Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Parking removed on sections of Avenues A and D; curbside bus lanes set for M14 service

Earlier this month, the city removed the parking signs and Muni Meters from along the west side of Avenue A (between Sixth Street to Houston) and sections of Avenue D.

In their place: No Standing signs. Parking is no longer allowed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. seven days a week in these select corridors ... 
This is one of the transit improvements the city announced as part of the "Better Buses Restart" campaign in May 2021. Per then-Mayor de Blasio's announcement during "Streets Week!" at the time:
Both new and improved bus lanes will serve bus riders citywide, with changes including new red paint and markings, signals improvements, pedestrian safety and clearer signage. 
The city identified the M14A and M14D as a "bus priority" in 2019... when the 14th Street Busway went into effect between Third Avenue and Ninth Avenue. (According to the city, the Busway improved bus travel times by 36%, among other improvements.)

Still, according to the city, speeds on the 14A and 14D are consistently slow throughout the day and early evening. (DOT presentation from June 2021 here.)

Moving forward, the southbound side of Avenue A (from Fifth to Houston) will receive a curbside bus lane; ditto for Avenue D between Second and Seventh going south... and from Houston to Ninth on the north. 

There will also be enhancements for the bus lines below Houston, including new left-turn bays.

No word on when the DOT will mark these bus lanes. (They were originally slated for last summer/fall.)

The "Better Buses Restart" campaign drew praise from transit advocates last year.

"Prioritizing bus riders on the street is a must for New York City's recovery," Ben Fried, comms director for the TransitCenter, said in a statement. "DOT's slate of bus projects will be especially helpful to essential workers and Black and brown New Yorkers, who make most of the bus trips in the city. As traffic returns to city streets, it's extremely important to complete these projects, carve out space for transit to bypass congestion, and ensure millions of New Yorkers can rely on the bus."

Fox 5 last week found an annoyed LES resident who received a $115 ticket on his vehicle after the parking change went into effect along Avenue D. The resident disputed the claim that the DOT left flyers about the changes for residents. 

Thanks to Steven for the photos.

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is great

stephen b said...

agree with Anonymous, above

Anonymous said...

I feel bad for all the truck delivery people who have to service those stores. How does the city expect that sector to operate?

Grieve said...

The DOT presentation I linked to shows a new loading zone for Avenue D.

I'm curious what Key Food will do on A and 4th. The delivery trucks often double-park on the southbound side of A. So will they triple park now on the northbound side?

Anonymous said...

You could never accuse the Adam's Administration of suffering from common sense and facilitating commerce in NYC which is essentially what the city is all about.

Choresh Wald said...

So dumb that this project doesn’t go all the way to 14 Street

Anonymous said...

Excellent. Now end free street parking. It's an obscene externality. https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2022/03/21/opinion-we-need-an-alternative-to-free-alternate-side-parking/

Anonymous said...

This city is becoming unlivable. Parking is essential to any city. If you have cars you must have parking. If ban parking ban cars too. Maybe when people learn how to teleport like in Star Trek we won’t need parking. I find people that can’t afford a car are the ones that anti car.

Sarah said...

"I find people that can’t afford a car are the ones that anti car."

Keep it classy! If you want to live somewhere that caters to this stank attitude, there are a whole panoply of suburbs out there contributing to the ever-increasing speed of destruction of a livable habitat for humans.

This is a good thing. The bus lanes on 14th mean that the M14s zip right along...right until they hit their avenue turning.

Jake said...

@11:58am

They're so much wrong with everything you said, it's comical.

Manhattan isn't a free parking lot for your convenience. It's ironic that somebody bemoaning taking away parking for cars says the city is "unliveable." lol

Many people who can afford a car are also anti-car.

You're talking to one.

Anonymous said...

Those that complain about the removal of street parking can't afford a garage spot...

Anonymous said...

The same anti car people order from Amazon or other delivery services every day. How are stores supposed to get deliveries? What is Key Food going to do?

Anonymous said...

@11:58am

I own a car here (I garage it) and I agree with the replies to your post.

From Jake: "They're so much wrong with everything you said, it's comical."

Spot on.

Anonymous said...

I would love to see a study on how many buses a day roll by under 10% full. No one uses the bus. As someone who actually uses the m14 4-5x a wk, i can tell you that outside rush hours the bus is just absolutely empty at almost all times. 6 am - 10 pm is ludicrous. People will still stop in the bus lane at all times since there's nowhere else to pull over.

Anonymous said...

M14A bus rider here. Where are these magical empty buses? The bus is packed every time I use it, despite being off-peak. I have to go to the west side for medical services regularly and it's often faster to walk on 14th. I will be happy to see more buses on this route.

Anonymous said...

The buses don’t even use the bus lanes 40% of the time. Bikes either…And why are people so extreme? What is all this hostility? Obviously street parking is necessary in a city and public transportation and bikes. News flash: It’s not just about your personal perspective. I wish we would just chill out. We all pay taxes and love this city. We can do all these things. Isn’t that what the city is all about…inclusiveness? Chillax people. Sheesh. Suggestion: Funnel all that energy into preserving our rights? Disclaimer: I own a car, use street parking, citibike subscriber and m14 bus loyalist. =)

Anonymous said...

I have never understood why the say “no standing”. Doesn’t seem like the right phrase.

Anonymous said...

I saw a tourist couple standing by a No Standing sign and the wife nudged her husband, pointed to the sign and they walked away. Not making this up and no, I can’t be sure they were actually a married couple. It was one of the funniest moments of my 60 plus years living in NYC

Anonymous said...

@11:23am: Get over your hostility to cars being able to park. How about this: no cars AND no buses AND no bikes AND no scooters AND no motorcycles?

WALK, and if you can't walk, then move out of NYC! This is the Hunger Games City, now!

Also: No delivery trucks of any kind - no postal trucks, no UPS, no FedEx. No moving trucks, either. No plumbing trucks, no Con Ed trucks, no Verizon trucks, no Spectrum trucks. We don't need any of that stuff, do we? No, just get out and walk.

Pick up your heavy package at UPS and haul it home yourself. If you have to move, give all your belongings away and start fresh in your new location. See what a great city we can have?!

Anonymous said...

NYC is essentially a large collective corporation that is being destroyed by the legislators who have no critical experience in how a business is run and what type of facilities are necessary to make it run profitably. Ideologues make terrible CEO's.

Anonymous said...

Does the bus have to always be full?

Anonymous said...

The cars are empty 90% of the time just sitting on the street curb.

Anonymous said...

FYI those that park on the street are not millionaires. Millionaire and very wealthy will use a garage some charge over$600 per month. This is America and America is all about freedom and freedom of movement is one of those freedoms. Have you ever thought that someone that lives in the city might want to visit family or friends or go on a day trip outside the city on the weekend and use their car. They might be able to afford a car but not a $600 garage fee. Have you ever thought that some middle class people would like to commute to their job via car and have to park the car at night somewhere. Or any working middle class Americans that wants to use the car for Transportation instead of public transportation. They should have that right. Especially all the craziness going on in NYC subways. There’s a mass exodus out of New York and one of the majorly reasons it’s happening because of high taxes and the government overregulation. Cars have not become obsolete yet. You don’t like cars move to a rural area. Just because you’ll charge people to park over night on the street you won’t eliminate cars you’ll just create another tax on a working stiff. Some of you are obsessed about so called “free street parking” and that’s what really is comical.

Anonymous said...

@8:43PM: Well said! I completely agree with everything you wrote, and thank you for saying it.

If people want to rid NYC of its middle class, the completely insane & irrational hatred of cars (and the ability to park a car) is one big step in that direction.

Anonymous said...

Metered parking and congestion pricing are the obvious solutions and inevitable. There's also ample evidence that dedicating more city space to pedestrians increases local economic activity and, by extension, revenue.

Manhattan at least has adapted well to being more bike and pedestrian friendly. I've been biking down Broadway since ... disco and the current incarnation as a pedestrian mall is packed, pleasant and a big improvement on the gridlock of previous eras.

NOTORIOUS said...

I take the M14A twice a day, 5 days a week, and they are almost always full. Certainly not the 10% you mention.

Anonymous said...

The folks who must be really upset by this are the owners of 2 cars that parked on the west side of Ave A at the intersection of 5th st, between the two crosswalks, just by the arrow in the first photo. From the start of the pandemic in March 2020, they regularly moved their cars to effectively monopolize those 2 spots between the crosswalk for well over two years by squeezing both cars between the crosswalks when they were both there -- and moving one car to the center between the crosswalks so that no other cars could fit when only one was parking. It was both clever & selfish -- and always annoyed me when I couldn't find a parking spot back when I had a car & used street parking & only one of them was taking up 2 spots.

Anonymous said...

No one uses the 14s more than myself, for my work. They're mostly packed from noon to 7pm.

Anonymous said...

For this is not America
Sha la la la la
Sha la la la la
Sha la la la la
This is not America, no
This is not
Sha la la la la

Anonymous said...

lmao at people saying we are gutting the middle class because there is less free on street parking... in Manhattan

Anonymous said...

If There are any restaurant sheds are they coming down? Otherwise what's the point?

XTC said...

Bikescarsbusestruckspeopleanimalsrats....................Can't we all get along?

Anonymous said...

@8:25AM: LMAO at your ignorance of what's driving middle class people out of NYC. I guess you don't recognize that there are FOUR other boroughs, and some of THOSE people (along with some people in Manhattan) NEED to drive their cars for work or medical treatment, and of course they need to park. But I guess you don't know anyone who works an overnight shift at a hospital, do you?

And, for everyone who keeps saying we need metered parking, we fucking DO have metered parking (and have had it since the 1950's); just take a LOOK at parking meters and at the cost of metered parking.

Anonymous said...

Amazing news, and we need more of this! I hope this is sternly enforced and the zone grows to encompass more blocks.

My senior mom takes M14A all the time and it makes my blood boil that her, and so many others especially seniors and workers, get stuck in traffic because vehicles carrying dozens of people are not prioritized over vehicles carrying just 1 or 2. I often mention this anecdote, but a neighbor in her late 70s grimly jokes that she'll have to start wearing diapers when taking the bus to her doctor's appointments. We need to prioritize the needs of many over the needs of the few, especially in this climate crisis.

Anonymous said...

We don't have metered parking until all spots are metered.

Anonymous said...

Thank you @8:43... normal people don't think like this, it's these weird trans-alt bike activists types that troll comment boards, and it's sad. Cars a normal thing and public parking is important to many people. You can't do tons of shit without cars, for work or play. Public parking is really important and is a shared utility, garages are few and far between in NYC and extremely expensive. I guess they don't have friends to take them to the beach, the mountains, outside of the city, carry items for them, etc. Ridiculous extremist views are annoying all around.

Anonymous said...

"Many people who can afford a car are also anti-car.
You're talking to one. "

Perhaps all the anti-car whiners should also stop using Uber/Uber Eats/Lyft and cease ordering crap online, which all clog up the streets with cars trying to make deliveries.

...And if you do support cars for these services, you're riding in an Uber/Lyft and getting your crappy order from a fellow NYer's car they use for WORK. Where are they supposed to park after they done shuffling your lazy a$$ and crap around for the day?