Mamdani revives Fordham Road bus lane project
A champion for fast and free buses, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has revived a bus lane project in the Bronx aimed at increasing bus speeds on Fordham Road.
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A champion for fast and free buses, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has revived a bus lane project in the Bronx aimed at increasing bus speeds on Fordham Road.
Bumper to bumper with no place to go, Fordham Road is the "Bronx Bottleneck" that never seems to end. It's conveniently the route of the Bx12 bus, the second busiest bus in New York City, behind Manhattan's M15.
"This is a route that people depend on 24/7, that is very crowded all week, into the evening, into the weekend," said Danny Pearlstein, with Riders Alliance. "It's like the L train or the Cross Bronx Expressway if you live up here and don't have a car."
On a cramped MTA bus in the West Farms Bus depot, Mayor Mamdani dusted off plans to revive the once killed Fordham Road bus lane project. The Department of Transportation plans to upgrade the bus lane by adding an off set lane, that would be painted on lane away from the curb.
The bus travel lane would stretch from Sedgwick Avenue to Boston Road. According to City Hall, 71% of residents in that area rely on public transit, biking, or walking to get around.
"130,000 New Yorkers rely on the buses that traverse this route, yet they find themselves regularly creeping along at 4 mph," said Mayor Mamdani.
Mayor Mamdani says their goal is to improve bus speeds by at least 20% and that a similar redesign on Hillside Avenue improved bus speeds by 28%.
However, not all are on board, the Fordham Road Business Improvement District and Belmont Business Improvement District once rejected the plan when it was first introduced during the Adams administration.
"While Mayor Mamdani is a great communicator, we had no communications regarding this other than yesterday (Thursday), we are not opposed to improving Fordham Road, but we don't believe the mayor should go rouge and announce he's putting in an offset lane, the Belmont BID and the Fordham Road BID we are the largest stakeholders as well as our businesses, to not engage in conversation with us is a travesty," said David Rose, chairman of the Fordham Road BID.
The Belmont BID that is home to Little Italy, says its concerns fall in how vehicle traffic will be impacted.
"We are not Midtown or 14th Street or 34th Street where there are more subways you can count on two hands, we are in a transit desert in Little Italy in the Bronx, we know from data and analysis that 85% of our customers come by car because they come from 10 to 40 miles away, so what does that mean," said Peter Madonia, chairman of the Belmont Business Improvement District.
The mayor says he plans to have conversations with community partners, including the BIDS.
"In our restarting of it there will also be time for community engagement to refresh this vision," the mayor said.
The DOT says work will begin as soon as weather allows, with a goal of completion sometime this year.
