Jitney Importunity

Do 17 Million Visitors Deserve a Lift?

A coalition of leaders in multiple communities is coalescing to support a proposal that seeks to create a north-south bus route that would travel the length of the Hudson River Park, from the Battery to West 59th Street.

The 4.5-mile waterfront park is managed by the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT). This city/state agency is guided in part by recommendations from the Hudson River Park Advisory Council, an appointed panel that suggests policy ideas on behalf of adjacent neighborhoods and other stakeholders such as community organizations and elected officials.

At its September 17 meeting, the Advisory Council voted to urge the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to create a new bus route (or expand an existing line) along Hudson River Park on West Street, also known as Route 9A. Tammy Meltzer, who chairs the Advisory Council, noted, “how different Hudson River Park is today from five, ten, or 15 years ago. Mass transit does not go west of Eighth Avenue at the moment. And it’ll be a long day in heck before we get a subway further west. So the question is really bus service.”

Robert Atterbury, HRPT’s vice president of park relationships and programs, said, “there aren’t a lot of places on the west side of Route 9A for a bus to pull over. To put a a lay-by on our side would involve moving the bike lane’s current configuration further west, which would have to come from the depth of the park. In places, this is 45 feet wide. So if if you take anything away, it’s not an insubstantial chunk.”

Advisory Council member Tom Fox countered, “there are already pull-off [lanes] in front of Pier 45 and Pier 26 that are used by HRPT vendors, concessionaires, and tenants, which don’t seem heavily used right now. Having them shared occasionally by a southbound bus wouldn’t seem extreme. It sounds like a design issue, more than anything else.”

“I don’t think anybody wants to diminish one square foot of park land that we fought so hard for,” Ms. Meltzer said. “But I do think that with a redesign of West Street, and the size of the medians, and resiliency measures, that we have some opportunities.”

Mr. Fox amplified this point, saying, “not only do we not want to lose any park space, we want to gain some park space out of this redesign, to the extent possible, as a way to enhance both access to and use of the park, and mass transit.”

At the conclusion of this discussion, the Hudson River Park Advisory Council voted to enact a resolution calling upon the State Department of Transportation — which has jurisdiction over West Street/Route 9A and is currently conducting a two-year study on how to improve this artery — to make provisions for a new bus route in any redesign.

Concurrently, Community Board 1 and Community Board 2 (which represents the Hudson River shoreline of Manhattan from Canal Street to West 14th Street) enacted resolutions urging the City’s Department of Transportation and the MTA to work with the State DOT to accomplish the same goal. CB1’s resolution notes, “there’s a need for a continuous public bus route that connects the entire length of the Hudson River Park.” CB2’s measure observes that the Hudson River Park “receives 17 million visitors annually… to major venues like Little Island, Pier 40, Chelsea Piers, and Pier 57,” and “calls upon MTA to immediately implement a continuous bus route… along one of New York’s most traveled residential and tourist corridors.”