The Mamdani administration is reviving the 34th Street Busway project, a plan to limit 34th Street to trucks, buses, Access-A-Rides, and local pickups and drop-offs between Third and Ninth avenues.
City officials say this will speed up trips for 28,000 daily bus riders along 34th Street by up to 15%, helping fulfill the mayor’s promise to make buses fast and free. The average city bus speed is currently five mph along 34th Street — slower than walking.
This project has been stopped and restarted before. At the beginning of last summer, the Adams administration halted the plan to gather more public input, then it was back on by the end of the summer.
However, that’s when the Federal Highway Administration sent a letter demanding information about whether the busway would affect the ability of large trucks to operate on the route, which they say is part of the National Highway System.
Many commuters NY1 spoke to said they think the plan will be good to ease congestion, although some shared concerns of the side streets being flooded with too much traffic. The City DOT says an analysis showed other streets could handle the traffic diversion.
One bus rider compared the plan to the 14th Street busway, which they described as having worked out “perfectly.”
Fourteenth Street has had a busway since 2019. Officials say it has sped up buses by 24%. Some people have pointed out that 34th Street is slightly different since it has a tunnel on each end, but that improving public transit should still be the goal.
City Hall told NY1 that they were able to address the federal government’s concerns by submitting the plans as part of what’s called a Transportation Improvement Program. A highway administration spokesperson, however, said they are still reviewing a letter from the city transportation department.
