Busways – Clarification of Bus Lane Restrictions

Online comments: 9

• Nancy Sheran

  1. The revised rules don’t make it clear how loading and unloading should be handled for busways when loading/unloading is done for buildings that have no other entrances other than on the busway. Example: restaurants and grocery stores getting food deliveries, people moving in/out of residential buildings, contractors loading/unloading materials for building maintenance/renovations, etc.
  2. Exceptions should be allowed for people with mobility disabilities. Any vehicles carrying such people should be allowed to load/unload their passengers at a curb in front of their doors.

  Comment added June 4, 2025 3:10pm

• lynn

  This is a travesty! Please do not get rid of the Q102. Do you know how many people ( especially the elderly people) rely on that bus? You all have taken all the buses that run through QB away from the QB residents. WHY? This is not fair to the people who live there. I see people all the time who sit on their walkers waiting for that Q102 to go do their shopping. The same for the folks in Astoria housing. You all do not care about the long term residents and the people who have to get to the other side of the area. You all want to create fights with all these people piling up at one bus top. Do you guys see how crowded it becomes at 30th ave? This doesn’t make sense. Taking a way our bus stops and buses to accommodate the “new folks”. We see right thru it. Please don’t make these changes and leave our q102 alone. We need it and keeps the neighborhood moving. Thank you.

  Comment added June 11, 2025 4:57pm

• Christina Mavros

  We need buses to go to Manhattan from Astoria like they do now. Your plan does not include any buses from Astoria to Manhattan without having to make a transfer. Residents from the Ditmars area will only have 1 train to get to Manhattan with no transfer, while Elmhurst, Sunnyside, Jamaica have multiple routes to Manhattan and now all the buses go directly to Manhattan from those locations but are cut from Ditmars area via Steinway street. This creates congestion for people trying to get to the Ditmars Blvd N station especially with the DOT changing traffic patterns and narrowing streets for bicycles.

  Comment added June 12, 2025 8:35am

• Maria

  Please stop the changes on the the q101. Residents near 20th avenue view it as a lifeline to get into the city. Not everything needs to change. Dont make the life of the elderly difficult

  Comment added June 12, 2025 9:25pm

• Daniel Bersohn

  Some aspects of the rules are not clear, appear to face enforcement nexus challenges, appear unnecessary, or inadequate to the task. I have specific comments below and suggested modified text.

  34 RCNY 4-12.2.m.1.C

  The rule text should be clarified to indicate that stopping in curbside lanes is always prohibited during active hours of the lanes.

  34 RCNY 4-12.2.m.1.D

  For clarity of enforcement, discharging or receiving of passengers from within the bus lane should be prohibited unless passengers use a mobility aid or are legally blind.

  34 RCNY 4-12.2.m.1.E

  The rule text is unclear and fails to adequately disincentivize vehicles from blocking lanes adjacent to bus lanes in a manner that cause travel lane traffic to encroach on the bus lane. I suggest the following language instead:

  to avoid a fixed obstacle, standing, loading, or parked vehicle which obstructs the roadway and leaves fewer than ten feet of roadway width available for the free movement of vehicular traffic, vehicles creating such obstruction in a lane adjacent to a bus lane shall be cited for blocking the bus lane, vehicles avoiding the blockage shall not; or

  34 RCNY 4-12.2.m.2

  The rule text should include a new subparagraph (iii)

  A vehicle may not stop, stand, load, or receive or discharge passengers except for passengers who use a mobility aid or are legally blind.

  34 RCNY 4-12.2.m.4

  This rule is should be modified as it relates to human powered vehicles as follows because single file push bike and e-bike traffic is not an impediment to bus movements. Other cities, for example Boston, MA and Madrid, Spain allow bicycles to use busways and bus lanes on roads where there are not bike lanes separate from the bus lanes. Bicycle traffic is narrow and it is generally safe for professionally driven buses to pass single file bicycle traffic. Generally, bicycle traffic moves at much higher average speeds (10-12 mph) than buses due to frequent stopping of buses.

  The same rights and restrictions that apply to vehicles pursuant to this subdivision also apply to horse-drawn vehicles and devices moved by human power or a combination of human and electrical power except that human and combination human electrical powered vehicles may use a bus lane when no bicycle lane is present on the roadway, the bicycle lane is blocked by vehicles, and that such vehicles shall to yield to buses by exiting or riding in tight single file pattern to allow unimpeded passage of a bus.

  Comment added June 22, 2025 3:12pm

• T.

  Q102 is the only line along 31st Street and is vital for neighborhood, plus is most convenient connection between Astoria and Long Island City. Please keep original route for Q102.

  Comment added June 22, 2025 5:43pm

• Zack youngren

  I support Daniel Bersohn’s comment.

  Comment added June 23, 2025 9:26am

• Caroline Harris

  Taxis and private passenger vehicles should be able to pick up and drop riders in bus lanes especially where bicycle or parking lanes are on the other side of the street

  Two bus lanes on Madison Ave and parking on the west side of the street reduces Travel lanes down. Cut out one bus lane!

  Comment added June 25, 2025 10:33am

• Dustin Goldman

  Hello,

  I’m very concerned that this proposal will not go far enough to dissuade single occupancy vehicles from double parking along bus routes and loading/unloading at bus stops.

  When we allow a very few vehicles to flaunt the rules of the road at the expense of everyone else not only is it unfair, it results in making transit worse that it should be. If busses could move faster and adhere to their schedules more reliably they would soon become clear winners over private vehicles for many trips. If fewer folks were driving and more were taking the bus it would strengthen our communities and also make driving more convenient for those cases when it truly is necessary.

  It is also just fundamentally unfair to allow cars, the majority of which only ever provide transport to a a single occupant, to delay a public bus which is often filled with scores of passengers.

  Thank you for your consideration of this important issue.

  Comment added June 26, 2025 6:58pm