MTR 298, Gowanus HOV Lane: Why Wait for Worse ?

Mobilizing the Region
Issue 298 December 18, 2000

Gowanus HOV Lane: Why Wait for Worse ?

The NY State Dept. of Transportation seems in a bad muddle over how to manage carpool lanes. The Department has told the Campaign it is hesitant to change rules governing access to the Gowanus Expressway carpool lane. The lane now permits any car with two people in it to use the special lane. That policy has led to congestion, as more and more cars use the lane. But the vast majority of passengers traveling through the lane are in express buses - many transit users are suffering a slower and less reliable commute because of a relatively small number of cars. DOT says its reluctance to change the rules to bus-only or three-per-car stems from concern that some traffic will be displaced to local streets and jammed general highway lanes.

On the other hand, regarding more stringent access rules for the Gowanus HOV lane, the DOT's New York City regional director told the Staten Island Advance last week that, because of traffic growth, "it'll have to be done sometime."

DOT seems to want to wait until the HOV lane gets as bad as the rest of the Gowanus, which the AAA calls the worst highway in America. As it is, DOT says buses and carpools are only moving an average of 22 mph now, and some bus drivers say it's slower than that. When the HOV-2 lane finally fails, will the issue of traffic diversion go away? No, it will be worse. Why wait and make the move as painful as possible? DOT should do the right thing now and make the Gowanus special lane into a real express route for bus riders.

NY State DOT's LITP 2000 study purports to be a 20-year transportation strategy for Long Island, but it's been dubbed the "Long Island Total Paving" plan by environmentalists. Its main recommendation is construction of a huge network of HOV lanes and development of a new Long Island express bus system. DOT says the HOV lanes would be managed to ensure free-flowing conditions at all times for the buses. But DOT's willingness to let Gowanus express bus riders stew in bad HOV traffic appears to belie that promise, and further erodes the credibility of the LITP plan.