Midtown's Fifth Avenue Gets 23-Block Busway, Mayor Says

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Traveling through Midtown Manhattan on the bus, an effort that occasionally borders on futile, is about to get a little easier with the help of a new busway on one of the neighborhood's busiest avenues.

The city Department of Transportation will implement a 23-block busway on Fifth Avenue from 34th Street to 57th Street — a distance of 1.1 miles — this year as part of a program to add 20 miles of new busways and bus lanes to the city to speed up travel times, city officials announced Monday. The Fifth Avenue route will benefit an estimated 75,000 daily riders.

"As New York City emerges from the difficult days of COVID-19, our commitment to faster and more reliable bus service has never been more important, as buses serve a critical role — both in communities hit hard from the pandemic and by essential front-line workers," DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said in a statement.

City officials did not announce when the Fifth Avenue bus lane will go into effect. The three projects that will be implemented this month are bus lanes on 149th Street in the Bronx, a busway on Main Street in Flushing and converting the temporary 14th Street busway into a permanent busway.

Here's a full list of the city's upcoming bus improvements:

Bus lanes dedicate specific lanes of traffic to buses during peak hours, whereas busways dedicate entire stretches of roads where buses have priority over private vehicles.

City officials announced the improvements as a win for New Yorkers as hundreds of thousands of workers return to their jobs Monday for Phase One of the city's coronavirus reopening. City and transit officials see buses as a more comfortable mode of public transit that the subway due to infection and crowding fears. But the city's plan for 20 miles of bus improvements pales in comparison to suggestions made by MTA officials last week.

The MTA identified 60 miles of city streets that are well-suited for bus lanes and bus ways, according to a letter sent to the city administration by New York City Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg. Feinberg recommends implementing the new lanes, which would improve speeds on bus routes, "as quickly as possible."