Bronx Business Leaders Oppose Busway That Would Help 85,000 Drivers – Street Blog New York City

ADVERTISEMENT: Used Dutch Bikes is your one-stop shop for authentic Dutch bikes. Choose from classic “grandma bikes” to modern seven-speeds that can haul three kids without breaking a sweat. We carry authentic brands like Gazelle, Batavus, BSP, Burgers, Cortina and more – available in the US for the first time!

It’s a brawl in Bogie Down.

Some Fordham Road business leaders are giving their major customers a big “Bronx cheer” — writing to the Department of Transportation opposing a car-free bus route along the main shopping corridor.

The honchos painted the proposal — a one- or two-lane car-free busway between Morris and Webster streets — in apocalyptic terms as an “existential threat” to the traffic-choked business district, the city’s third-largest shopping area.

“Closing any portion of Fordham Road to vehicular traffic would have many negative consequences for our community,” the two top officials of the Fordham Road Business Improvement District, local councilman Oswald Feliz and others, wrote in a June 28 letter.

“They warned that rerouting traffic would force thousands of people from the region, including thousands of day-trippers from the region who come to shop at our stores, bring their families to university or visit the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo or Little Italy.” Cars are a near alternative, residential streets, endless gridlock and a danger to pedestrians. (The letter’s use of the term “existential threat” is ironic because climate change—the excessive use of cars and the decline of transit support—is often referred to as an “existential threat” to human civilization.)

The lawsuit, first reported by Crain’s New York Business , puts the BID and Friends on the side of motorists as opposed to their primary customers: 86 percent of Fordham Corridor visitors are reported to have arrived. According to the city report, on foot or by transport. And what the letter writers neglected to mention is that Fordham Road is one of the best public transit areas in the city and, indeed, in the country, with five bus lines along the street (and more nearby) and four subway lines and suburbs. The Metro-North railway line stops along its length.

Those “day trippers” can get there by transit like anyone else, said Danny Perlstein, a spokesman for the Riders Alliance.

“NIMBY riders are back at it, still spreading tired lies to deny tens of thousands of Bronxites fast and safe bus rides,” Pearlstein said. “Mayor Adams must ignore his detractors and move forward with a transformational project necessary to fulfill the mission of the NYC Streets Plan: Make Fordham Street Commuterable.”

The letter also contradicts the sentiments of local road users. A poll conducted before the DOT proposed the reforms showed that 90 percent of bus drivers, including nearly three-quarters of drivers, supported improving existing bus routes. Fully 70 percent of people living nearby support a car-free bus route.

“Bus priority projects have shown to significantly increase bus speeds and increase business vehicular access,” said DOT spokesman Thomas Garita. We are committed to providing fast and reliable bus service to all New Yorkers and will continue to work closely with local businesses and community leaders to listen to their concerns.

The letter writers are right that the struggle on Fordham Street is enormous. When the city first established the Fordham Road bus lines during the Bloomberg administration, inaugurating selective bus service on the Bx12 route, the routes saw a 20 percent jump in bus speeds, a 10 percent increase in bus ridership and an impressive 71 percent increase in local business retail sales (compared to 23 percent area wide). ), according to the DOT. But the reform did not last. Due to the widespread lack of enforcement, auto drivers constantly invade the faded bus lanes of Fordham Road, making the commute hell for bus drivers.

The Bx12 bus along Fordham Road now averages 7.2 mph and 5.4 mph, well below Midtown’s car traffic speeds. It earns a D rating on its bus turn-by-turn schedule, arriving 57 percent on time and losing 5 percent of its ridership in the two years before the outbreak.

Because of this, many, many Bronx residents suffer every day – not just Fordham Road shoppers, but thousands of workers, hundreds of students, on the street to public schools and residents who have to take buses east to medical and surgical appointments. Jacobi and Montefiore Medical Centers.

The five bus routes on Fordham Road serve 85,000 riders every day — and those riders are made up of the city’s most disadvantaged residents who rely solely on public transit. According to U.S. Census figures, 68,000 people live within a quarter mile of the proposed bus route — almost all (94 percent) are Latino or black. A third, 31 percent, live in poverty. Three-quarters of households (74 percent) do not own a car and 77 percent do not walk, bike or take transit to work, while only 12 percent drive and travel alone. Nearly a third of bus riders (31.6 percent) commute more than an hour, compared to only 16 percent of local riders.

Bronx letter writers protestors say they’re just the latest in demands to stop buses around the city without creating gridlock or disrupting retail sales by tens of thousands of riders on side streets. 14th Street in Manhattan, Main Street in Flushing, Jay Street in Brooklyn and 181st Street in Manhattan all had some resistance, but all worked well, BID leaders, riders and the DOT said.

Jennifer Falk, executive director of the Union Square Partnership, which hosts the 14th Street Busway, said the data indicates the bus has been very successful. It reduced bus travel times for riders who needed it most, and increased ridership, bringing new visitors to the Union Square-14th Street District. In addition, it reduced traffic congestion on 14th Street, resulting in a better pedestrian experience.

“High-quality transit access and connectivity continue to be one of the benefits of the revitalization of the Union Square-14th Street District and our long-term district vision plan released last year,” she said.

The letter writers were disappointed to note that Fordham Road was not part of the same street grid as 14th Street. Fordham Road’s irregular intersections and terrain are, in fact, They are even more reason Why should it be car free? Fordham Road is one of the most dangerous roads in the city.

“I grew up near Fordham Road,” said Shawn Garcia, an organizer with Transportation Alternatives Uptown and the Bronx. “The current set-up will never work. The bus route is a real way to improve life in a community with long commutes, traffic congestion and the majority of residents not owning a car.”

The Fordham BID declined to comment.

The dust-up on the bus route – and the involvement of a sitting council member – is prompting a similar movement in Queens, where two council members want the city to stop testing two pairs of buses in Jamaica, citing the impact on local businesses.