The bus is back on the menu.
The Adams administration has agreed to unpause the work on the 34th Street busway as part an agreement to rezone a slice of Midtown, Streetsblog has learned exclusively.
Work on a busway on 34th Street between Third and Ninth avenues had been moving at a faster pace than the five-mile-per-hour buses themselves until the Adams administration slammed the brakes on the project in early July. But Manhattan Council Members Keith Powers and Erik Bottcher got the administration to promise to revive the busway as part of a plan to bring 10,000 new homes to the neighborhood.
The administration promise was revealed just hours before a key Council committee was poised to vote on the Midtown South rezoning, which is being pushed by the mayor.
The rezoning has been moving through the city's public review process for months, but the new "Points of Agreement" memo outlines Mayor Adams's promise to lift the embargo on the bus-first corridor:
The Administration commits to establishing a car-free 34th Street Busway ... following a robust and wide-ranging public engagement process. Busways grant buses and trucks priority by restricting through movement for other vehicles, reducing congestion on the busway corridor and making the sustaintable travel easier, safer and more reliable. Enhancing bus stop amenities — such as seating shelters — throughout the district will enhance accessibility and rider comfort, providing for a better experience for new and long-term visitors and residents alike.
Timing: Public engagement in 2025
Beyond that, all else is unclear. As of June, the DOT was still supposed to show off the results of some deeper traffic analysis on 34th Street and, until the pause, the city was planning on implementing the project sometime in the fall of this year.
The DOT has already done extensive outreach in Midtown, and got stamps of approval from Community Boards 4, 5 and 6. Some residents of Murray Hill tried to use a CB6 meeting to demand a halt to the project, but even there the board overwhelmingly passed a resolution in favor of the project after an evening of back and forth testimony that only devolved into a little bit of shouting.
The zoning change "seeks to foster vibrant, 24/7 mixed-use neighborhoods across 42 blocks of Midtown South," according to the city. It would spur the development of 9,700 new units of housing.
Powers, who shared the new language with Streetsblog, was pleased with the deal.
“I’m glad that we were able to secure a commitment on the 34th Street busway move ahead to invest in one of our busiest corridors," he said. "We are recreating the success of 14th Street in Midtown, just in time for the vision of this new live-work neighborhood to become reality.
"Next, we’ll be engaging the community to hear feedback on the plan, and I look forward to those conversations.”
Advocates for bus riders had qualified praise for the deal, which still doesn't undo the years of interference by the Adams administration on other necessary bus priority projects.
"Even a belated busway is good news for 34th Street riders but New Yorkers from Brooklyn to the Bronx are still waiting on other bus improvements being blocked by City Hall," said Riders Alliance Director of Policy and Communications Danny Pearlstein. "As a rule, faster buses for millions of people shouldn't ride on last minute bargaining over zoning changes."
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
