Comments on: An Upper East Side BRT update and the weekend advisories

By: Select Bus Service Public Open Houses | Upper Green Side

Select Bus Service Public Open Houses | Upper Green Side — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:05:17 +0000

[...] a quick refresher, hop over to Second Ave Sagas to catch the recap I wrote of last week’s CB8 SBS Public Forum. And while your on the subject, check out Ben [...]

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:06:11 +0000

Interesting. Thanks!

By: Streetsblog New York City » Details on East Side SBS Come Into Focus at CB 8 Meeting

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:09:44 +0000

[...] Michael Auerbach, who's doing some fantastic livable streets advocacy at Upper Green Side, filed a report for Second Ave Sagas about how Select Bus Service will function alongside the subway construction zones on Second [...]

By: Streetsblog New York City » Today’s Headlines

Streetsblog New York City » Today’s Headlines — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:01:10 +0000

[...] How Will East Side Bus Lanes Co-exist With Second Ave Subway Construction? (SAS) [...]

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:23:34 +0000

The nearest connections to any other trackway on the A line at fulton is the 6th ave line at either jay st or west 4th, so it must go through the station.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:49 +0000

“You don’t really need to close 2nd to cars – you could turn both avenues to two-way, and put dedicated bus lanes in one and dedicated bike lanes in the other. The bike lane avenue would have room for 4 driving lanes, and the bus lane avenue would have room for 2-3. It would more or less keep vehicle access for deliveries and to satisfy the obligatory “What, people walk here?” NIMBYs, while improving sustainable transportation’s travel times.”

I like this idea alot, and it is the direction the city should be thinking in.

Even though I don’t have a car, I actually like the city highway network, if only for the reason that cars on the BQE and FDR drive don’t bother me when I am trying to walk around and do errands (I live around the probably unfixable traffic mess surrounding the Queensboro bridge). But I’d like to see an equivalent network of bike trails and one for busses, some of the bike trails could be run through areas where there currently isn’t auto traffic.

If you subdivide 2nd Avenue and 1st Avenue, you essentially create three separate roads out of both, one for cars moving uptown, one for cars moving downtown, and one for busses or bikes moving in both directions. Access to the bus stops in the middle would initially be just by crossing the car portion of the street at the light, though if this works some pedestrian bridges could be put in.

However, the DOT has coordinated the traffic lights on at least 2nd Avenue to make it sort of a duplicate expressway to the FDR drive. If you are driving, its now often quicker to just go down 2nd Avenue than to go all the way to the FDR drive, if there is no gridlock there is a good chance you will get the light most of the way. This probably relieves congestion on the FDR drive. While there is room on the avenue to essentially create three normal one way city streets, you would lose this feature. I think its worth it, but its a possible cost.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:05:23 +0000

You don’t really need to close 2nd to cars – you could turn both avenues to two-way, and put dedicated bus lanes in one and dedicated bike lanes in the other. The bike lane avenue would have room for 4 driving lanes, and the bus lane avenue would have room for 2-3. It would more or less keep vehicle access for deliveries and to satisfy the obligatory “What, people walk here?” NIMBYs, while improving sustainable transportation’s travel times.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:59:19 +0000

LA is not a good example of anything. Its entire transit system is built with staggering levels of incompetence, from the route and technology decisions to the integration with future rail projects.

Go to, um, anywhere in the world that isn’t in the US, and you’ll see signal priority work quite well.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:53:59 +0000

Every time I see that phrase, “bypassing Fulton Street-Broadway Nassau”, I wonder—is it actually bypassing it, or just going right by the platform without stopping? I’d assume the latter, but considering how many different non-revenue tracks there seem to be around that I don’t know about, it doesn’t seem like a guarantee. Unfortunately, I have no earthly excuse to take a Queens-bound A most weekends, so I haven’t been able to find out the most obvious way.

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:45:09 +0000

I really like the idea of making First Ave. a two-way street and turning 2nd Ave. into a bike-and-bus only avenue. The local businesses would never agree to it, but it would be a radical change. And it would result in massively improved travel times.