DOT shares early plan for 21st Street bus lane
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The Department of Transportation shared its plan to bring an offset bus lane to 21st Street in Astoria. Rendering via DOT
By Jacob Kaye
The Department of Transportation and Metropolitan Transit Authority rolled out its tentative plan for a bus lane along one of Astoria and Long Island City’s busiest corridors Monday.
The transportation agencies virtually presented to the public the results of a study of 21st Street, which runs from the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge to the RFK Bridge, and its initial idea for speeding up bus times in one of the area’s most congested stretches used by truck drivers, drivers heading to the bridges, bus riders heading to Rikers Island and those on their daily commutes.
DOT representatives said Monday – the first of two scheduled public meetings – that the agency had explored three potential options for the bus lane that would service the Q66, Q69 and Q100 buses. Through surveys and meetings with various community stakeholders, the agency settled on offset bus lanes throughout the 2-mile stretch.
The stretch currently holds two lanes of travel in both directions, with a lane available for parking on both sides of the 60-foot road. The new configuration would create a bus lane in the middle of the three lanes. It would keep most of the parking spots available along 21st Street, except for a bus-sized stretch at each intersection, where the sidewalk would extend to the middle lane of traffic.
According to the DOT, the plan would benefit buses, which would stay in one contiguous bus only lane and it would allow the agency to make future modifications for pedestrian safety.
The project was conceived when 21st Avenue was identified as a Vision Zero corridor in 2019. There have been over 100 injuries along the street each year from 2016 until 2019. Between 2015 and 2019, three pedestrians died in the area and over half a dozen were severely injured.
In addition to the street’s dangers, buses along the route travel slower than average, often because of double parked cars, bridge traffic and truck traffic, according to the DOT.
As for expected speed improvements from the plan, the DOT has yet to set a concrete goal.
“We don’t have a specific threshold [for improvement],” said Christopher Hrone, a representative with the DOT. “But the overall goal with the Better Buses Action Plan was to improve bus speeds by 25 percent.”
The plan, which is subject to change, was met with some skepticism by members of the community tuned into Monday’s presentation.
Some advocated for a bus lane in the innermost lane of the street, a plan that would require concrete medians to be built in the middle lane of the street for bus riders to board and get off the buses. Advocates for the layout, which was one of the three explored by the DOT, said it would improve bus speeds and reduce traffic violence more than the current proposal.
Others were concerned about the potential loss of parking, something some members of the public advocated for during the meeting.
“My neighbors and I, we do own cars,” said Sandy Primiano. “We use our cars and we need them. We’re not storing them, we need a place to park. To just say, ‘eliminate the parking, it’s not a problem’ – it’s a major problem for all of us here.”
Newly sworn-in City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán said that she was supportive of the DOT’s plan to take any action that would prevent pedestrians, cyclists and drivers from getting hurt.
“A guiding principle for me as a councilmember is, if it saves lives it’s worth doing,” the councilmember who lives off of 21st Street said. “We have an opportunity to design a better, safer and greener 21st Street. This isn’t a time for half measures.”
The DOT will host its next public meeting on the plan on Jan. 12. Following the meeting, the agency will present a more finalized version of the bus lane to the affected Community Boards in early 2022.
