Some traffic relief is coming to the busy S79 bus stop on Fourth Avenue.
At a Community Board 10 meeting Feb. 9, MTA representative Melissa Farley announced a proposal to install a part-time S79 bus layover on the corner of 87th Street during morning rush hours.
A layover is an end-of-route location where the bus remains until it is ready to proceed to the first stop of the route where passengers board.
“There’s a lot of bus traffic there,” Farley said. “One of the things we’ve noticed since we opened [the elevator at 86th Street station] is that the S79 buses are backing up and double-parking as they’re waiting to pull into the bus stop on 86th and 87th Street.”
DOT used cameras to make a real-time study of the morning bus traffic.
Farley said the DOT has agreed to give the MTA a part-time layover on the southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and 87th Street from 6 to 8:30 a.m.
“We are hoping that the police will help us enforce our dispatcher and make sure buses are out of that spot by 8:30 a.m. and parking can take place once that time period is up,” Farley said.
CB 10 member Dean Rasinya said the problems in the area persist past the early morning hours.
“I’ve been there around 11 a.m. and those buses are still double-parked there,” Rasinya said. “I’m not sure if finishing that early in the morning is going to fully address the problem.”
A meeting will be held in the near future to discuss additional solutions to bus congestion in the area.