DOT adds new 2nd Avenue offset bus lane

This past week, the DOT started adding markings along the freshly paved Second Avenue. 

As previously reported, the new-look Second Avenue would include shifting the curbside bus lane to an offset bus lane to help speed up travel times...

From a DOT press release in June: 

Second Avenue serves the M15 local and SBS route—the city's busiest bus route with 57,000 daily riders. To improve bus service, NYC DOT will be moving the existing curbside bus lane on Second Avenue one lane over — known as an offset bus lane. This redesign will keep the bus lane clear while better accommodating deliveries on the corridor. 

The offset bus lane design will allow NYC DOT to upgrade bus lane operations to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, providing consistent, reliable, and dedicated space for buses to move quicker while reducing bus lane blocking. (The current operations of the curbside bus lane are weekdays from 7-10 a.m. and 2-7 p.m., originally put in place to accommodate commercial loading and overnight parking.) 

Upgrading curbside bus lanes to offset lanes has shown to improve safety for vulnerable road users in addition to improving bus service. 

According to Streetsblog in June, bus speeds in lower Manhattan "have cratered to under 7 miles per hour on 81 percent of buses that run during the afternoon rush."

First Avenue through the East Village also has an offset bus lane.

Noted (again)

As noted on Saturday... the booted Subaru (without plates) remains booted in the bus lane (sung to the tune of "Sandy" aka "Stranded at the Drive-In") outside 35 Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street. 

A reader has said the city towed the car here and left ahead of the milling on Third Street last week. So it has been here since at least Thursday.

Saturday's opening shot

BOOTED IN THE BUS LANE! Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street. 

Shouldn't be an inconvenience for buses or street cleaners...

Updated:

An interesting theory from a reader... this car with the boot had been on Third Street, and the city towed it ahead of the milling the other night... why the tow-truck operator left it in the bus lane...?

Tuesday's parting shot

City crews tonight are painting the new southbound M14 bus lane on Avenue A... starting at Fifth Street and going down to Houston. 

Read more about this here.

Prepping Avenue A for a new dedicated bus lane

Photos by Stacie Joy 

The DOT has started putting down the markings for the new dedicated southbound bus lane for the M14A on Avenue A below Fifth Street... 

As previously noted, parking is no longer allowed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. seven days a week in select corridors on Avenue A and Avenue D. (The bus lanes have already been marked on D.) 

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.)

There's also a budding sinkhole on Avenue A at Second Street that could swallow a bus that Keanu and Sandra couldn't even save...

This likely makes sense to some city administrator

This past summer, workers tore up First Avenue between First Street and Second Street to put in sidewalk extensions (bus bulbs!) for the M15 and the Select Bus Service.

Flashback!

In August, the MTA added the M15 Select Bus ticket machines on First and First. All good, right?

Apparently not. Today, workers were back ripping up the freshly repaved Avenue...

Noted

The Bus Lane/Bike Lane Cycling Crew was out this morning.... not all that noteworthy...




...except that when the cyclists got to the light at 14th Street and First Avenue.... the lead cyclist went through the red light... and waited for his/her colleagues on the other side of the street...

Bus lane blockage question

An EV Grieve reader sends along this (admittedly, blurry) photo of the First Avenue bus lane... asking if they city will issue this work crew a fine for blocking the bus lane...

City will now bust your ass if you stop in the bus lane

Via CBS New York: Starting today, if you’re caught on camera in a First and Second Avenue bus lane during restricted hours, you can be fined by mail for between $115 and $150. You’re also not allowed to off-load anything in the lanes during posted hours.