Downtown Jamaica to get two busways, mayor says

Downtown Jamaica will be outfitted with two new busways in an effort to speed up public transportation on two congested streets in the neighborhood. Photo via Wikimedia Commons

By Jacob Kaye

Buses in Downtown Jamaica are about to get a whole lot faster, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Tuesday. 

As part of his Streets Week initiative, de Blasio committed to completing the new busway along a 0.9 mile stretch on Jamaica Avenue and to begin construction on another along Archer Avenue at some point this year. The two major streets in Downtown Jamaica are notorious for slow bus speeds and heavy rush hour traffic.

“Buses didn’t get the attention they deserve until, at least it feels to me, the last few years,” the mayor said. “It’s time to do more and more to speed up the travel of New Yorkers on buses.”

While details on the Jamaica busways are scant, Department of Transportation Commissioner Hank Gutman promised the new projects will lead to easier commuting for over a quarter of a million daily riders. 

“This is a huge transportation hub and this will affect many hundreds of thousands of commuters and dramatically improve their access to public transportation,” Gutman said.

City Councilman I. Daneek Miller was reserved in his praise of the Archer Avenue busway announcement on Wednesday. The Southeast Queens legislator blasted the DOT for its plans to build the Jamaica Avenue busway, which was first introduced last summer. 

“The sudden announcement of the Jamaica Avenue busway, which did not include community outreach or involvement, was incredibly disappointing,” Miller said in a letter co-authored by several other Southeast Queens legislators and penned to the transportation department in August. 

In the letter, Miller, who once was an MTA bus driver himself, urged the city to explore a busway along Archer Avenue, where buses travel at an average speed of 3.9 mph, according to the DOT. 

Following the mayor’s announcement this week, Miller emphasized his commitment to holding the DOT accountable and urged them to make more of an effort to collect community response before announcing changes to public transportation. 

“We will be reviewing the busway proposal and appreciate the agency's responsiveness on this issue,” Miller said. “As we move forward, we are asking the agency to present this proposal to the community board and solicit meaningful feedback from local residents on these changes.”

The changes to bus service in Jamaica are part of a larger package of busways and bus lanes the mayor introduced Tuesday. In all, de Blasio committed to 28 miles of busways throughout the city by the end of 2021, a promise that was praised by public transportation advocates this week. 

“As we recover from the pandemic, New York City must prioritize people over cars on our streets," said Danny Harris, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives. "This means more protected bike lane and busway projects, so we don’t just get back to normal, but make the new normal for our streets healthier, more equitable and less congested. Mayor de Blasio's announcement today is an important step toward reaching this goal.”

The Jamaica busways – which, unlike bus lanes, shut off entire streets to car traffic during certain hours – follow in the footsteps of Flushing’s Main Street busway and Manhattan’s 14th Street busway before that. 

According to the DOT, buses on Main Street have traveled, on average, 29 percent faster following the implementation of the busway in January.