Plans for 34th Street busway move ahead, and Mayor Adams says he's on board

After transit advocates and some city councilmembers grew concerned that Mayor Eric Adams and members of his administration were working behind the scenes to scuttle plans for a new busway on 34th Street, it appears to be back on track.

The busway would restrict passenger vehicles on 34th Street to only traveling one block before turning off. It was added as part of a larger package for a massive rezoning of Midtown that includes adding 9,500 homes and more car-free blocks on Broadway.

The New York City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises, and the Committee on Land Use signed off on the plan Wednesday. It goes before the full Council for a vote on Aug. 14.

City Councilmember Keith Powers, who represents Midtown, wrote the Department of Transportation a letter after hearing that the long-planned busway on 34th Street was being stalled. He breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday when the two Council committees approved the rezoning, including the busway.

“ It was one of the big priorities and commitments that we were able to land,” Powers told Gothamist. “ We wanted to make sure that if we're going to transform the neighborhood to be more 24/7, we want to make sure that the residents of that area have quicker ways to get around.”

Adams, whose administration said it wasn’t stalling the busway but rather wanted to be sure to collect enough community feedback, issued a statement of approval for the zoning plan and the new busway.

“Not only will this plan deliver thousands of new homes for this central neighborhood, but it also represents a down payment on our vision of 100,000 new homes across all of Manhattan over the next decade,” Adams said in a statement. “Furthermore, this agreement underscores our commitment to pairing housing with investments in our infrastructure — including the transformation and reconstruction of Broadway and 34th Street busway.”

Transit advocates continue to cast a wary eye on the Adams administration, which has flip-flopped on transit and pedestrian-friendly projects in the past. The administration killed plans for a busway on Fordham Road in the Bronx. Most recently, Adams ripped up a protected bike lane on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn — which his administration had installed last year — after community pushback.

"Even a belated busway is good news for 34th Street riders, but New Yorkers from Brooklyn to the Bronx are still waiting on other bus improvements being blocked by City Hall,” Riders Alliance Policy and Communications Director Danny Pearlstein wrote in a statement.

“As a rule, faster buses for millions of people shouldn't ride on last-minute bargaining over zoning changes.”

The Midtown rezoning plan will also spend $325 million in pedestrian improvements for more than 20 city blocks — from 21st to 42nd streets — including wider sidewalks, better bike lanes, two more car-free blocks and a “Kid-First Play District” with interactive street furniture.

Under the plan, the Department of Transportation would remove all cars from 22nd to 23rd streets and 24th to 25th streets on Broadway.

At the heart of the rezoning is a plan to create more housing and more affordable housing in Midtown. In addition to the 9,500 units the city hopes to add to the neighborhood, 30% of those would be permanently affordable housing, as part of a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing requirement for developers. That means the units must be affordable to people who earn between 40% and 80% of the average median income. The affordable units are expected to be distributed in each building with half of them being big enough for families.

There are currently 2,300 affordable units in the Midtown district that is being rezoned.

Public outreach for the busway is expected to begin later this year.