Monday night to Manhattan’s Community Board 5’s Transportation & Environment Committee, with Boards 4 and 6 up next.
The CB 5 committee supported a motion to back the Madison Ave bus lane project, but they want the DOT to report on its progress within six months. They also requested that the agency publicly post the report and any data that it has available.
On the 34th Street busway, DOT officials told the committee that the stretch from 3rd to 9th Avenues was chosen because it is the heart of the commercial area, and most buses turn off the corridor at some point along that route.
The CB5 committee supports the 34th Street busway and said it would support the other community boards in the area if they call for the busway to be expanded from river to river. They also requested further details from the DOT to ensure adequate loading for the businesses on 34th St.
Meanwhile, the president of the 34th Street Partnership, Dan Biederman, told amNewYork that the business group has yet to review the full presentation on the 34th Street busway but is “game to hear more” from the DOT.
He noted that the proposal was discussed briefly at the 34th Street Partnership’s March board meeting, where a straw poll of members came out with a slightly negative opinion, mainly concerned that “driving across the corridor can be important to some of the owners and tenants affected.”
