Ideas for immediate and medium-term measures to further ease the transportation crunch in the city and the region are being developed from many quarters. 

Downtown interests say that it is absolutely critical to get the downtown PATH tunnel and station operating as soon as possible. The PATH's existence has forged a symbiotic relationship between residential areas in the northern New Jersey and downtown jobs. Commuters from NJ to lower Manhattan are now facing much longer commutes, even with a very strong performance on the part of ferry operators to fill part of the gap. 

NJ Transit trains have seen big ridership increases and severe crowding and parking problems since the disaster and the subsequent implementation of the Manhattan crossings carpool rule. One idea to increase NJ Transit capacity is to open up more Penn Station slots for NJ commuter trains. That might be accomplished by eliminating the lengthy station dwell times typical of many Amtrak trains or by diverting some Long Island Railroad trains to the Long Island City terminal, where they could be met by ferries destined for lower Manhattan.

Another is to run additional express bus services from areas near NJ Transit train stations. That might require additional bus-priority or bus-only capacity at the Lincoln Tunnel. North Jersey towns are scrambling for train station parking space and possibly additional station-jitney services.

To complement the Manhattan carpool rule, NYC and the MTA could increase express bus services from outer boroughs, and move buses through the bridge and tunnel approach traffic with new bus or HOV-3 lanes. The bus lane now operating on the Gowanus Expressway and through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is a model in this regard ¾ Staten Island buses are reaching Manhattan faster than ever. An express rider from Sunnyside called the Campaign this week to say her bus had spent 45 minutes in traffic trying get on the Queensboro Bridge. Queens crossings like the Midtown Tunnel and the Queensboro would be good bus lane candidates (along with approaches on the L.I.E. and Queens Boulevard) because of significant existing express bus volumes. New services in those corridors could be aimed at reducing bad peak-period crowding on Queens subway lines.

Express buses will work best if they are able to move off of arterials and into the core of the central business district without getting bogged down in heavy traffic. A set of strongly-enforced Manhattan bus lanes would assist these movements, help buses bring passengers to and from ferry slips and aid local bus travel as well.

Additional bus service seems needed to move people in and out of the financial district and for downtown dwellers. The difficult pedestrian environment downtown could be relieved somewhat by opening parking lanes to pedestrians on streets that are still reserved for emergency vehicles only, like Broadway.

Rebuilding Downtown Will Factor in Region's Transit Plans - October 1, 2001

Ferries Pick Up Riders, Prominence - September 24, 2001

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