'True' fast bus service considered for Queens

The faster bus routes the city and MTA has rolled out over the past three years have sped up service, but were unlike the "true" bus rapid transit systems other cities have put on their streets.

But transit officials have been planning to create such a route along Queens' Woodhaven Boulevard that would be unlike any Select Bus Service installed so far.

The congested Woodhaven/Cross Bay boulevards corridor, which sees 30,000 bus riders a day, could have a physically separate center lane for buses to zip through the borough's major north-south road.

Transit advocates will join Councilman Donovan Richards of eastern Queens Tuesday at City Hall to show support for the project.

Commissioner Polly Trottenberg over the summer said the full bus rapid transit service could cost closer to $200 million as opposed to the tens of millions of dollars to put in a Select Bus route with a bus lane and off-board fare payment.

Joan Byron, policy director at the Pratt Center for Community Development, estimated that a fuller bus rapid transit route on Woodhaven Boulevard could boost travel speeds up to 30% over a regular bus.