The city wants to bring a 14th Street-style busway to an eight-block stretch of 34th Street that would ban most passenger vehicles from the corridor to speed up Midtown bus and truck traffic.
But the throughfare’s influential business improvement district is on the fence and nervous about what a busway between 3rd and 9th avenues could mean for retail operations. That could spell trouble for the 34th Street busway project, especially after the Adams administration in 2023 scrapped a similar effort on Fordham Road in the Bronx over opposition from area businesses.
If the Department of Transportation gets its way the city will restrict through traffic on eight of the 14 blocks that make up the 34th Street corridor to only buses and delivery trucks as soon as late summer, according to transit officials who pitched the plan to Manhattan Community Board 5 Monday. Drivers of passenger cars would still be allowed to turn on to 34th Street, but they would have to take the first available turn off the road. The idea is to reduce congestion and speed up trips for the 28,000 daily riders who visit the corridor on the M34 bus route and for trucks delivering to nearby businesses.
Transit planners say they’ve modeled the project after a busway on 14th Street between 3rd and 9th avenues, which took effect in 2019, sped up the roadway’s bus line by 24% and had little effect on shops, according to the city. The 34th Street corridor is a natural successor for the program given that the average weekday bus speed can be as slow as 3 miles per hour, said Rachel Eisenberg, the busway project’s manager at the city’s Transportation Department.
“This is really the heart of the commercial area,” said Eisenberg. “Even though we’re only looking at changes along 34th Street, we know that its unique position in the heart of Manhattan between two major tunnels, that this has impacts on traffic much larger than just the corridor.”
The idea, however, has some area businesses on edge. Dan Biederman, executive director of the 34th Street Partnership, which represents companies on and surrounding the thoroughfare, told Crain’s that the early reaction from its board of directors is “split.”
To gauge where board members stand (among them leaders in real estate, finance and hospitality), the Partnership in March took what Biederman described as “a secret poll” on whether people are supportive of a potential 34th Street busway. More than half of the 20 people who responded do not currently support the concept, said Biederman.
“They’re not saying no, but they’re not saying yes either,” said Biederman, who declined to name the companies the BID has consulted so far. Those who are skeptical say they’re confused by the busway’s rules and need more information on how the model would work on 34th Street, he added. The general mood among members, said Biederman, is “cautious, not totally negative, but not sure it’s a good thing for the street.”
“When you deal with anything that changes the property owner’s way of doing business, you sometimes find surprising results,” said Biederman. “They might be sympathetic in the end, once they’ve absorbed that a busway on 34th would give more priority to big vehicles.”
East Side City Council member Keith Powers, whose district includes part of the proposed busway, said he’s optimistic that the corridor’s businesses can be won over. DOT is in the process of conducting a traffic analysis on the potential impact of a 34th Street busway to share with locals and says it will refine its proposal based on community input.
“The first step in this process, if we move forward, is to make sure we have all the stakeholders around the table to address any concerns that come up,” Powers said in an interview.
“We don’t want to do this if it’s not going to be successful for the businesses,” Powers added, “but I am confident that if we can bring more people to 34th Street because they believe in riding the bus, it will be a long term success for folks who live and work in the area.”
West Side Council member Erik Bottcher, whose district also includes the busway, did not return calls for comment.
Much of the community is already on board with a busway. In March, the leaders of Manhattan Community Boards 4, 5 and 6 sent a letter to Mayor Adams and DOT asking the city to implement a busway along the entire length of 34th Street. (Eisenberg said Monday that the agency settled on eight blocks that make up the corridor’s core commercial sector.)
The chair and transportation committee chair of each of the three Manhattan community boards argued in the letter that the busway project would “significantly improve the efficiency and livability of 34th Street for both commuters and pedestrians.”
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought to convert the entire stretch of 34th Street into a bus-only thoroughfare, but scrapped the plan due to fierce opposition from residents and community boards that now say they support the project.
But a lot has changed since then and the project is perhaps more palatable following the January launch of congestion pricing, which tolls most motorists entering Manhattan south of 60th Street to reduce traffic.
The wildcard now is Mayor Adams, whose administration has earned a reputation for stalling projects that would set aside a greater share of the city’s crowded streets for bus riders. That’s perhaps nowhere more visible than on Fordham Road, where the Adams administration backed down from a street redesign for speedier bus service on the commercial corridor in 2023 after a pressure campaign from local businesses and institutions, including Fordham University, the New York Botanical Garden and St. Barnabas Hospital Health System.
