In June after years of advocacy, a busway on 34th Street, where bus speeds can be as slow as 3 miles per hour, was finally given the green light by the three community boards it runs through.

The plan allows for only trucks, buses, Access-A-Rides and local pick-ups and drop-offs on the busy corridor between Third and Ninth avenues.

What You Need To Know

  • After the 14th Street busway increased bus speeds by 24%, transit advocates have called for more. In May, the Department of Transportation presented a plan for 34th Street, which three community boards overwhelmingly approved by early June

  • By early July, rumors circulated that the DOT planned to shelve the busway as it had done once already on Fordham Road in the Bronx

  • Bus speeds can be as slow as 3 miles per hour on 34th Street but civic groups worry about traffic from the two tunnels at each end of the street clogging residential side streets since the busway bans cars except for Access-A-Rides, pick-ups, drop-offs, emergency vehicles and trucks

“The messaging we got from Department of Transportation when they presented to the Transportation Committee at Community Board 6 was that they were planning on implementing this in August,” Jason Froimowitz, the transportation chair for Community Board 6, said.

Less than a month later, Streetsblog reported that sources in the Department of Transportation said the project was being shelved.

“There was no community opposition whatsoever, and it wasn’t until there was a concrete plan for a bus way that this group came out in opposition to it,” Froimowitz said.

The group, Murray Hill Neighborhood Association, is headed by Jon Harari, who says unlike 14th Street, which has a successful busway that sped up buses by 24%, 34th Street has the two tunnels at each end.

“We are very concerned about changing the nature of 34th Street into a busway and rerouting all the cars and all the traffic in into all the side streets,” Harari said.

Harrari cited the time and care the city took with the upcoming Fifth Avenue redesign.

“And I would think, you know, we could have like an AI strategy, a data strategy, a data analytics strategy, a bus strategy, an enforcement of the actual, you know, bus lane that’s already there,” he said.

The DOT was supposed to complete a traffic analysis and come up with a final proposal but Councilmember Keith Powers, whose district includes 34th Street, believes politics is getting in the way. 

“They should be out there doing community outreach right now. They should be out there looking at the data and making the case to the community about why this will be more helpful than less helpful,” Powers said. “But they can’t do that if they are frozen at the city agency level because City Hall is not giving them permission to move forward.”

Powers wrote a letter to DOT demanding answers by July 22.

In a statement, a spokesperson said, “We continue to assess the proposed 34th Street Busway, taking into account the community engagement we have conducted and will continue to conduct.”

It would not be the first time planned bus lane improvements have been suddenly stopped.

In 2023, the city killed two plans for Fordham Road, which even prompted a letter from the MTA urging the DOT to reconsider.