In a response to request by several organizations, including the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, that the NYC bus rapid transit study convene a stakeholders advisory group, NYC transportation commissioner Iris Weinshall replied that this was not possible since the project team must be kept to a "manageable size." She noted that a technical advisory committee already had a dozen agencies to provide input, and the study will continue to conduct public outreach at certain periods.

The Campaign maintains that this study would yield far better, and more customer-oriented results if independent groups and a few local groups were involved in a stakeholders group, especially because a policy area like speeding up buses is rife with opportunities for bureaucracies to settle for half-measures.

In May, the study saw an announcement from state and city officials that the list of potential rapid bus corridors has now been refined to 15, plus two related State DOT projects for the Cross Bronx and Staten Island Expressways. The initial corridors chosen seem to make sense, targeting congested avenues, some of which are beyond the reach of the subway system. Some possible routes are Northern Blvd in Queens, Flatlands Ave in Brooklyn, Hylan Blvd in Staten Island, 1st/2nd Aves in Manhattan, and Cross Bronx Expressway in the Bronx.

The project team says it will develop service plans specific to each corridor over the summer, followed by another round of public outreach meetings. Phase II of the study is intended to whittle the list down to five – one for each borough.

The NYC rapid bus website is online: www.mta.info/mta/planning/brt  

MTR #502 portable document format (PDF) file version
(requires Adobe Acrobat).

MTR back issues:

Go to index of all Mobilizing the Region back issues.