Chelsea, West Village Groups Sue To Stop 14th Street Busway

CHELSEA, NY — A group of Chelsea and West Village block associations and cooperative buildings are suing to stop the city from implementing a pilot program on 14th Street aimed at speeding up bus service.

Arthur Schwartz, a district leader and lawyer, filed a lawsuit against Department of Transportation Commission Polly Trottenberg Thursday afternoon — arguing the busway plans as well as crosstown bike lanes on 12th and 13th streets would "threaten the wellbeing of residents" in Greenwich Village, Chelsea, and the Flatiron District, the suit says.

The lawsuit argues that the city is not properly following environmental review regulations regarding the plans.

"The Plans being addressed here are the government thumbing its nose at the views of residents and the character of three neighborhoods in order to speed up busses by one or two miles per hour and promote use of bicyclists," the lawsuit, first reported by Streetsblog, says.

Schwartz and other groups argue the 14th Street plan — which would bar private traffic from traveling down 14th St. unless picking up or dropping off people — would reroute traffic to streets north and south of the crosstown corridor.

"The traffic will bring with it air pollution and noise pollution. The streets will be harder to cross," says the lawsuit, which includes the Council of Chelsea Block Associations, Flatiron Alliance, Inc., and myriad other groups and co-op buildings long opposed to the transit upgrades associated with the L train repairs.

The lawsuit is a last-ditch effort from those opposed to the transit and bike infrastructure improvements to stop the plan from going into effect July 1.

Come Monday, the city plans to transform the corridor to make buses run quicker, particularly while the L train is being repaired.

Most private cars would be banned 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. during an 18-month pilot program and the M14 bus route would be made into a select bus service route. The SBS route would allow for bus riders to get tickets at fare machines on the sidewalk and board at all doors — fixes aimed at speeding up the notoriously slow bus.

Schwartz did not respond to Patch on Monday for comment, but he told Gothamist that he "never heard anything bad about the 14th Street buses."

As reported by Gothamist, he said, "Who uses the bus? ... The people who live in the area would rather have a slow bus than have traffic and soot and noise on their streets."

The M14A/D routes serve 27,000 people daily, the city's Law Department said.

"The claims have no merit," Law Department spokesman Nick Paolucci said.

"DOT stands by this pilot project which will improve pedestrian safety along a Vision Zero Priority Corridor with seven priority intersections and will improve bus speeds by as much as 30% for the 27,000 daily riders. DOT followed all applicable procedures and should be allowed to complete this initiative," Paolucci said.

Previously, the "busway" was floated to help mitigate disruptions during the L train shutdown. Then Gov. Andrew Cuomo presented a plan to make L tunnel upgrades without fully shutting down the train in January. The busway was in flux for months until the de Blasio administration announced the city would launch a "transit and truck priority" pilot program to transform the congested street.

When the de Blasio administration announced the changes, transit groups welcomed the news.

Danny Pearlstein of the Riders' Alliance previously told Patch, "This is a really big step forward for New York, and it means that ... L riders will have a really solid and subway-like alternative to get across town because there will be a busway there."