Advocates call on de Blasio to honor bus plans
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,BTR AUG. 13-19, 2021 35
BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
Every weekday, Desiree
Walker said she has to carve
out 40-50 minutes to wait for
the South Bronx-bound Bx4A
bus. Walker, a lifelong resident
of the borough, said that
relying on Bronx buses is “an
everyday nightmare.”
With experiences like
Walker’s commonplace, transit
advocates are now calling
on outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio,
a Democrat, to uphold his
promise to install 28 miles of
new and improved busways
and bus lanes in 2021 and improve
a transit infrastructure
in the Bronx that has led to infamously
long wait times and
congested roads.
“The Mayor promised 28
miles of new and improved
busways this year and so
we’re trying to hold him accountable
to that promise by
putting his toes to the fi re,”
said Jolyse Race, senior organizer
for transit advocacy
group Riders Alliance. “I’m
not sure if any of the Bronx
bus projects have been implemented
yet and he promises
20 miles last year and
only 13 were completed, so he
has a history of not following
throughout his promises.”
Offi cials from transit
groups such as Riders Alliance,
who took part in an
Aug. 4 rally in Fordham, say
that solutions such as car-free
busways and lane conversions
will alleviate high-congestion
areas such as Fordham Road,
Gun Hill Road, Story Avenue
and University Avenue.
New York’s northernmost
borough has a 57-bus transit
network that serves more
than 79,000 people who commute
between the hours of
midnight and 5 a.m, which
was the highest in the city, according
to pre-pandemic Census
data. The Bronx is also
home to two of the busiest bus
routes in the city, the Bx 12
and Bx19, which had a total
ridership of 7.9 million and 5.4
million in 2020, respectively.
The Bronx and Staten Island
are the only boroughs in
the city that do not have carfree
busways — a de Blasio administration
effort that constructed
20 miles of bus lanes
and car-free busways in Manhattan,
Brooklyn and Queens
in 2020 — which reportedly
improved travel times for
busy bus routes such as the
M14 route by 47%.
Advocates say that if carfree
busways were implemented
at Fordham Road,
one of the busiest Bronx roadways,
it would go a long way
in reducing traffi c accidents
and improving the borough’s
environmental health.
Transportation Alternatives
is one of 80 organizations
that is promoting an initiative
called 25×25, which seeks to
transform 25% of NYC’s car
space into pedestrian spaces
by 2025.
More than 75% of New
York City’s current 91-square
mileage of street space is dedicated
to moving and parked
vehicles, despite 54.6% of the
city’s population not owning
a vehicle. According to transportation
advocates, only
0.2% of NYC streetscapes are
reserved for car-bus lanes and
0.93% for bike lanes.
“The Bronx is the only
borough along with Staten
Island that doesn’t have carfree
busways and we need it
in the Bronx because a majority
of people who live here
don’t own a car,” said Luke Zavados,
a member of Transportation
Alternatives. “We need
a more equitable distribution
of street space in New York
City.
Under the city Department
of Transportation’s “Better
Buses Action Plan,” current
projects are underway to add
an eastbound contrafl ow bus
lane on the busy Westchester
Avenue between the Burr
Avenue bus route in Pelham
Bay and improving bus speed,
bus reliability and pedestrian
safety along Story Avenue,
Bronx River Avenue and
White Plains Road.
In 2020, two Bronx bus
projects — added boarding islands
and protected bike lanes
to Edward L. Grant Highway
and traffi c improvements on
East 149th Street from Exterior
Street to Southern Boulevard—
were completed.
As a part of the MTA’s
citywide bus network redesign
plan — which started in
Staten Island in 2018 — the
Bronx was set for bus route
improvements in the summer
of 2020 but COVID-19 brought
those plans to a screeching
halt.
MTA did unveil a fi nal plan
for Bronx bus network improvements
which called for
bus stop removals and lane alterations
along the Eastchester
Road to Broadway routes
and more improvements to
reduce congestion and wait
times along the busy Story
Avenue and University Avenue
routes.
Sonia Vazquez, who commutes
on the West Farmsbound
Bx9 told the Bronx
Times that her work-to-home
commutes are often packed
with riders who have to wait
nearly 30 minutes for a bus to
arrive.
“If I see the bus go past
the 3 Avenue/East Fordham
Road station, I know I should
just call a Lyft because that
bus ain’t coming for another
30-35 minutes and I’ll be late
to work,” she said. “People
don’t understand a late bus
can affect your paycheck or be
the difference in you missing
a doctor’s appointment.”
For Bronx offi cials, investment
in the Bronx’s transit infrastructure
has been historically
lacking.
“The city invests a lot
in terms of hiring the best
transportation experts and
creating the best commuting
environments downtown, but
we don’t see the same in the
Bronx,” said Democratic NYC
Councilman Oswald Feliz, of
District 15. “The bus problem
we have in Fordham Road is
the best example. We’ve had
congestion for decades, with
very little time and investment
to fi x and we need equitable
transportation for all
parts of the city.”
Fixing bus routes is also a
systemic issue, advocates say,
as bus riders are more likely
to be people of color, immigrants
and older than subway
riders, according to year-byyear
MTA demographic data.
“Unreliable buses also
cause fi nancial harm as
c0mmuters lose wages,” said
Michael Beltzer, a community
organizer. “Bus service in the
Bronx is so slow that I had
to bike to Fordham Plaza
from Parkchester because a
bus would take 40 minutes
and that’s not right. Time after
time, I face long and convoluted
commutes, wait for
a bus that is out of service or
is stuck behind cars and long
stop lights.”‘
Ridership dropped precipitously
in the early months of
the pandemic — roughly 40%
in March — but has recovered
and is regularly averaging
more than 1 million trips
since July 2020, representing
more than half of bus pre-pandemic
ridership, according to
the MTA in April of this year.
Advocates say that with
NYC schools reopening, bus
ridership will continue to approach
pre-pandemic ridership,
making the bus projects
promised by de Blasio a
timely matter for riders and
the next administration attempting
to tackle the city’s
evergreen transit issues.
“Buses became an important
means of transportation
for essential workers during
the pandemic, and that ridership
is only going to increase
with students heading back to
school in-person,” said Race,
of the Riders Alliance. “The
promises that the Mayor has
made can help the next administration
build upon an
equitable transit system for
all New Yorkers.”
A rally was held in the Fordham
section where transit advocates
demanded improvements to bus
infrastructure throughout the borough.
Photos Adrian Childress
NYC Councilman Oswald Feliz joins transit advocates on Fordham Road
on Aug. 4, 2021, to call on Mayor Bill de Blasio to honor promises he made
to add 28 miles of bus lanes and parkways.