City’s Move to Speed Up 14th Street Buses Hangs on a Lawsuit
A move to ban cars on Manhattan’s 14th Street, home of one of the city’s slowest bus routes, has been delayed by a lawsuit, as neighbors battle over the best way for them, and commuters, to get around that crowded area.
The average bus speed on 14th Street is less than 5 miles per hour, making transit a slog for about 27,000 daily weekday riders on the route.
“I walk from 7th Avenue to Union Square faster than I can take a bus,” said Stanley Sherman, a resident, a regular bus rider and a supporter of the city’s plan to overhaul traffic on the street.
The city wants to ban most cars from doing anything more than picking up or dropping off passengers on the street between the Third and Ninth Avenues, between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. This is expected to improve bus speed by 25 percent. Under the plan, only buses and trucks would be able to move freely. Any cars that happen to be on the street would have to exit at the next right turn.
But residents of those side streets are protesting, fearing that their own streets will become congested.
“I got involved in this because I don’t want cars in front of my house, and all my neighbors feel the same way,” said Arthur Schwartz, the attorney whose lawsuit has twice prevented city authorities from launching the busway.
Schwartz and some of his West Village residents are challenging the city in court, saying that it has not done enough environmental studies.
Schwartz told Transit New York that when he realized that his neighbors were also worried, he figured, “Maybe I can file a lawsuit to stop this. And I did.”
The legal battles have been confusing. In early July, Schwartz’s lawsuit stopped the city from launching the busway. But a few weeks later ,State Supreme Court Judge Eileen Rakower lifted a restraining order and ruled that the Department of Transportation could implement the busway. The Gothamist quoted the judge as ruling that DOT “went to great lengths to describe the consideration that went into the analysis, considering pedestrian deaths, dangerous intersections and not just the speed of the bus that is going to traverse 14th Street.”
Then, in mid-August, Schwartz again secured a last-minute appeal that restrained DOT from implementing the car ban.
Schwartz’s appeal shocked not only transit advocates who have been campaigning for street priority for buses, but also Mayor Bill de Blasio who wants to increase bus speed by 25 percent citywide by 2020.
De Blasio announced his Buses Action Plan in April. The plan advocates such initiatives as off-board fare payment systems, transit signal priority and dedicated bus lanes.
Bus ridership has declined by 15 percent in the past five years, from 677 million rides in 2013 to 569 million in 2018.
“Traffic congestion is going up, and so bus travel time is getting longer, and bus reliability is getting worse,” said Jonathan English, a doctoral candidate in urban planning at Columbia University. “And the only way to address that meaningfully is by giving the buses priority.”
The busway was initially seen as a measure to deal with a planned shutdown of the L train, which could have affected more than 250,000 daily riders between Brooklyn and Manhattan. After the complete shutdown was shelved, authorities went ahead with this plan.
Other big cities are making changes to restrict cars. In 2016, Barcelona announced plans to ban cars in about 60 percent of its streets. In 2021, motorists entering certain part of Manhattan will pay tolls, becoming the first U.S. city to start congestion pricing.
Transit advocates picketed at Schwartz’s house earlier this month, asking him to drop the case.
Schwartz, a Democratic district leader, held a one-man press briefing, insisting he wouldn’t drop the lawsuit. The next day, he held a press conference accompanied by some West Village residents. They had two key complaints: that new bike lanes on 12th and 13th streets have eliminated vital parking spaces, and that the busway would send traffic into their streets.
David Marcus, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said side streets cannot handle the overflow of traffic because “there are fragile, historic, old buildings, and they’re going to suffer from the vibration, noise and air pollution.”
But Richard Mintz, 53, a member of the local Community Board 6, told Transit New York that the busway was favored by most residents. “The lawsuit is frivolous and is an attempt by a wealthy minority to impose their will on the majority,” Mint said.
Meanwhile, Janet Charleston, an artist and 15th Street resident, said it was wrong to assume that those who oppose the busway are only wealthy people. “I do public transportation. I do cycle. But I don’t think the plan to close 14th Street to cars will work.”
Previous lawsuits against street redesigns have failed. When a protected bike path at Prospect Park West in Brooklyn was carved out in 2010, it stirred extensive controversy. Opponents sued, but the case was dismissed in 2016.
Some are concerned that the legal fight will hurt other long-awaited bus improvements.
“This lawsuit doesn’t just have implication on the specific design on 14th Street,” said Thomas DeVito, senior director of advocacy at Transportation Alternatives, a transit advocacy group. “It has implications on any busway that can be implemented in the future.”
Those who support the busway say the opponents should look at the public good.
“The general public is frustrated in congestion,” said Donald Yates, division union chairperson for bus operators at Transport Workers Union Local 100. “The lawsuit is more self-serving than helping the general public.”
