Bronx residents want bus changes on Fordham Road; "This situation is of many years of neglect"
NEW YORK -- Bus riders rallied on Fordham Road speaking out about the clogged lanes that's causing them to be late for school and work on a daily basis.
The Department of Transportation has already outlined proposals to improve service, but residents are on both sides of the coin when it comes to seeing the improvements they want.
Fordham Road is one of the busiest corridors in the borough. For years, clogged lanes and illegal parking have prompted buses to be late.
"I've lived in this community for over 50 years," said Bronx resident Sallie Smith. "The situation is of many years of neglect."
Because of the ripple effect of delays it causes, the group Riders Alliance and residents gathered outside one of the busiest routes to demand for immediate changes.
"I'm here to demand that Mayor Adams implement a busway on Fordham Road this year," said Abby Dziura, a Fordham University student.
There are two DOT proposals that residents here are interested in. One of those is to implement a parking lane and offset bus lane, and the other proposal would to make this entire street a busway without any passenger vehicles.
"The busway portion of the project would actually be from Jerome to Webster… so what that would look like is all these cars wouldn't be on Fordham Road," explained Derrick Holmes, of Riders Alliance.
City Councilmember Oswald Feliz believes the best way to improve bus rider experience is not necessarily with new roads, but with current enforcement.
"The red paint has completely worn off, painting in red to bring awareness of bus lanes but also installed fix cameras," said Feliz.
About 85,000 daily bus riders commute on this route. Bus riders at the rally say they need officials to come up with a quicker solution to better their experiences.
"I would make them take the bus to work for a week and see how they like it. And I think that would be enough to convince anybody," said Dziura.
The DOT told CBS New York in a statement it is continuing to develop designs for offset bus lanes that cause minimal traffic diversions.
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