Special Busway On 181st Street Coming To Wash Heights in April

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Friday that a new busway is coming to Washington Heights at the end of April. The new busway will bring bus and truck priority to 181st Street between Broadway and Amsterdam going eastbound, and Amsterdam to Wadsworth going westbound.

The Upper Manhattan busway will launch on April 26.

The traffic in the special lane will be limited to buses, trucks, and emergency vehicles. While all other cars, taxis, and vans must make the next available right turn off the busway if they do enter.

Local access and parking will still be allowed, but improved truck loading and parking meter regulations will be added along with the busway.

The mayor said that the new busway will bring faster bus speeds to 66,000 daily riders in Washington Heights. De Blasio added that 181st Street is one of the "busiest and most congested corridors" in Manhattan, resulting in average bus speeds of less than 4 mph.

For decades, the slow speeds have created unreliable service for bus riders trying to make connections to the A and 1 trains.

"Washington Heights deserves faster, safer, more reliable bus transit. The 181st Street busway will help this iconic neighborhood come back stronger than ever," said de Blasio, in a news release. "Busways have transformed transportation across the city — most recently in Flushing, where the new busway has dramatically increased speed in just two months — and I look forward to bringing these changes to even more neighborhoods citywide."

The Department of Transportation also announced Friday that two months after its launch, the Flushing-Main Street busway in Queens has increased bus speed by 15 to 24 percent during the day, and 13 to 31 percent during the afternoon peak.

“Busways are known to significantly improve bus reliability and efficiency. The 181st busway will help many Northern Manhattan residents and Bronx Residents get to and from their destination without the long waits. My hope is that we can continue expanding busways across the City, predominantly in the outer-borough transit desert areas,” said Council Member and Chairman of the Transportation Committee Ydanis Rodriguez, in the news release.

Before committing to the implementation of the new Washington Heights busway, the DOT formed a Community Advisory Board to guide the project, and also met with Community Board 12, the Washington Heights BID, local elected officials, and community small businesses.