Flushing Main Street busway set to open Jan. 19
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Main Street in Flushing. AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
By David Brand
The Department of Transportation will ban cars from traveling the length of Main Street in Flushing starting Jan. 19, when a busy stretch of roadway will become the city’s latest busway, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday.
The busway, first announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio in June, will span Main Street between Northern Boulevard and Sanford Avenue in order to reduce congestion and allow buses to travel the route unimpeded. Vehicles that turn onto that section of Main Street will be permitted to travel one block before making the first available turn. The pilot phase of the project will last one year.
“Mass transit is the present and future of this city. New Yorkers deserve better bus service, and today I’m proud to transform the way New Yorkers access an iconic Queens neighborhood,” de Blasio said in a statement.
He likened the project to similar bus routes along 14th Street in Manhattan and Jay Street in Brooklyn, where bus speeds have increased for tens of thousands of commuters a day.
The project faced intense opposition from local business owners and lawmakers who said that restricting car travel would impact customers and hurt area shops and restaurants.
A coalition of companies, including the New World Mall Food Court and Flushing OB/GYN, sued the city to stop the busway project. Queens Supreme Court Justice Kevin Kerrigan issued a temporary restraining order halting work on the busway in November.
On Jan. 5 Kerrigan ruled that the city has the legal authority to proceed with the project, despite his own misgivings.
“This court does not venture to say that the plan is a good one. However, this Court’s skepticism in this regard is irrelevant,” Kerrigan wrote in his decision. “This Court may not invade the province of the Commissioner of DOT and substitute its own judgment and opinion in place of that of the agency.
Supporters of the project say the bus route would actually help businesses because 61 percent of visitors travel to the area by bus, bike, foot or some method other than car, DOT data shows. More than 150,000 people use bus routes that course Main Street every day, according to agency reports.
The new route will improve the experience for those riders, said MTA Bus Company President Craig Cipriano.
“We have seen over and over that as bus speeds go up, ridership goes up,” Cipriano said. “Bus priority is essential throughout the city. New Yorkers demand and deserve more efficient commutes with shorter travel times.”
