Delays To 14th St Busway Wastes Year Of Rider's Time, Groups Say

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Legal battles over a plan to block private traffic along 14th Street to improve the crosstown corridor's bus route are wasting bus riders' time, two transportation groups argued Monday.

A court-imposed delay on the plan has forced bus riders' to be stuck in traffic for nearly a year's worth of hours in just five weeks, the Riders' Alliance and Transportation Alternatives said. The two groups planned to file court papers Monday about their calculations and support for the so-called "busway."

"It's not just about the technical details here — it's about people's lives and people's time," said Danny Pearlstein of the Riders' Alliance.

The de Blasio administration planned to bring a bus and truck priority pilot program to 14th Street July 1 in order to speed up the M14 routes.

A group of West Village, Chelsea and Flatiron neighbors sued to stop the plan — and it was temporarily thwarted by a judge days before it would have been implemented.

Since then, TransAlt and the Riders Alliance found bus riders have lost more than 8,600 hours of time.

"A year's worth of time," said Pearlstein. "We could've been celebrating [and] gaining that use of time."

The groups noted bus riders earn an average of $28,500 a year, while the per capita income in Chelsea and the West Village is in the six-figures, according to papers expected to be filed Monday.

"Make no mistake, this is class warfare being waged by the 1 percent," said Philip Leff, an organizer with Transportation Alternatives. Pearlstein said, "Rich people have wasted over a year of poor people's time."

The busway was expected to block most private traffic between Third and Eighth avenues 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., first conceived to assist L train riders during the Canarsie tunnel repairs. Private vehicles would be able to pick-up and drop-off on the corridor so long as drivers turn off the street at the next block.

Arthur Schwartz, the lawyer and West Village district leader who filed the lawsuit against the city, has argued added traffic would overflow on narrower crosstown streets north and south of 14th Street. He says the city did not adequately investigate the environmental consequences from the shifted traffic, which would increase by about 60 to 90 percent, Schwartz said in court papers.

"This is not class war, it is about the lungs and ears and neighborhood character of rent-regulated tenants," Schwartz said by email. He added other street fixes speed up the M14 — like no left turns, no right turns on Broadway, and closing Union Square West.

The M14 also recently implemented a select bus service route, which was anticipated to launch along with the transit and truck priority plan before a judge temporarily halted it.

The groups calculated the wasted time by multiplying how many bus riders ride during morning, morning, eastbound and westbound rush hours by the city's projected time savings along the routes with bus priority in place.

Most of the time savings would have been on the eastbound evening rush house — nearly nine minutes per bus trip or 185 hours sitting in traffic during that rush hour direction alone since July 1, according to the groups' memo.

A court date is slated for Tuesday regarding the busway.