Turtle Bay Association

East Side Leaders Deliver 2,400+ Petitions to MTA to Save Crosstown Bus Service in East Midtown

On the 25th of June Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, State Senator Liz Krueger, Assemblyman Jonathan Bing, and Councilmembers Dan Garodnick and Jessica Lappin delivered more than 2,400 petitions from concerned New York commuters to MTA Chairman Jay Walder urging him to halt the MTA’s plans to cut crosstown service on nights and weekends in the Turtle Bay neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan. The cuts are scheduled to take effect Sunday June 27.

BUS CHANGES = TURTLE BAY SUFFERS

The NYC Department of Transportation and Metropolitan Transit Authority (DOT/MTA) will high-handedly, without even consulting the Turtle Bay Association, make the following changes to our buses:

The M104, linking Times Square to the United Nations via 42nd Street, will end this June. NOT GOOD.

The M27, linking Times Square to 1st Avenue via 49th and 50th streets, will end this June. NOT GOOD.

The M50, linking 1st Avenue to the Hudson River, will not run on weekends or holidays, nor will it run late at night. NOT GOOD.

By October, DOT/MTA expects to implement Select Bus Service on the 1st and 2nd Avenue M15 route. Express buses, replacing the present limiteds, were to have a special lane offset from the locals, stopping at seven to twelve block intervals. It might have even worked.

Then they eliminated a planned stop serving Turtle Bay at 49th/50th streets, requiring us to walk seven or eight blocks or take a local and change buses to get to the next express stop. NOT GOOD.

DOT/MTA, believing that the needs of a comparatively small group of cyclists are “paramount,” will install a protected bike lane to the west side of heavily trafficked 1st Avenue, 42nd to 57th streets. That will end curbside parking and loading/unloading. DOT/MTA expects these to be relegated to our residential side streets (despite the fact that the 49th and 53rd already have restricted parking and the eastbound 50th, 52nd, 54th, and 56th streets go the wrong way!) NOT GOOD.

In the evening rush hours, when all parking is now banned from this part of 1st avenue, traffic uses the full street width. With one lane less thanks to the protected bike lane we (and the cyclists) will suffer from denser traffic, more noise, and more pollution. NOT GOOD

Saddest of all, there will be no Select Bus Service as such. In Turtle Bay and elsewhere (a total of six route miles), mostly to accommodate protected bicycle lanes, DOT/MTA moved the dedicated Special Bus Service lane to the right curb, requiring fast and local buses to share. Fast buses will either halt behind a stopped local picking up and discharging passengers or heave their 60 foot bulk into the nearest traffic lane. All buses will travel at the same slow rate they do now - perhaps slower. NOT GOOD!

Should this concern you? YES!!! Write, e-mail, twitter our elected representatives. Their names and contacts appear on this TBA web site - see Links. Let them know how we feel! Time is short!