UPPER EAST SIDE — The Department of Transportation is proposing two new permanent Hampton Jitney stops to replace one temporary pick-up point on Lexington Avenue, in hopes of easing sidewalk crowding by spacing out the stops.
If the plan moves forward, the new bus stops would be located at 1082 Lexington Ave., between East 76th and 77th streets, and at 1224 Lexington Ave., between East 82nd and 83rd streets, and would replace the temporary pickup point on the avenue between 85th and 86th streets.
The Hampton Jitney also pitched a plan to move its first Upper East Side stop from Lexington Avenue between East 85th and 86th streets to the north side of East 96th Street, which would put it in the 11th district's jurisdiction, and would have to be discussed with CB11, according to Scott Falk, the co-chair of Community Board 8's Transportation Committee.
The idea is to move up the first stop and spread out the other bus stops so that no one stop draws a large crowd, he said.
The DOT is currently taking a look at that possibility, Falk said.
"It’s a wide open space and a wonderful option if it works for the community board up there," Falk said.
The majority of the committee on Wednesday voted to support all three of the potential new stops, although the two new stops on Lexington Avenue were the only locations up for consideration that night.
Up until July, the Hampton Jitney had a bus stop on East 86th Street, between Lexington and Third avenues, but the DOT banned left turns onto Lexington Avenue from 86th Street in April, which made it difficult for the bus to get to the rest of their pick-up points along the avenue.
The DOT gave the Jitney a temporary permit to pick up between East 86th and 85th streets until it could find a more permanent solution, Falk said.
But that location has proven to be chaotic — it is at the crux of subway commuter traffic, other bus pickups, and near big box stores like Best Buy, Sephora and H&M.
Upper East Sider Jordan Wouk added that the proposed permanent Jitney bus stops on Lexington make sense since there are already MTA bus stops at each one and there are no retail storefronts adjacent to the one between East 77th and 76th streets and no parking spaces between East 82nd and 83rd streets.
But committee member Michele Birnbaum disagreed, calling the proposals the worst locations the DOT could have picked.
"Could there be a less appropriate place for that?" she asked about the bus stop between East 76th and 77th streets.
Because it's next to the Lenox Hill Hospital, the subway and a narrow sidewalk, she said she could not support the Jitney stopping there. As for the proposal between East 82nd and 83rd streets, she said the buses would take up too much room in front of the stores there.
The committee agreed to support the new Jitney stops with a stipulation that the first Jitney stop on the Upper East Side is moved to East 96th Street.
