No more cars on 34th Street: Busway clears final hurdle, despite wild opposition from transit users
City Hall’s latest anti-car crusade cleared its final hurdle this week, despite fierce opposition from actual bus riders, who accused community board leaders of being in bed with the city and private interests.The wildly controversial plan to ban cars on 34th Street — a vital crosstown route for commuters from New Jersey and Long Island — to make way for a dedicated busway between 3rd and 9th Avenues, will take effect as early as the end of the summer.Stacy Rauch, a lifelong Murray Hill resident who takes the 34th Street crosstown bus daily, says car traffic isn’t the problem.“The bigger problem is we don’t have enough buses,” she said during a heated community meeting Wednesday night.Rauch was among dozens of angry Murray Hill residents who said the plans were rushed through with zero data or traffic analysis, and that the rerouted traffic from motorists coming out of the Midtown tunnel will make their local residential streets unlivable.City officials have drawn comparisons to 14th Street, where a similar car ban was implemented after a court battle.But Rauch notes 14th Street has four or five buses running in each direction during rush hour, while 34th Street only has two and doesn’t need the busway.“I have waited for the 34th Street bus at Park Avenue for 21 minutes, to go to 10th Avenue,” Rauch raged.“I got there in 10 minutes.
How much faster do you want it to go?”“Before you start telling me that this will fix it, you better get more buses,” she vented.Arguments descended into a full-blown shouting match, with accusations about conflicts of interest flying.“This is a sham!” exclaimed Samuel “Peter” Panuccio, a retired NYPD sergeant and Murray Hill resident, as he turned to the board.“We’re getting blindsided.” Panuccio and other residents said they only learned about the major overhaul planned for 34th Street a week ago — and that private interests are pushing it through against the will of the neighborhood....