Eyes on the Street: Mamdani’s Broadway Bus Lane is a Hit Among LaGuardia Commuters

Mayor Mamdani’s bid to speed up the Q70 bus between Jackson Heights and LaGuardia Airport with a dedicated bus lane along Broadway looks like it’s working as designed — in the parts where it was designed, that is.

Before the improvement was installed in June as part of the Mamdani administration’s World Cup transit plan, slow buses in this part of Queens were endemic: The Q70, which shuttles 9,000 daily passengers for free between LaGuardia Airport and the busy 74th Street/Roosevelt Avenue train hub, was constantly stuck in the three-block stretch of Broadway between the station and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway — with some buses moving as slowly as 2.7 miles per hour in the evening rush.

Improvements were not limited to the bus lane — they also included traffic signals that prioritized Q70 buses on Roosevelt Avenue and Broadway. The MTA and city Department of Transportation collaborated on the $160-million effort to shorten travel times for tourists as well as the thousands of people who work at the airport.

Let’s see how it’s working …

Beast of the east

In Streetsblog’s first visit to the revamped bus corridor, we found a tale of two bus trips. On the voyage from LaGuardia Airport, the Q70 more or less breezed along the stretch of Broadway from the BQE to Roosevelt Avenue, thanks in part to the red-painted, offset center bus lane:

The bus lane covers three blocks, which are mostly residential. The only real hiccup in this stretch comes when pedestrians unexpectedly cross the street mid-block.

But when the bus turns left from the red bliss of Broadway to Roosevelt Avenue, all bets are off.

Here, the bus lane ends abruptly, and the bus is consistently slowed down by pedestrians, loitering green taxis, and double-parked cars. Moreover, it’s on this block that the Q70 competes for space with the Q32, which stops midway through the block to drop off passengers.

Clearly the slowest part of the journey, this bus route could be greatly improved by elongating the red bus lane onto the short stretch on Roosevelt.

Stressed to the west

The Mamdani administration did not similarly protect the Q70 in the westbound (towards LaGuardia) direction. So here’s what happens:

The Q70 picks up passengers from the bus bays outside the 74th Street-Roosevelt Avenue hub then turns right onto Broadway. The Q70 often must start its run at a standstill as it must wait for taxis to get out of the way.

Green taxis are allowed to pick up passengers in the area — and their drivers tend to go where the passengers are. Still, they’re not allowed to stand in bus lanes or bus loading areas, or to idle under such conditions as to obstruct the movement of traffic, as the taxi is doing here:

After slipping through the taxi gauntlet, the LaGuardia-bound Q70 faces another challenge: traffic. First, car traffic on Broadway often backs up from the stop light at Roosevelt, as this picture shows:

Past this intersection, the bus makes its way to the BQE. There’s some times traffic, and sometimes double-parked cars, but on our visit, it was relatively smooth sailing. Once the bus hits the BQE, it’s a straight shot to the airport named after the famous Democratic Socialist mayor from the 1930s.

Bus talk

Despite some technical shortcomings, commuters seem to be satisfied. “The Q70 is great,” said Ed Quinn, an East Village resident who flies a lot. “It could be faster, but it’s efficient for the most part. It doesn’t seem to be affected much by traffic.”

An American Airlines employee and daily commuter who gave the name Felix said that the Q70 was “especially fast when coming back from LaGuardia.”

His airline colleague Sandy agreed, but mentioned that “more buses on the weekends” would be helpful, especially noting that “Sunday nights are terrible” on the way back from the airport.

Frequency is a legitimate complaint on weekends. For instance, late on Sunday nights, the bus leaves LaGuardia every 15 minutes. When traffic is bad, buses can easily get backed up, and passengers will be kept waiting longer.

But there’s nothing Mayor Mamdani can to do, at least for now, to change the MTA schedule.