Hundreds of bus riders from the Bronx and Upper Manhattan have signed an open letter to Mayor Eric Adams demanding the implementation of a busway on Fordham Road after his administration axed plans to do so following protests from local business owners.
The letter to Adams, organized by the Riders Alliance and sent on Oct. 21, was signed by 540 bus commuters outraged at the administration for abandoning a plan to construct a busway, where car traffic is significantly curtailed, on Fordham Road — one of the busiest and most congested east-west transit corridors in the city.
About 85,000 commuters daily ride buses on Fordham Road — which, at its busiest points, is shared by five city bus lines and three lines of Westchester County’s Bee-Line. The busiest of those is the Bx12, which runs local and select service between Orchard Beach and Inwood.
Those riders, whom the Riders Alliance met at bus stops along the route, say they face “outrageously slow and congested bus service every day” in the letter. The city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) planned to address this by building a busway on the most congested section of the corridor, hoping to speed up commutes as occurred on 14th and 181st streets in Manhattan when those roads were outfitted with busways.
But the administration soon backed off of that plan after local politicians like Rep. Adriano Espaillat and Council Member Oswald Feliz voiced objections.
Area institutions like the Bronx Zoo, New York Botanical Garden, Fordham University, and businesses along Fordham Road and Arthur Avenue also cried foul, worrying a busway would limit customers arriving by car. Busway supporters in the letter clapped back that 86% of visitors to the area arrive on foot or by public transit.
The letter argues that inaction has had consequences for bus riders. The Bx12 Select bus averaged 9.6 miles per hour from Oct. 2022 to June 2023; after the existing curbside bus lanes from 2008 were repainted last year, speeds still declined to 9.4 miles per hour from Oct. 2023 to June 2024.
“We have the evidence we need. Repainting the old lanes didn’t help bus riders at all,” reads the letter. “We need and deserve a contemporary design that addresses current conditions on Fordham Road.”
Bus speeds on the Bx12, local and select, are nonetheless higher than the Bronx and citywide averages, which clock in at a pathetic 7.7 and 8.1 miles per hour, respectively. New York’s buses are the slowest of any major American city, largely due to punishing gridlock traffic.
Adams has run afoul of transit advocates for repeatedly reversing himself on bus and bike lane projects, allegedly at the behest of local business interests — sometimes from contributors to his campaigns — and his chief lieutenant Ingrid Lewis-Martin. Other examples include bike lanes on McGuinness Boulevard and Ashland Place in Brooklyn, plus a bus lane on Flatbush Avenue in the same borough.
The administration has failed to abide by legal mandates to build new bus and bike lanes across the city, with bus lanes particularly deficient: DOT had built just 9.6 miles of out a required 50 after the first two years of Adams’ mayoralty.
Now, though, with turmoil gripping City Hall through myriad investigations into Adams administration members past and present, and the mayor himself under federal indictment, advocates see an opening to complete stalled street projects.
For one, City Hall recently pulled a U-turn on the hotly-contested McGuinness Boulevard bike lane and road diet project, restoring the original plan that faced fierce opposition from local businesses including Broadway Stages film studios.
