The city will ban most private traffic on 14th Street in Manhattan, making it a largely bus-only thoroughfare in a bid to make room for shuttle buses that will carry straphangers during Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s upcoming L train tunnel rehab, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday.
Under the 18-month pilot plan, 14th Street between Third Avenue and Ninth Avenue will shut down to private traffic in June, roughly a month after reconstruction begins on the L train’s decrepit Canarsie Tunnel, which runs under the East River, de Blasio said.
The traffic change will coincide with the launch of the M14 Select Bus Service along 14th Street in June.
As part of the plan, two of the middle lanes on 14th Street will be dedicated to bus and truck traffic running in each direction, while the two outer lanes will be for truck loading and vehicles making pick-ups or drop-offs.
Only buses, trucks and emergency vehicles will be permitted to use 14th Street between Third Avenue and Ninth Avenue as a through route.
Local traffic will be permitted to make pickups and drop-offs and access garages, but cars will always need to turn right at the next possible location, the mayor’s office said. Left turns will be banned under the plan.
Intersections along 14th Street will be designed with new turn lanes where appropriate to keep bus lanes clear, according to de Blasio’s office.
The city’s Department of Transportation plans to enforce the new rules on the lanes through automated cameras along 14th Street.
“We have an opportunity to try something new and really get bus riders moving on one of our busiest streets,” de Blasio said. “As we continue to address congestion across New York City, this is an experiment that, if successful, could provide us another tool to move buses faster and save people valuable time for the things that matter.”
Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg couldn’t say what times the seven-day-a-week pilot program will be enforced, but said the new regulations will likely run from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. — similar to proposals the city has already floated
“There were will be a 60-day grace period, and we will be working with [the police department],” Trottenberg said at an afternoon press conference. “We know this is a new thing we are trying out and the goal is not to penalize people, it’s to help them understand.”
Trottenberg noted that there will be “limited places” for parking along the route, but that the goal is to set up more areas for pick-up and drop-offs only.
Transit advocates said L train riders, at least, will appreciate the plan.
“We applaud Mayor [Bill] de Blasio and the city Department of Transportation for doing the right thing. The L train ‘slowdown’ threatens to be a slow-motion crisis for hundreds of thousands of daily L train riders,” said Nick Sifuentes, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
“Making 14th Street a bus-priority street closed to non-local traffic will mean buses can play a huge role in picking up the slack when the L train is down,” Sifuentes said, adding, “The busway will help keep New Yorkers moving while still preserving residents’ and delivery vehicle access. This is a big win for commuters who were waiting with bated breath to see how we would manage to get around during the L train slowdown.”
Earlier this year, Cuomo announced an eleventh-hour plan calling off the long-planned initial proposal to completely shut down the L train for 15 months.
Instead, work on the tunnel will be done on nights and weekends.
Under the original L train plan, the city floated turning Manhattan’s 14th Street into a busway for 17 hours a day in order to accommodate riders during the previous shutdown plan. That proposal was ultimately scrapped back in February.
Repair work on the L train tunnel is slated to begin Friday.
Meanwhile, de Blasio also announced Wednesday that the city will make bike lanes along Grand Street between Waterbury Street and Vandervoort Avenue in Brooklyn permanent.
Additional reporting by Julia Marsh
