City Delays 5th Avenue Busway & Bike Lanes, Infuriating Advocates

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A much-delayed plan to add a busway and bike lanes to a clogged stretch of Fifth Avenue may now be pushed back once again to the next mayoral administration, a top official said this week, sparking fury among transit advocates.

Transportation Commissioner Hank Gutman told Streetsblog Wednesday that work on the so-called "complete street" will not begin until "after the holidays" — presumably after Mayor Bill de Blasio leaves office on Jan. 1.

"We have reached a point in the year where what we were planning to do in the next month or two raised a very real risk of interfering with the holiday season," Gutman told the publication, citing conversations with "stakeholders."

A Fifth Avenue busway between 57th and 34th streets was first promised by de Blasio last summer as a way to speed up transit on the crammed corridor. But it never materialized last year; nor did work begin this past August, when the Department of Transportation said construction was almost underway.

The plan had the backing of Community Board 5, which repeatedly endorsed it as part of a broader "re-imagined vision for Fifth Avenue." But the busway faced opposition from business groups like the Fifth Avenue Association, whose leader, Jerome Barth, said the loss of car lanes would harm the avenue's luxury retailers and "threaten Midtown's and New York City's economic recovery."

"This is ridiculous and yet another example of Mayor de Blasio prioritizing the convenience of drivers over the safety of people who bike and walk," said Cory Epstein, a spokesperson for the street-safety group Transportation Alternatives, in a statement Thursday following news of the busway's latest delay.

This month, NYC DOT will begin to implement safety improvements on 5th Avenue (59th to 34th Street) in #Manhattan. This work will:

🚶Expand pedestrian space
🚴‍♂️Add protected #bikenyc lane
👨‍🦼Shorten crossing distances
🚚Add new loading areas pic.twitter.com/b4Jl9v1CYg
— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT) August 6, 2021

"As we face a climate crisis and record-breaking traffic violence, the last thing the administration should be doing is delaying projects like protected bike lanes and expanded pedestrian space."

The Fifth Avenue Association put forward its own plan that would remake the thoroughfare into a "green corridor" with plantings and bike lanes — but without taking away space from private cars.

Amid the opposition, the city watered down the busway proposal this summer to allow for more private car traffic. (Fifth Avenue already has bus lanes, but not a restricted busway: a corridor like the one on 14th Street where most other traffic is banned.)

The plan also called for protected bike lanes, improving safety on an avenue that ranked as the most-traveled Manhattan corridor without a protected lane. About 1,800 cyclists passed through Fifth Avenue at 51st Street each day before the pandemic, according to DOT data.

Lawmakers and advocates rallied last September in support of the busway, calling on de Blasio to follow through on his initial promise. When Patch contacted the DOT in August, a spokesperson vowed that the busway would still be implemented in 2021.

A DOT spokesperson did not respond to questions about when the busway would be implemented or why it had been delayed, deferring to Gutman's comments from Wednesday.

Previous coverage:

• Bike Lane, Pedestrian Fixes Coming To 5th Ave — But No Busway Yet
• Midtown Pols, Advocates Rally For 5th Avenue Busway
• Midtown's Fifth Avenue Gets 23-Block Busway, Mayor Says