East Village: Infrastructure and Transportation Updates

It seems that there is always construction in New York, in the hope of improving transportation and updating crucial infrastructure.  Finally though – at least along East 14th Street – things are calming down and construction work is due to at least be reduced from 16 to 12 hours according to a recent MTA announcement. This will somewhat ease the noise, dust and inconvenience of work being undertaken on East 14th Street from Ave. B to First Ave where endeavors are being taken to add an L train, elevators and new substation.

In related news, the MTA has been approached by lawmakers to pause work on proposed M14A/D Select Bus Service (SBS) changes.  The request is being made in an effort to connect express service to a supplemental local route.  The idea is to make the bus lines ahead of the L train’s partial shutdown faster.  The way this would be done would be by removing every other one of the M14A/D stops.  According to Carlina Rivera, city council member:

 “The proposed SBS stop spacing is a clear compromise between a local route and a typical SBS route—meaning that an M14 SBS will not have the ‘express’ travel times that other routes have. In fact, there is a successful model for this kind of plan just a few avenues away, where the M15 SBS runs parallel to an M15 local route. The MTA must pursue a similar strategy for the M14 route.”