Top officials at the MTA wrote a scathing letter criticizing the administration of Mayor Eric Adams for killing bus lane improvements on Fordham Road, where new data shows bus speeds barely budged after a promised enforcement blitz and fresh red paint on the Bronx thoroughfare.
Bus speeds between Sedgwick Avenue and Southern Boulevard have increased just 2 to 4 percent since October 2022 — far below the 15-percent target the city set after repainting the bus lanes and promising "enhanced enforcement" on the strip after Mayor Adams canceled the bus lane fixes.
Speeds fluctuated between 5.9 and 6.4 miles per hour, the MTA said — well below the borough-wide average of 7 miles per hour and slower even than the 6.7 miles per hour buses moved on Fordham Road after the MTA and city rolled out bus lanes there for the first time back in 2008.
Overall, buses on Fordham Road travel no faster than they did two years ago when the MTA introduced automated bus lane enforcement cameras to the Bx12 SBS two years ago.
DOT opted for the paint-and-ticket strategy after Mayor Adams sided with anti-transit businesses and cultural institutions on and around Fordham Road and killed the agency's plans to upgrade the corridor's curbside bus lanes to offset bus lanes — itself a compromise from a busway plan initially proposed by DOT.
The offset bus lane plan was forecasted to improve bus speeds by 20 percent. As such, New York City Transit leaders, who always diplomatic in public, filled their printer with acid in a June letter to DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, saying the city's strategy of appeasing opponents with paint and enforcement was a total bust.
"The Fordham Road project enjoys widespread support from transit advocacy groups, and Fordham Road bus riders, who have been enduring slow service for decades," then-New York City Transit President Richard Davey and his interim successor Demetrius Crichlow wrote in their June 12 letter, which Streetsblog obtained in a Freedom of Information request.
"While we continue to support the last proposal for offset bus lanes, we believe a full busway, would have even greater impact in improving bus speeds and reliability, while accommodating demand for curbside parking in this busy commercial corridor."
The letter was the culmination of months of frustration inside the MTA. As the bus lane controversy dragged on last year, Davey accused Fordham University of turning its back on its Jesuit teachings and said he "hoped" that the mayor would support the project.
"As President Davey departs, we both want to reiterate that the Fordham Road bus priority project remains of critical importance to NYCT," the letter said. "We at NYCT and the MTA were very disappointed with the City’s decision not to advance the plan to convert the curbside bus lanes to offset bus lanes."
The speeds also fall below the Bronx average of 7 miles per hour and the 6.7 miles per hour buses moved on the road after the city and MTA launched Select Bus Service there in 2008. They sit just about where bus speeds stood two years ago when MTA cameras first began spitting out tickets.
"Improvements have been marginal at best," the letter stated. "Additional measures are warranted to speed up bus service for our customers."
The new MTA data reflects Streetsblog's recent reporting on the state of bus service on Fordham Road. On Streetsblog's trips to the strip, buses struggled to move faster than 5 miles per hour. Cars and trucks filled the bus lane, parked in bus stops and double parked on the corridor.
Despite the city's pledge to have NYPD keep the bus lane clear, Streetsblog found that outside of a few ticket blitzes, police barely handed out more tickets for blocking the bus lane on the strip in recent months compared to the past.
On Thursday, Rodriguez told reporters that the DOT was still studying the situation Fordham Road and that the city would determine what to do when its assessment finished. The letter June 12 letter shows that DOT and MTA staff already conducted the assessment and brought it to the attention of leadership.
"We went to Fordham Road last year, unfortunately we were not able to do the projects we wanted to," he said. "Fordham is something that we will not give up...So we will continue looking at Fordham and we will continue our treatment.
Advocates slammed the city's inaction on Fordham Road. Bus riders stuck on slow rides deserve the same treatment as residents of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, said Riders Alliance Director of Policy and Communications Danny Pearlstein.
"Bronx riders, on the most important bus route in the city, deserve the same strong medicine for slow and unreliable bus service as riders on 14th Street, Main Street and Jay Street," Pearlstein said. "Fordham Road needs a busway and Mayor Adams needs to tell the suburban NIMBYs to get out of the way."
