Officials are studying a proposal to implement select bus service from Rockaway to Elmhurst. Image courtesy NYC Department of Transportation
Implementing what is known as “select bus service” on Cross Bay and Woodhaven boulevards would help alleviate congestion on a stretch of roadway notorious for its high rate of crashes and heavy traffic, city officials said at a Community Board 10 meeting last week.
Representatives from the city Department of Transportation presented information about the city’s proposal to transform Cross Bay and Woodhaven boulevards into a select bus service, or SBS, area in an attempt to decrease traffic congestion and travel time by, for example, allowing riders to pay off-board and creating bus-only lanes.
City officials said implementing select bus service along Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards would help to decrease congestion on the busy roadways. Photo by Anna Gustafson
“Woodhaven Boulevard is really not like any other street in the city,” said Eric Beaton, director of transit development at the city DOT. “..There are very, very high rates of crashes. It’s a very hard street for anyone to cross.”
Calling implementing SBS on Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards a “big priority,” DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg has said such a plan could make life safer, and easier, for the approximate 30,000 riders who travel along the boulevards each day.
According to DOT representatives, the city has a short-term plan to implement in 2014 offset bus lanes between Eliot Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue in the northern portion of the corridor, and curbside bus lanes going northbound approaching Liberty Avenue and southbound approaching Rockaway Avenue.
The dedicated lane for buses and right turns from Metropolitan to Eliot avenues along Woodhaven Boulevard would be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. The curbside bus lanes approaching Liberty Avenue and Rockaway Boulevard would also be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Parking would still be allowed in the curbside lanes when they are not in effect.
“We know parking can be an issue,” Beaton said.
In addition to the short-term plans, city officials have said they aim to install select bus service running along Cross Bay and Woodhaven boulevards from Rockaway to Elmhurst in the future.
“This is something that will take place over the course of several years,” Beaton said of SBS. “We’re really at the beginning of the process right now.”
Some members of CB 10 expressed concerns over the lanes taking up parking spaces, particularly along Cross Bay Boulevard.
“We have a lot of commercial strips where people depend on people parking at the meters and going into their stores,” said CB 10 Vice President John Calcagnile. “In Howard Beach,t hey depend on that curbside parking.”
Beaton stressed that the DOT would work with the businesses on this issue.
“We don’t want to impact the businesses,” he said.
Other residents said they would rather see the city focus on reactivating the Rockaway Beach Rail Line, which once ran from the peninsula to Rego Park – though DOT officials at the CB 10 meeting said there is no funding in the foreseeable future for the project.
“People are losing their life while traveling from the Rockaways,” John Fazio, a CB 10 member, said in reference to the up to two hours a Rockaway resident can spend commuting from the peninsula to Manhattan, or areas of Queens.
For more information about the city’s plans and to see a copy of the DOT’s presentation given at CB 10, visit http://www.nyc.gov/html/brt/html/routes/woodhaven.shtml.
By Anna Gustafson
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