Not so quick on the “speedy bus routes!”
Bronx politicians blasted Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s information $800 million plan to hurry up metropolis bus routes on Thursday — saying it may make the affected streets extra harmful for pedestrians.
The elected officers groaned that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has already torn out bus stops alongside the Grand Concourse in 2022 and mentioned the brand new routes will imply even fewer stops and seniors crossing busy thoroughfares to make their bus.
“I need the MTA to cease making every part about them and cash,” mentioned Yvonne Miller, a longtime resident in her 60s who joined officers at a information convention. “I need the MTA to truly care in regards to the individuals on this neighborhood — the handicapped, the aged and the pedestrians.”
Miller urged different neighborhoods going through bus cease removals — as Mamdani and the MTA transfer to ship on half of his marketing campaign promise of free and quick buses — to talk up now.
“The MTA is all the time searching for extra and giving much less,” Miller mentioned. “The one factor the MTA is anxious about is preserving their schedule updated. If meaning they obtained to take away a bus cease — they don’t care.”
Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled the plan that may develop MTA quick strains with particular bus solely flip indicators and elevated digital camera enforcements. It’s a part of an total redesign that has already stripped stops from the Bx40 and Bx42 routes at Burnside Avenue and Grand Concourse, forcing seniors to cross 10 lanes of visitors to catch a bus.
Council Member Pierina Sanchez mentioned the MTA factors to a 3-minute common time financial savings on the Bx40/42 to justify the removals, however that determine leaves out the added strolling time riders now face attending to the subsequent cease — making the general journey longer for a lot of.
“The mayor and the federal government and the governor made a superb announcement that they’re going to be bettering bus service throughout town,” Sanchez mentioned on the press convention, which was held at Devanney Triangle.
“I hope that together with this nice information comes a compromise and a promise so that you can hearken to the communities which might be telling you what we’d like and the right way to maintain us secure.”
Sanchez mentioned she first wrote the MTA in 2022 when the stops disappeared, and has adopted up in 2023 and 2024, however the company has refused to budge.
“Our neighborhood is upset with the MTA,” she mentioned.
An MTA spokesperson defended the cease removals, pointing to sooner service because the MTA’s Bronx Bus Community Redesign took impact.
“For the reason that Bronx Bus Community Redesign was carried out, eastbound bus speeds at this location have improved by 19% and westbound by 17%, with sooner buses saving time for 1000’s of riders every single day on these routes,” the spokesperson mentioned, including that restoring the stops would compromise these pace enhancements.
However a bus skilled informed The Submit Wednesday that shedding your bus cease can wipe out any time gained from sooner buses.
The MTA spokesperson additionally mentioned changing the previous stops would power the removing of one other cease that may then sit too shut and require tearing out bushes planted the place the previous cease was.
Assemblywoman Yudelka Tapia mentioned the stops ought to nonetheless get replaced because the stretch sits close to senior housing, assisted residing amenities and faculties.
“We all know that Grand Concourse is already a harmful avenue for pedestrians,” Tapia mentioned on the press convention. “We now have heard from dozens of residents about this intersection, from seniors attempting to get to the physician to households taking their youngsters to highschool.”
The hall has logged greater than 7,000 crashes and 700 pedestrian accidents, together with 138 crashes in a four-block radius over the previous decade, in keeping with a decision handed by Bronx Neighborhood Board 5 demanding the MTA substitute the stops.
Sally Smith, who’s in her 80s, has attended each neighborhood board assembly because the bus stops have been eliminated to advocate for his or her alternative and known as the closures “unacceptable.”
“I might slightly be some other place this afternoon,” Smith mentioned. “Individuals with wheelchairs and seniors, we are able to’t stroll throughout the Grand Concourse. It’s a danger.”
She remembers preventing to get the bus cease added within the Seventies.
“Give us again the bus cease. We’re not asking you for nothing new. We’re asking you to present what you took away,” she pleaded.
