DOT Proposes 34th Street Busway

On May 20, 2025, the New York City Department of Transportation announced plans for a proposed busway on 34th Street in Manhattan. The busway would function similarly to the 14th Street Busway, which allows for faster bus service and reduced wait times for riders. Currently, 28,000 daily riders use buses along 34th Street. 

The proposed busway would span from Ninth Avenue to Third Avenue, and would prioritize buses and trucks and maintain local access for pick-up, drop off and loading purposes. The proposed busway would be the eighth in the city. After the changes had been made on 14th Street, riders there saw increased bus speeds by 24 percent and a reduction in crashes by 42 percent. The proposal has received support from all impacted local community boards. 

In addition, the city is considering extending the existing double bus lanes on Madison Avenue. The double bus lanes currently exist from 60th to 42nd Street, but the proposed expansion would extend the double bus lanes down to 23rd Street near Madison Square Park. Twenty-nine express bus routes and several more local routes use this corridor daily. When DOT used a similar expansion plan on Fifth Avenue, speeds increased by six to twelve percent on local routes and eleven to twenty percent on express routes. 

DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez stated, “The vast majority of commuters in Midtown are traveling by transit and they deserve world-class, fast, and reliable buses. After seeing tremendous success on 14th Street—where buses have sped up, traffic has virtually disappeared, and far fewer New Yorkers are getting hurt in crashes—we are excited to propose a similar design on 34th Street. We look forward to refining the design with the community.”

By: Veronica Rose (Veronica is the Editor of CityLand and a New York Law School graduate, Class of 2018.)

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