MTA Chief Means Business on Getting Cars Out of Bus Lanes

MTA Chief Means Business on Getting Cars Out of Bus Lanes: "

Not in service, but still smiling! NYC Transit's hybrid ECO Saver IV. (Michael Coughlan/NYC Transit)

New Yorkers fed up with the city's overcrowded, snail's-pace buses can perhaps indulge in some guarded optimism now that new MTA 'czar' Jay Walder is promising to improve the system. Walder was formerly the transit guru in London, where, he says, 'You carry nearly twice as many people in the bus system as you do on the Underground.' In New York, the opposite is true, and Walder wants to change that while simultaneously reducing bus overcrowding. Is this guy crazy?

The Times recently rode the bus with Walder in Brooklyn, and, as a car parked in the bus-only lane forced the bus to merge into traffic, he explained his radical bus philosophy:

What I’d like you to think about is a train system with rubber-tire vehicles. We’re on a bus right now where every seat is full. How many people are on this bus? Seventy-five? But we haven’t prioritized this bus any differently than a car which has one person in it... If I put train tracks down the street, you wouldn’t park your car on them. If I said this is a bus lane, somehow it becomes fair game. One person’s use of a road impacts upon another person’s use of the road. My point is, if we have to make a choice, make the choice for the bus, not for the car.

Suck on that motorists! But how will Walder turn the beat around? As previously mentioned, he wants the city to impose stricter fines on bus-lane blockers, install cameras on buses to take photos of violators, and finance a public advertising campaign to educate the public about bus lanes. And in a pilot program on Fordham Road in the Bronx, buses can send signals to traffic lights to delay red signals, allowing a bus to make it through the intersection! Next up: tractor beams to toss cars out of the bus lanes.

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UWS Drivers Will Not Feel Need for Speed

UWS Drivers Will Not Feel Need for Speed: "

Google Street View's look at the 'bow-tie'

New Yorkers, fed up with drivers zipping up and down Broadway at breakneck speeds, have demanded a gentler, calmer Upper West Side, and one politician is more than happy to oblige. Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal has proposed placing speed bumps, or new signage, at the Amsterdam-Broadway "bow tie" (the intersection where Amsterdam crosses over the north and southbound lanes of Broadway on 71st Street—the one where a taxi cab drove into a subway station) to slow traffic down, reports WCBS 2.

The area is considered by some to be the epicenter of a pedestrian nightmare. 'You never know when to cross because there's cars coming from three different directions,' Betsy Alpert told WCBS 2. 'So you kinda like wait for the light to say walk and then run!'

But not everyone feels empathy for amblers and bicyclists. One woman sniffed, 'Making it safer for them? They're already supposed to know what they can do and what they can't do. A lot of times when a cyclist gets hit it's his own fault.'

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MTA Czar To Put Cameras On Buses To Catch Lane Blockers

MTA Czar To Put Cameras On Buses To Catch Lane Blockers: "

MTA CEO Jay Walder says this bus lane deserves the same respect as train tracks.

During his first day on the job, new MTA CEO Jay Walder announced a plan to install cameras on the front of city buses to take photos of any vehicles obstructing bus lanes. Like the city's red-light cameras, tickets will be issued automatically. Walder insists the innovation drastically improved the on-time performance of buses in London, where Walder worked before taking over the MTA. In February, the DOT began video surveillance of the 'high-visibility' terra cotta-colored express-bus lanes on 34th Streets, but this would be the first time buses were used for enforcement.

In an interview with WCBS Monday, Walder said, 'You and I would never think of stopping our car on a train track, but some how the idea of stopping a car in a bus lane seems acceptable. It's not.' Absolutely. Now, can we get these cameras for our bicycles to automatically issue tickets to bike lane blockers? Walder plans to implement other new technology in the transit system, including new E-Z swipe cards to ride buses and subways and more countdown clocks to tell you how much longer your beard will grow as you wait for the G.

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NYPD Priorities in Action: Keep Traffic Moving, Pedestrians Be Damned

NYPD Priorities in Action: Keep Traffic Moving, Pedestrians Be Damned: "

Yesterday we saw what it looks like when police value pedestrian safety and enforce the integrity of the crosswalk. That's how they roll in Sacramento. Here in New York, the NYPD's priorities are a little different.

Clarence Eckerson recently shot this clip at the intersection of Canal and Lafayette. As you can see, an officer crossing the street with other pedestrians noticed a vehicle blocking the box (and a bike lane). Instead of giving the driver a summons, he proceeded to hold up everyone who had the right of way and wave the car through the crosswalk, directly into the path of at least one person on foot. All in a day's work for New York's finest.

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