Bus lanes needed for Broadway

To the editor:

(re: “Bus lane proposal gets cool reception,” June 13)

The city’s transportation department’s proposal for a bus lane on Broadway between West 225th and West 230th streets is fantastic news for the community.

Bus service is crucial along this corridor — doubly so when the 1 train is down for maintenance, as it so often is — yet passengers are subject to crushing delays that are due largely to motorists in private cars, many of whom are taking advantage of a free bridge into Manhattan that’s directly under a subway line.

When traffic on this section of Broadway is not crawling, it is speeding. In 2015, a hit-and-run driver murdered Daniel Cabrera as he crossed the chaotic intersection of Broadway and West 225th.

A bus lane on Broadway helps residents better access the many businesses on Broadway, travel more safely and efficiently to other Bronx and upper Manhattan neighborhoods, and improve access to other subway lines as well as the Metro-North station in Marble Hill.

Furthermore, improving public transit in the vicinity of the Broadway Bridge is only fair, especially given that Bronx motorists will soon be able to drive over the Henry Hudson Bridge toll-free.

As for Community Board 8 being “weary” from the “bike lane debacle” last year, that project netted the community not only a fantastic protected bike lane, but bus islands that have made crossing Broadway on foot and boarding the buses at West 242nd Street much safer and easier. Fortunately, the transit-related decisions CB8 makes in its car-centric echo chamber are merely advisory.

If they are “weary” of fighting the DOT on projects that move the neighborhood forward and improve transit for the vast majority of residents, perhaps they should do everyone — including themselves — a favor and tender their resignations.

Eben Weiss

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