Obama Shows $28 Million Worth of Love to Nostrand Avenue
Credit: Theodora Ravago/NYC Department of Transportation
Update 2/9/10: Here’s video that provides a demonstration of how BRT would operate on Nostrand. Also, here’s a presentation about how the system works, including pictures of the new payment system.
Wow!! So, we’ve blogged a couple of times about the bus rapid transit system coming to the Nostrand-Rogers corridor before. But just yesterday NP reader, nat, alerted us to the following:
In short, “the Obama Administration’s 2011 budget includes $28 million for the Nostrand Avenue Select Bus Service project.”
http://www.streetsblog.org/2010/02/02/feds-green-light-funding-for-better-nostrand-avenue-bus-service/
Wow … all that for lil old Nostrand?
We would have expected most folks to be happy and even excited about BRT. But as the Hawthorne Street blog has discussed in the past, some merchants in the Flatbush section of Nostrand are not too keen on the idea, voicing a concern that the bus would eliminate parking on the Ave. On this side of Nostrand, we don’t have the sense that patrons rely on street parking that much, so it might not be as much of a concern for merchants.
What say the town square on this news? Bad for Nostrand/Crown Heights? Good for Nostrand/Crown Heights? Might any of you consider using BRT to commute to Manhattan?
Popularity: 17% [?]
I’ve been told by an MTA employee that although the money has been allocated, we still need to call Tish James to have the BRT made into reality. Call your rep!
I just saw this, Brownstoner published about this project a day after we did and elicited a bunch of comments, in case anyone is curious about what others think: http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2010/02/big_bucks_for_n.php
I love this. I take the bus to Williamsburg and it’s a long trip with too many stops. It is especially slow with everyone paying as they get on I hope this BRT improves things a lot. Now if we only had electronic notification of when the next bus is arriving….