But the point of developing a bus-only lane is not to "fill" it, it's to allow buses to provide transit riders with fast, reliable service. Good service over an unobstructed bus-way will attract more riders, leading transit officials to add service over time.

The comment seems to come from a culture that can't stand the idea of a highway-related facility that isn't packed with cars and trucks. That may be a good reason to build a "guided busway" system along the Expressway, since the bus track or narrow lane such a system uses is not suited to general car and truck use.

Any general highway capacity NYSDOT adds to the SIE will fill with traffic in short order. Opening a new fourth lane to cars, on the premise that someday it will be reserved for buses, would be a disaster. The state will never summon the political will needed to remove the cars once motorists have been given use of the new lane. NYSDOT is having a hard enough time imposing tighter carpool or bus-only rules on the Gowanus Expressway, where cars in the HOV lane are clearly bogging down the vast majority of the lane's users, who ride Manhattan-bound express buses.