Op-ed: More bus-only infrastructure to the tunnel is key to easing Midtown congestion

Originally published at Crain's New York Business

Subway, a 1934 Public Works of Art Project New Deal era painting by Lily Furedi.

Sometimes I miss something big. That is certainly the case with Covid and the rise of remote work. Back in 2017, in One Vanderbilt is Helping Fund the MTA, I also crowed about a big-but-elegant supertall being built employing a quid pro quo deal that let SL Green build bigger in exchange for a $220 million payment to the M.T.A. to help fund construction of Grand Central Madison.

While I am all for developers paying their share for public infrastructure, in hindsight it was shortsighted of me to think that such deals are the golden ticket to getting needed transit built in NYC.

Still, I didn’t get it all wrong back in 2017. I hit the nail on the head when I wrote that “too many of those new buildings are supertalls, tricked out residential toothpicks that bring little to the City apart from longer shadows over Central Park and a third, fourth or fifth pied-à-terre to the world’s uber rich.”

I also still believe that One Vanderbilt can serve as a “model of how the M.T.A. and developers can work together to bring critical transportation infrastructure to a city” so long as the M.T.A., State and City make sure the deal pencils out for the public and isn´t just corporate welfare for the developer.

Back in 2017, a strong regional economy and a  seemingly insatiable appetite for urban living à la New York created a transit and suburban rail ridership boom. Today, that appetite for urban living remains though hybrid work has replaced 9–5 in the office for workers and corporate management smart enough to recognize that no one likes commuting no matter how plush the subway, bus, train or car seat.

Rather than dragging workers back to the office to keep profits flowing to the REITs, banks and hedge funds that over-invested in commercial real estate, the City should give a supertall middle finger to the obsolete central business district work model and invest in hybrid work and adaptive reuse of as many office buildings as it can. A more pedestrian and bike friendly Midtown is already taking shape and that is an approach we can all get behind.

It is time we ditch the pipedream of supertall office towers paying for the renovation of Penn Station and further improve Midtown West by finding a creative solution to the private bus depots that have emerged in recent years.

Recently, I took the FlixBus from 31st Street and 8th Avenue to Baltimore and the DMV. From my seat near the driver I watched as he wore out his horn begging taxis and Ubers to give him a minute to maneuver his rig into the congested westbound lane of traffic.

Meanwhile, real estate behemoth Vornado has evicted tenants and is warehousing many of the small buildings between Penn Station and Hudson Yards in the ship-has-sailed illusion that these sites will be turned someday into supertall office towers for unlucky bridge and tunnel commuters.

Eureka! With New York transformed by remote work, the City should use eminent domain to create a second, no-frills bus terminal with dedicated bus lanes to the tunnel. Or better yet, Vornado should gift the city a couple of the decrepit buildings south of the Moynihan Train Hall that it has already taken out of service.

Easing congestion in midtown can be achieved if we think creatively about more bus only infrastructure to the tunnel. While this is a modest idea for a city facing monumental challenges, it is a decongestant that deserves a try.

Yours in transit,

Joel

Joel Epstein is a New Yorker and an advocate for public transit, livable cities and public space.