Lower Broadway Bus Stops

  Lower Broadway 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

I noticed today that the city has taken over the right lane of lower broadway at various points between Houston Street and City Hall and put in these bus stop platforms.

I am not sure what the point is.

Won't this increase the congestion on lower broadway which is already an incredibly congested street?

Does anyone know the reason the city put these in?

Steve commented with this link explaining that these things are called Bus Bulbs. Thanks Steve. I still think they are dumb.

Comments

[Steve]

See "A Concrete Plan to Speed Up Buses in Traffic"
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/nyregion/27bus.html?ex=1335326400&en=37718382d548ff3f&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Excerpt:
"In a program intended to help buses move more speedily down the traffic-and-construction-clogged streets of lower Broadway, the city is building a series of extensions to the sidewalk that should make it easier for buses to load and unload. In the taxonomy of traffic engineers, these extensions are known as bus bulbs."

[curmudgeonly troll]

I think that, plus the congestion tax, is Mayor Bloomberg's strategy for making NY people ready.

[John Pritchard]

Yes, use your feet! far better for your health than your car

[Razvan Roman]

They initially wanted to make these in London too because the bus drivers complained that they cannot come out of refuges once they load/unload. Other traffic participants didn't let them get out of the refuge.

So it probably is part of the speeding up process of buses. Stupid nonetheless.

[Nic Wolff]

My question is, why are they separated from the sidewalk by a strip of road too narrow to bike down? So cyclists have to move over two lanes - and cut into the only moving lane of traffic - to get around a stopped bus! Idiotic.

[Tim Marman]

In fairness, the sidewalks are not much less congested than the streets - it's tough enough to walk around without 20 people waiting for a bus as well.

[Peter]

Razvan-

Those strips of street between the bulbs and the sidewalk are probably temporary. These bulbs were built very quickly, inexpensively and experimentally to see if they have a positive impact.

Because of their experimental nature, they probably wanted to keep the original curb intact in case they remove them.

Finally, that the city DOT is willing to "experiment" with innovative solutions is something to be commended. Like a website -- throw it out there, see how it works, kill it or embrace it based on results.

Fred, these bus bulbs are not "stupid". Think of this way; they prioritize space- and pollution-efficient mass transit (buses) over space-wasting and air polluting individual cars.

Buses moving faster = more people taking buses. Cars moving slower = more people leaving the car at home.

If we want the growth of this city to continue, and the health of the next generation (including your 3 kids) to be unfettered by asthma, it's solutions like these that need to be embraced.

[Peter]

Oh, and for mass-transit friendly introduction to the concept of bus bulbs, check out streetsblog's entries:

http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/03/11/quick-bus-and-ped-improvements-coming-to-lower-broadway/

and

http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/04/18/bus-bulbs-are-here/

[Ken Berger]

I'm also not getting the wisdom of this: already seeing increased congestion from the ensuing bottle-neck from effectively removing that lane.

And it's yet one more thing for me to run into on my scooter.

But my biggest traffic pet peeve in NYC is how universally almost every cab in this town insists on letting people in or out without pulling all the way over, still blocking traffic, rather than going just a bit further and pulling over to the curb. Cabbies just selfishly assume you'll go around them. This should have a law around it.

[Tim Marman]

As Peter astutely observed, maybe part of the goal is to make driving (and, by extension, cabs) less attractive of an option compared to mass transit. Surely that's a laudable goal.

[fred wilson]

peter and tim

thanks for getting my head around what's really going on here. i don't equate bus with mass transit as i am a subway rider and don't really understand bus riding in NYC.

but i get it. more mass transit and less cars.

that's a good goal.

fred