Manhattan

Select Bus Service launched on 23rd Street in Manhattan this morning, the twelfth SBS route in the city and the sixth to start up under Mayor de Blasio.

The long-delayed reconstruction of East Houston Street between the Bowery and the FDR Drive is starting to round into form. Though the Department of Design and Construction won't wrap up the project until next year at the earliest, new medians and pedestrian areas between Avenue A and Chrystie Street are finally complete, and the transition to the First Avenue bike lane is no longer obstructed by construction.

As the city and MTA consider how to move thousands of L train passengers across Manhattan when the subway line shuts down for Sandy-related repairs, momentum is growing for a 14th Street "PeopleWay" free of private motor vehicles. But with 10,000 passengers during the peak hour in the peak direction, prohibiting cars alone won't prevent 14th Street from becoming a bus parking lot, according to Annie Weinstock and Walter Hook at BRT Planning International.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer wants to prioritize buses, bikes, and pedestrians on Manhattan's 14th Street when the L train shuts down for 18 months beginning in January 2019. Brewer signed onto Transportation Alternatives' "PeopleWay" campaign yesterday after meeting with campaign organizers.

The Sixth Avenue protected bike lane is just about finished between 8th Street and 33rd Street, except for the pedestrian islands. The redesign is still in that awkward transitional phase where people are figuring out how to use it, so today Streetsblog checked in with a few of the thousands of people who bike Sixth Avenue daily to see how the change is coming.

Yesterday Citi Bike began its 2016 expansion, bringing new stations to Manhattan up to 110th Street and Brooklyn west of Prospect Park. We've got a few updates to share that didn't make it into our earlier post on the expansion and the bike lane upgrades DOT is implementing in the new service area.

New York City should use the impending L train shutdown to make long-term improvements to bus service, U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney said at a public forum last night.

Nearly two weeks have passed since a sanitation truck driver struck and killed 21-year-old Noah Goldstein near Columbus Circle and left the scene. The driver has been identified, yet police and Manhattan DA Cy Vance have filed no charges. The truck operator who killed Goldstein is free to keep driving on NYC streets.

In 2019, the L train west of Williamsburg will be shut down so the MTA can repair Sandy-related damage to subway tunnels under the East River. Hundreds of thousands of people will have to find other ways to get around, and there's no conceivable way to do that without dedicating a lot of street space to buses, bicyclists, and pedestrians.