Streetsblog [1] has been highlighting exciting innovations in New York City that parallel our Clean Air efforts in L.A.: bus-only lanes, bus-centered transit and a car-free Times Square! It's exciting to see these projects developing simultaneously across the country.
Bus Rapid Transit
In February 2009, Streetsblog [2] talked with Walter Hook, the director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, [3] about the advantages of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in NYC.
According to Hook, "Very good BRT systems have been built for as little as $8 million a mile. With the same capital budget, we could build more than twice as much proper BRT as light rail, probably 5 to 10 times more, with no loss in the quality of service, the capacity, or the speed. . . BRT is a bargain, something all New Yorkers love."
Unfortunately, "Where there has been significant money available for public transport, it is put into core-commuter focused rail transit lines that usually provide disproportionate benefits to the upper-middle classes, while the poor--who make much higher use of transit for all their travel--have much less invested in the bus services that they need."
Although Hook does not mention race, many of the urban poor are people of color, making public transportation an issue of environmental racism.
Essentially, though, Hook expressed hope for a BRT plan: "The world is changing fast."
Car-free Space
In May 2009, the NY Department of Transportation [4] (DOT) unfolded their "Green Light for Midtown" plan, banning motor vehicles from Broadway around Times and Herald Squares and inviting pedestrians in with seating and street performers.
In a NY Times article [5], Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote, "This adds to the intimacy of the plaza itself, which, however undefined, can now function as a genuine social space: people can mill around, ogle one another and gaze up at the city around them without the fear of being caught under the wheels of a cab."
It took great daring to create a public, pedestrian-only space in one of the busiest intersections, the "Crossroads of the World [6]," but this exciting innovation has potential to inspire the creation of similar spaces across the country.
Separated Busway
In early March 2010, the NY Department of Transportation announced plans [7] to create its first separated busway on 34th Street, creating a two-way bus service operating on one side of the street. This project would:
- allow for wider sidewalks and pedestrian refuge islands
- improve bus speeds by 35%, cutting river-to-river transit time by 20 minutes
- connect four subway stations, the busiest rail station in the nation, and the 34th Street ferry terminal