L Train Repairs Will Close 14th Street To Most Private Cars

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Most private vehicles will be banned on 14th Street during an 18-month bus priority program being put in place during disruption caused by L train repairs.

Most traffic will be banned on the street between Third and Ninth avenues starting in June to speed up bus routes along the corridor, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced.

The bus priority upgrades will come more than a month after the L train 'slowdown' begins on Apr. 26— when the L will only run every 20 or so minutes on weeknights and weekends.

AMNew York first reported the car ban. Plans have been in flux for months since the original plan to completely shutdown the L train was altered in January.

Under de Blasio's pilot program, 14th Street will have transit and truck priority. Buses, trucks and emergency vehicles will be able to use 14th Street between Third and Ninth avenues as a through-route. Private vehicles can access the street for pick-ups and drop-ups, but must turn right at the next possible intersection. Left turns will be banned.

The new bus priority plan will coincide with the M14 Select Bus Service route in June, according to the Mayor's office.

"We have an opportunity to try something new and really get bus riders moving on one of our busiest streets," de Blasio said.

"As we continue to address congestion across New York City, this is an experiment that, if successful, could provide us another tool to move buses faster and save people vulnerable time for the things that matter."

Courtesy of the Mayor's Office

Other changes include:

• Bike lanes along Grand Street in Brooklyn will be made permanent. DOT will modify parts of the bike lanes to include metered parking and loading zones.
• Bike lanes along 12th and 13th streets in Manhattan will be made permanent. More delineators and loading zones will be added.
• University Place will become a "shared-street" between West 13th and 14th streets.
• Union Square West between West 14th and 15th streets and West 16th and 17th streets will remain closed to traffic.

The original L train shutdown plan was expected to include a so-called "busway" 17-hours of the day in order to help move buses along the crosstown corridor, particularly the M14, which is among the slowest bus route in the city.

But Gov. Andrew Cuomo overhauled the plan with a team of experts who presented a new way of making the upgrades without fully shutting down the train. An MTA official said the busway would likely be scrapped.

The new plan allows truck traffic along 14th Street, but restricts private vehicles from crossing more than one block along the corridor.

Transit advocates have been pushing for the de Blasio administration to keep the busway along 14th Street. Others in the West Village and Chelsea had opposed a busway — fearing traffic on 14th Street would be pushed to smaller side-streets.

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

Since the L train will be running during rush hours and the previous plan to run some 80 buses across 14th Street has been drastically altered, Pearlstein anticipates there would be room for trucks and deliveries alongside buses.

But, since the city has more than one month before the changes go into effect, he hopes the city is open to fine-tuning the plan.

Borough President Gale Brewer applauded the bus priority plan — but said she supports keeping local stops along the select bus route for the M14, a point of contention among East Village and Lower East Side locals and politicians who want the proposal to retain local stops along with an express SBS route.

“I am pleased that there will be bus priority on 14 Street, as well as deliveries, and that the nearly 30,000 riders who use the M14 route will move quickly to and from their destinations," Brewer said. "I am also in favor of local stops on the Lower East Side where the M14A/D is essentially the only transportation available to many residents who are older and low-income, but I congratulate DOT and MTA on the overall proposal.”