Photo: The City Council last week voted in favor of implementing a citywide Select Bus Service plan. The M60 (above), which stretches from Manhattan to LaGuardia Airport in East Elmhurst, is one of seven current SBS routes in the five boroughs. Photo Courtesy of Brooklyn Magazine.
With the administration poised to add a Select Bus Service route to the Woodhaven-Cross Bay corridor, the City Council last week voted in favor of developing a citywide SBS plan.
Under Introduction 211-A, sponsored by Councilman Brad Lander (D-Lander), the city Department of Transportation would work with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and gather input from the public stakeholders to create a five-borough SBS network, which would be due to the Council no later than Sept. 1, 2017. The plan would consider areas of the city in need of additional rapid transit options; strategies for serving growing neighborhoods; potential intra-borough and inter-borough Bus Rapid Transit corridors that DOT plans to establish by 2027; strategies for integrating BRT with other transit routes; and the anticipated operating costs of more BRT lines.
Additionally, DOT would be required to update the Council on the implementation of the plan every two years, through 2027.
Eight SBS lines have been established across the city since 2008, including the M60 Manhattan to LaGuardia Airport route.
“Adding new subway lines would take decades and cost billions,” Lander noted. “Fortunately, a citywide BRT network—with more of the features like protected lanes, center medians, and stations that characterize the best BRT—is something we can afford and implement.”
By Michael V. Cusenza michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
