Public Housing and Bus Rapid Transit

 

The Pratt Center for Community Development and COMMUTE (Communities United for Transportation Equity), a citywide coalition advocating for transit improvements that will benefit low-income communities, collaborated to develop a proposal for bus rapid transit service that would enhance mobility for communities citywide that are now underserved by transit – and that could particularly address the unique transportation needs and opportunities offered by public housing.   Public housing represents a unique opportunity to serve a significant number of underserved riders.  

Our proposal includes a citywide network of 15 routes connecting areas of high population density that are underserved by rapid transit with employment centers, and linking neighborhoods that are currently very difficult to travel between using public transportation.

 

The map illustrates COMMUTE’s proposed network of BRT routes, along with the locations of public housing developments. The proposed BRT network would serve several NYCHA developments that house large numbers of people but are now isolated from rapid transit. These locations present outstanding opportunities for the development of new BRT-served transit nodes.