Clogged UES Avenue Getting Badly Needed Bus Lane Revamp, MTA Says

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A major Upper East Side thoroughfare home to Manhattan's most-used bus route will get a badly-needed revamp of its bus lanes in an effort to improve speeds, city officials said last week.

The redesign will cover First Avenue between East 61st and 79th streets — covering a sizeable chunk of the M15 and M15-Select Bus Service routes. Combined, the two lines have a daily ridership of 48,000 people — making them the busiest in Manhattan, and the most used in all of New York City during 2020.

But the crucial routes are plagued by slow speeds, caused largely by cars stalling in the existing bus lanes, which run along First Avenue's east curb. The M15 buses average run at an average of just 5.4 miles per hour in morning peak hours, and 7.8 miles per hour in the afternoon, according to the MTA.

To get things moving, the MTA now plans to revamp the corridor by moving the curbside bus lane to the "offset" lane — or one lane away from the curb. That is the same placement that the M15 lines already have above 79th and below 61st streets; and the same as the M101, M102 and M103 lines along Lexington Avenue.

"We’ve come to find that the current street design is insufficient for bus riders, as well as those businesses and individuals who need to access the east curb," said Rachel Eisenberg, a project manager for the Department of Transportation, at Tuesday's Community Board 8 meeting.

As it stands, the existing bus lanes are often clogged with parked cars unloading goods or dropping off passengers, slowing down transit service. Creating the offset bus lane will open up the east curb lane for more parking, loading and dropoffs — benefiting local businesses, the city says.

The city will put the new bus lane in place sometime this fall.

A similar lane swap on Lexington Avenue sped up buses by about 10 percent, Eisenberg said — while an analysis predicts the redesign will have barely any impact on First Avenue's overall traffic flow.

As part of the same project, the city will also build right-turn lanes on East 72nd and 79th streets — preventing cars turning right from making those turns within the bus lane, as they normally would. Creating the new turn bays will require removing about six parking spots at both intersections, according to the city.

Some board members at Tuesday's meeting expressed fears that the offset bus lane would "codify" the practice of buses dropping off passengers far from the curb — though MTA officials insisted that buses will still pull all the way to the sidewalk at each stop.

Other neighbors also took the opportunity to chastise the MTA for the continued absence of an M15 bus stop on 72nd Street, which was removed in 2010 amid assurances that it could be reinstated someday.

"We're the only major crosstown street in Manhattan that does not have a [Select Bus Service]," resident Lydia Canizares said. Her comments echoed the demands made by six Upper East Side elected officials, who called on the MTA to bring back the 72nd Street stop in a letter earlier this year.

In response, MTA representative Marcus Book said restoring the stop was still a possibility — but not until 2024, when the rollout of the new OMNY payment system is complete.