The busway pilot on Jay Street launched on Aug. 31. Photo by Kevin Duggan
City launches Jay
Street busway
COURIER LIFE, SEPT. 4–10, 2020 3
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
City transit honchos debuted
their newest busway project on
Jay Street on Aug 31, clearing
the usually-busy thoroughfare
of car traffi c in favor of bikes
and public transportation.
“I was expecting it to be a lot
busier and coming down Jay
Street was actually the easiest
part of ride over here,” said Lauren
Lowe as she unlocked her bicycle
at MetroTech around 1 pm.
“There are defi nitely less cars.”
The Department of Transportation
closed off 0.4 miles of
the roadway between Livingston
and Tillary streets to throughtraffi
c for cars starting Aug. 31
between 7 am and 7 pm on weekdays,
in order to speed up travel
times for buses, trucks, dropoffs,
and cyclists.
Local access for cars is still
available on the roadway via
Willoughby Street and the
MetroTech Roadway underpass
coming from the east, and a reconfi
gured Johnson Street from
the west.
The agency has also fl ipped
Johnson Street which now goes
eastbound, and plans to add a
two-way bike lane connecting
Jay Street to Adams Street and
the Brooklyn Bridge.
The busway, which was
planned as a one-year pilot, follows
the widely-praised project
on Manhattan’s 14th Street last
year, and lives just blocks from
Brooklyn’s original busway on
the Fulton Mall, which dates
back to the 1980s.
The transit agency hasn’t yet
painted the road in the busway’s
signature red color, but new
signs indicate that there is no
entry for through-traffi c while
two traffi c agents with the Police
Department were stationed
diverting cars at either end of
the fi ve-block stretch.
Cops also conducted a sweep
of ticketing for cars that were illegally
parked and were telling
idling drivers in the bus stop at
MetroTech to move away.
One Uber driver said he liked
the busway, because it made it
easier for buses to zip through
the downtown strip.
“It’s a good idea because it
gives more space for buses,” said
Frederico Hereras.
After the ticketing blitz was
over, some idling motorists still
blocked bike lanes and some vehicle
lanes, especially between
Johnson and Tillary streets,
forcing bikers to swerve into
traffi c.
One commuter worried that
the restrictions will make it
diffi cult for those getting to the
central business district by car,
especially seniors accessing retirement
services or running errands.
“It’s going to be hard, a lot of
people come down here by car
to the bank and for retirement
services,” said Jay Jackson. “It’s
going to be bad for them.”
The Jay Street busway is the
fi rst of fi ve which Mayor Bill de
Blasio announced back in June,
with two in Queens and Manhattan
held up after local businesses
pushed back against the
city’s proposals.
DOT Commissioner Polly
Trottenberg said that the project
in America’s Downtown
was the easiest to get through
with little resistance from the
area’s local leaders.
“We were laughing that we’ve
never had a bus project that was
liked as much as this one,” said
Department of Transportation
Commissioner Polly Trottenberg
at an Aug. 27 press conference.
“Compared to some of the
other projects, they’re going to
take a little longer, we’re going
to work through some more contentious
politics.”
FARE! MTA’s ‘doomsday’ fare hikes
by as much as a full dollar,
accompanied by a 40%
reduction in overall transit
service. That could be
avoided if the federal government
steps in with billions
of dollars in aid.
Transit advocate
groups have panned the
idea of a fare hike as counter
productive to increasing
ridership on the subways
and buses.
However, revenues from
fares dropped considerably
during the COVID-19
pandemic, which has kept
most riders away — leaving
the agency even shorter on
funds than usual.
Most riders inside the
subway at Atlantic Terminal
in Brooklyn rejected
the idea of a possible fare
hike, saying the additional
cost wasn’t acceptable for
a public transit system.
“We don’t like it,” said
resident Tanisha Alnon,
who was with her two children,
daughter Maya and
son Natay on Aug. 26. “It’s
too much money.”
Other locals bemoaned
the idea of a fare hike, but
understood the MTA had
a fi nancial problem maintaining
the transit system.
“It’s like everything
else, it’s greed, they’re
sucking us all dry. During
the pandemic, there
was a problem, yes, they
didn’t get the money and
they were giving a free
ride,” said Brooklynite
Kits Karth, who worried
that the subway could
soon become unaffordable.
“They will keep raising
it and raising it, where
are we supposed to get the
money?”
One traveler hoped that
an increased fare could
improve subway service,
which has lagged in recent
years.
“It may be worth the extra
dollar for better service,”
said straphanger
Marisa Lozano of the
Bronx. “But then, I don’t
ride the trains that much.
Maybe the extra dollar
will do something.”