Pilot Bus program coming

During a general meeting of Community Board 8 (CB 8) the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) unveiled a joint plan to introduce dedicated Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lanes along existing bus routes. The plan was met with disapproval and predictions by board members that it will create further parking and traffic mayhem in the borough.
Held at the Hillcrest Jewish Center, at 183-02 Union Turnpike in Fresh Meadows, MTA and DOT officials advised the audience of their plans to select 15 routes citywide - four of the proposed routes will be within the borders of CB 8 - for potential development of its BRT program.
The program will have dedicated lanes for buses only; buses on the routes will stop fewer times; have larger and more graphic signage; and travel an extended route.
The routes under consideration will run along four major thoroughfares; Kissena/ Parsons Boulevard, Union Turnpike, Horace Harding Expressway, and Hillside Avenue. The BRT lanes and traffic signal priority would enable buses to speed up along congested traffic areas. For example, along the Union Turnpike route, which will generally follow the Q46, connecting the Long Island Jewish Medical Center to Queens Boulevard, BRT buses will be able to bypass congested traffic from Queens Boulevard to Springfield Boulevard. Construction of the pilot BRT lanes is scheduled for 2008.
The Horace Harding Expressway BRT will stretch from Queens Center Mall to Manhasset, Long Island. BRT buses will be able to speed up from Main Street to Springfield Boulevard.
The Kissena/Parsons Boulevard BRT will connect downtown Flushing and Jamaica Center, and be able to bypass congested traffic from Hillside Avenue to Archer Avenue along Parsons Boulevard, as well as from Kissena Boulevard at Jewel Avenue to Flushing Main Street.
The Hillside Avenue BRT will connect Archer Avenue to 268th Street, and be able to bypass through congested traffic from Sutphin Boulevard to Springfield Boulevard.
DOT and transit officials have described details of the planned bus project in meetings which took place at York College, though Theodore Orosz, of the MTA, admitted, &#8220we didn't get specific,” and the community boards had &#8220little input.”
Features of the BRT are all-day service 6 a.m. to midnight, five-to-eight minute bus frequency during peak hours, a dedicated bus lane and an easy to understand route. It will also feature &#8220holding lights” at transportation hubs to alert the bus drivers of the arrival of subways or trains for passengers wishing to transfer. It will also feature stops that are approximately one mile apart.
The city officials said that after further study of the initial 15 routes, experts will then eliminate ten of those, reducing the number of routes for pilot development to just five. Ideally a BRT route will be installed in each borough, but that is not definite.
Joseph Barr of the DOT, attempting to assuage the board's complaints of double &#8220desperation” parking, traffic congestion, enforceability, and funding; told the meeting there is &#8220no free lunch” - to improve bus service, &#8220sometimes things may have to be taken away.”
The purpose of the design process, Barr explained is to try to understand the impact the BRT system will have on traffic and regulate it. As for enforceability, the BRT will rely on the police to enforce its dedicated lanes as well as &#8220augment their forces” with cameras at traffic stops, issuing tickets for violators.
Answering the environmental question, Orosz clarified that as the buses would be hybrids, combined with the benefits to be derived from increased ridership, there would be less pollutants emitted in the environment. As for funding the program, the MTA has budgeted approximately $22 million for its implementation, he said.
Maria DeInnocentiis, the head of the Civic Association of Utopia Estates said, &#8220DOT is doing this backwards. For a twelve-hour BRT, there will be no parking for the community. It will destroy merchants. We are not Manhattan, we moved here for the greenery and quiet. If I had to choose between quality of life and BRT, I'd rather have quality of life.”