Bronx cyclists and bus commuters were given a boost on Friday, Nov. 20, when officials from the de Blasio administration announced that the City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) completed a major transformation of the Edward L. Grant Highway in the Highbridge section of the Bronx.

 

Administration officials, elected officials and advocates cut the ribbon on signature transit and bicycle safety improvements to the corridor, including a combined 2.4 miles of dedicated red, center bus lanes and green protected bike lanes (PBL). Both lane types will run in both directions and the center bus lanes will serve 56,000 riders every day, on three different bus routes.

 

The highway itself cuts through the heart of Highbridge. In a year that saw more cyclists being injured and killed on the city’s streets, the mayor said the Bronx deserved safer and more reliable alternative transit options. “These transformative design changes will encourage bus and bike ridership, speed up Bronxites’ commutes, and save lives,” he said. From 2013 to 2017, the Edward L. Grant Highway saw an average of 44 injuries each year, including eight severe injuries.

Prior to her resignation on Monday, Nov. 23, former DOT Commissioner, Polly Trottenberg, said, “It is not often that one project can have such a dramatic impact on so many different road users, but with new red bus lanes and green bike lanes, E.L. Grant vividly shows the very best of what DOT can do.” She added, “With these changes, bus riders get to their destinations faster, cyclists get protected lanes, and pedestrians are able to cross a wide street much more safely.”

 

It has been proven that the creation of dedicated bus and bike lanes make streets safer for transit riders, cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers, and bike safety advocates have long been in favor of them. City officials said DOT has added ­­­­50.9 miles of bike lanes in the Bronx since 2016, including 5.7 miles so far this year. That includes projects such as Willis Avenue, Bronxdale Avenue, and Mosholu Avenue.

 

The Edward L. Grant bus lane, which comprises 0.6 miles in each direction and 1.2 miles in total, is only the second center-running bus lane in the city. Officials said the new lanes enhances a high-ridership corridor that has been plagued by double parking. The new lanes come with five new bus boarding islands offering benches and leaning bars for riders, while calming traffic flow. They also shorten the crossing distance, improving pedestrian safety.

Meanwhile, the new green protected bike lanes replace a standard buffered bike lane with the full protected bike lane treatment which includes shortened crossing distances at five intersections, including Jerome Avenue, 170^th Street, Shakespeare Avenue, Nelson Avenue, and Plimpton Avenue.

 

Officials said there is also a new signalized crossing at University Avenue and left-turn restrictions at Plimpton Avenue, 169^th Street and Nelson Avenue. Metered parking was also added to commercial areas along the corridor and current meter regulations have been expanded.

 

In response to the new enhancements, Council Member Vanessa Gibson said, “This is a tremendous step forward to ensuring that pedestrians, cyclists, and those using mass transit are kept safe while traveling to their destination.” Meanwhile, Craig Cipriano, President of MTA Bus Company and SVP, NYC Transit Department of Buses, said, “The key to effective bus service is well enforced bus priority. Center-running bus lanes increase speeds, resulting in shorter bus travel time. That’s an approach demonstrated to bring riders back to mass transit, and we look forward to expansion of this strategy across the city.”

 

The improvements were also welcomed by Riders Alliance organizing manager, Stephanie Burgos-Veras, who said bus riders are the backbone of New York, and nearly half of bus riders are frontline workers. “In the Bronx, 95 percent of bus riders are New Yorkers of color, with an average income of $20,000 per year,” she said.

“Buses should be engines of opportunity, but for far too long, bus riders have been left stranded in slow traffic. Bus lanes like the ones on E.L. Grant Highway finally give riders the priority we deserve on our streets.” She said the Riders Alliance was proud to support the initiative, thanked the DOT for their hard work, and urged the mayor to build more bus lanes.

 

Meanwhile, Ashley Pryce, senior associate of advocacy at TransitCenter, said as much as 71 percent of those traveling along the EL Grant corridor do so by bus, and added that the improved busways have the potential to change the lives of tens of thousands of riders, making it easier for them to get where they need to go, quickly, safely and more efficiently.

 

Citywide, DOT has completed over 16 protected bike lane miles so far in 2020, with more than nine more miles scheduled to be completed this year. The administration has created more than 120 miles of on-street protected lanes to date citywide, primarily as part of the Mayor’s Better Buses Restart program.

 

The Edward L. Grant Highway was named to honor former New York Giants baseball player and United States Army Captain Eddie Grant, who enlisted to fight in World War I in 1917 after his retirement from baseball. Grant was killed by an artillery shell during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in October 1918 after his superior officers were killed and he led his remaining troops on a search for the Lost Battalion. Grant was the first Major League Baseball player killed in that war and one of only eight to die overall.