At the last meeting of Manhattan Community Board 4’s Transporation committee, the public contributed many ideas to make bus rides more effective on this corridor, especially considering the next two years of misery commuters will experience once the construction starts on the L line, after 8 p.m.
A local architect brought the hyper-realistic model of buses and boarding platforms leveled with the doors , similar to what subway riders experience. This would speed up boarding especially for people with disabilities and shorten the trips.
Ideas proposed and adopted by the committee included a true Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan with physically protected bus lanes, raised platforms for level boarding, dedicated vehicular lanes to service truck traffic (thru and local), sanitation and pick-up/deliveries without delays to the bus service, delivery bays at the curb with a 30 minutes time slots and no commercial deliveries during peak hours. The committee also supported left turns limitations for vehicles, the use of priority signals for buses and camera enforcement for the bus lanes.
Let’s see if MTA and DOT go bold and get us a real BRT.