The paint had not even dried on the new bus lanes along the eastern end of the Staten Island Expressway before politicians began to pressure the NY State DOT to open them to car traffic.

   Bus lanes like the 1.9-mile S.I.E. route are subject to the so-called “empty lane syndrome,” where gridlocked drivers seethe next to lanes that move a bus every minute or so during rush hour.  Opening such lanes to car traffic is of course essentially akin to paving over nearby rail tracks for the same purpose because the tracks are not constantly clogged with trains, but the political problem nonetheless exists. Staten Island politicians announced last week they had pressed NYS DOT to study allowing cars with 3 passengers in the lanes. Whether other options will also be studied is unclear. Borough President Molinaro said a public meeting will be held next month.

   NYSDOT needs to stick to its guns against this political pressure. Opening the bus lanes to cars has many pitfalls. In an area as crowded with cars as Staten Island, additional traffic will rapidly fill any new space on the road — there will be four clogged lanes where there now are three. Even “HOV” strategies face this pitfall. Many cars with two or more passengers already use the expressway. If they are moved over to the bus lanes, they not only impede buses, they also open up room in the general lanes for more trucks and solo motorists. If the standard is three or more per vehicle (“HOV-3”), it affects relatively few cars, enormously complicates enforcement of the bus lanes and could start the process toward “HOV-2” or general traffic use.

    Further, a process by which a mass transit project is created but then turned into highway lanes begs questions of legality and future trust in the DOT’s intentions, or at least in the consequences of any action the agency takes to build special-use lanes.  The DOT recently took over the Tappan Zee corridor project, which envisions construction of “high occupancy toll” lanes in Rockland County, another highway innovation untested in the region or NY State. Everyone involved in that project, and in other projects involving special use lanes, will have to ask how quickly highway agencies will roll over to political pressure to change the nature of those lanes if the DOT caves in on the Staten Island lanes.

   Other than Staten Island Advance editorialists, who have been wary about a stampede to open the lanes up, Assemblyman Vincent Ignizio seems so far to be the only local voice for proceeding with caution and remembering that bus riders are a constituency too. “It’s important to remember these lanes were to make sure that people get to and from work more efficiently,” Ignizio told the Advance. “We have to make sure we’re not cutting into that.”

   The NYSDOT documentation for the Staten Island bus lane project does not address auto use of the new bus lanes.  No environmental or traffic impact has been assessed for car use of the lanes.  Generally, a full environmental impact statement is needed for a major highway expansion in NY State.  It is unclear so far whether the study announced by the Staten Island elected officials will constitute a formal environmental impact statement for use of the lanes by automobiles.

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