This morning, Upper West Siders will boldly demand their God-given right to double park and slow down buses! And, apparently, two Upper West Side pols are on board.
Today at 9:15 a.m., a bunch of car-obsessed, transit-neglecting yahoos will gather at the corner of West 96th Street and Columbus Avenue to protest the city's plan to install a dedicated bus lane all the way across 96th Street from First Avenue to West End Avenue.
The protesters are off-based on nearly all their claims:
- "Dedicated bus lanes will adversely affect residents’ quality of life by cutting residents’ buildings off from the street, preventing passenger loading and unloading for taxis, disabled people, and school children, and making it impossible to make deliveries." This is not true; the Department of Transportation design calls for an offset bus lane, which will still allow access to the curb (but won't allow double-parking — hint, hint).
- "Anyone stopping in the bus lane for even the briefest drop off will be subject to a $250 fine because of automatic ticketing by bus-mounted cameras." This is not true; bus lane violations are issued only when a person blocking the bus lane is captured on camera by two consecutive buses — and at least five minutes apart, so not "the briefest" of moments. Also, bus lane tickets are $50.
- "West 96th Street traffic, including bus traffic, now moves freely on these two blocks [Central Park West and Amsterdam Avenue]." This is not true; according to the DOT, buses move at 6 to 8 miles per hour on that stretch — and lower than 4 miles per hour on other stretches of 96th Street.
- "The DOT has not shown any actual benefit from converting traffic lanes to bus lanes in these two residential blocks." This is not true; the DOT has demonstrated repeatedly that offset bus lanes Improve bus speed andreliability while still maintaining curb access as well as traffic flow for other vehicles.
The press release from the West 96th Street Neighbors Coalition didn't mention the 14,900 average daily 96th Street bus riders who will benefit, nor the fact that bus riders tend to be far poorer than their car-owning neighbors.
Nor did the press release explain Council Members Gale Brewer and Shaun Abreu's position on the matter — though it claimed that both pols would be on the hustings this morning. We reached out; Abreu's spokesperson said the Council member had not seen the press release before it went out with his name on it and that he doesn't agree with all of it.
Brewer said only that she respects the group, but wants buses to move "as speedy as possible."
For its part, DOT, which has spent months and months giving presentations to multiple community boards and even tweaking the plan, is pissed.
“Ninety-Sixth Street is one of the city's busiest crosstown routes for bus riders, yet at rush hours it can be just as fast to walk as it is to take the bus," the agency said in a statement. "Dedicated bus lanes will make bus service faster and more reliable for more than 15,000 daily bus riders on the corridor."
And, lest we forget, the vast majority of households on 96th Street — 74 percent, according to the DOT — do not own cars. Meanwhile, 68 percent of residents there commute to work via public transit, walking, or biking.
So if Brewer and Abreu stand with these lying, anti-transit fauxgressives, rest assured, Dave Colon will be on hand to ask the tough questions. (I Love the Upper West Side also covered the upcoming rally, playing it more or less straight.)
In other news:
- The big news of the day was the hole punctured into the Queens Midtown Tunnel by contractors doing some preliminary drilling in the East River for the city’s greenway. The errant drill bit caused a two-and-a-half-inch hole in the tunnel casing, and the tubes were closed out of an abundance of caution (well, water leaking into a tunnel will do that!). (NYDN, NY Post, amNY, Gothamist)
- New York City public schools open today, which means it will be a total shitshow on the roads at around 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. as some people use their car as a personal school bus. On the eve of Opening Day, the DOT had a press conference to congratulate itself for daylighting 300 intersections, as WPIX11 reported. But as you know, Mayor Adams promised in November to daylight 1,000 intersections by the end of this year, so let's not pop the Champagne bottles yet (but we will if that target is met, we promise!).
- I'm not sure I agree with Nicole Gelinas on bus fare evasion, but like always, she's worth reading (NY Post). When it comes to fare evasion, I'm much more in Hell Gate's camp.
- Been there, read that: Lyft (which owns Citi Bike!) is in trouble. The company played cop with the Wall Street Journal: Nothing to see here!
- The backlash on e-scooters in Queens continued. (QNS)
- The MTA spins the revolving door of government in hiring its new head of security. (NYDN)
- Lots of outlets covered the DOT's effort to improve conditions for cyclists and pedestrians at the Manhattan foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. (Streetsblog, NYDN)
- Hell Gate dove into the Mount Prospect Park skate park controversy.
- And finally, I and Streetsblog Engagement Editor Emily Lipstein talk about our favorite bike rides in 6sqft.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the park where the skate park will be built because of an editing error and a writing effort, committed by the same person — the writer and editor. He regrets the error, which is attributable to age and increasing addlement.
