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Say goodbye to crawling crosstown traffic on 34th Street—or at least most of it. Starting in October, the city will kick off construction to transform the busy corridor between Third and Ninth Avenues into Manhattan’s next major busway. Cars? Sharply limited. Buses? About to get their own express runway through Midtown.
The Department of Transportation says work will begin the second week of October and wrap up by the end of the year, with the new rules going live in November or December. Once in effect, private cars will only be allowed onto the street to reach local businesses and must exit within a block. Translation: No more joyrides across town. Trucks and buses, however, will rule the road from 6 am to 10 pm.
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Why the upheaval? The city wants to speed up commutes for the 28,000 daily riders who pack onto the M34/A Select Bus Service, along with dozens of express and tour buses. Right now, buses inch across 34th Street at a glacial three to five miles per hour—slower than the average Manhattan bus speed of six mph. “Most commuters in Midtown are traveling by transit and they deserve world-class, fast, and reliable buses,” DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said. “Busways bring dramatically faster and more reliable service and we are excited to get started on this transformative project.”
The model here is 14th Street, where a busway installed in 2019 boosted speeds by up to 24 percent and slashed crashes by 42 percent. The city is betting on the same formula to unclog one of its busiest east-west arteries. The redesign will also bring curb extensions, clearer intersections and stricter parking meters to discourage long stays.
Of course, not everyone is thrilled. Local drivers will lose a convenient crosstown shortcut and there’s bound to be some grumbling as work unfolds. But DOT insists that traffic spillover on neighboring streets was minimal on 14th, and they expect similar results here.
The 34th Street busway also ties into the city’s larger Midtown South rezoning, which aims to add nearly 10,000 new apartments to the Garment District. In other words, the city wants buses that can actually keep up with the neighborhood’s growth.
Brace for cones, crews and plenty of orange signs this fall. By the holidays, 34th Street should feel very different—faster for riders, quieter for pedestrians and just a little less hospitable to honking taxis.