Busway On 14th Street Put On Hold Again

CHELSEA, NY — A plan to ban most private traffic from 14th Street to give priority for crosstown bus routes was thwarted again, just three days before the city planned to implement the street changes.

Days after a judge ruled the bus and truck priority plan could move forward, a group of Chelsea and West Village block associations filed an appeal — once again delaying the so-called "busway."

The city's Department of Transportation is not backing down after a judge granted the appeal Friday, first reported by NY1.

DOT spokesperson Alana Morales said the department is "confident that the Appellate Division court will recognize that petitioners have scant likelihood of success in overturning Judge Rakower’s sound decision, and that we will therefore be allowed to expeditiously implement this critically important mobility and safety project."

The 18-month pilot program would have allowed for trucks and buses only between Third and Eighth avenues from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Private vehicles could turn onto 14th Street for pick-ups and drop-offs, though would have to turn right off the street at the next opportunity.

Mayor Bill de Blasio slammed the appeal — calling it "unbelievable."

"This surprise eleventh-hour decision, forced by a few, means that come Monday, thousands of New Yorkers won’t get the faster and more reliable buses on 14th St. they were expecting," de Blasio wrote on Twitter.

West Village resident and district leader Arthur Schwartz, the lawyer representing the groups, said his appeal could delay a ruling on the busway into 2020, depending on whether the Court of Appeals opts for an expedited hearing schedule.

"The soonest that this gets ruled on by a court is probably January," said Schwartz. Under a non-expedited schedule, he expects a decision by next May or June.

He argued the DOT should be studying how already-implemented bus improvements have sped up the M14A and M14D routes — such as Select Bus Service and street direction changes.

"With all of those changes, my guess is they probably sped things up and they should study it for a couple of months and see if they really needed to go through this radical change," he said.

Transportation groups have been pushing for the busway for months, a plan originally conceived to help out L train riders during repairs.

"For every day that the 14th Street busway is on hold, M14 rush hour commuters lose two weeks worth of time that they will never recover. Time wasted stuck behind cars in stalled traffic is time away from family, friends, work, and New York's civic life," Riders Alliance's policy director Danny Pearlstein said. The groups found that in just about five weeks, a year's worth of time was wasted commuting after the busway was first delayed.

"The irreparable harm to tens of thousands of transit riders that comes of obstructing badly needed bus service improvements mounts with every single day of self-serving litigation from wealthy and powerful precincts surrounding 14th Street," he said.

Additional papers for the motion are due by Aug. 20 for DOT and Aug. 26 for Schwartz and the block associations. Schwartz and the Chelsea and West Village groups plan to hold a rally Wednesday.