Major Changes Coming to 79th Street Bus Corridor: $60M Project Unveiled

Major Changes Coming to 79th Street Bus Corridor: M Project Unveiled — The M79 bus. Courtesy photo.

By Gus Saltonstall

Change is coming to the 79th Street thoroughfare.

Last week, a representative from New York City’s Department of Transportation presented to Upper West Side Community Board 7’s Transportation Committee its plan to revamp the 79th Street corridor, from Riverside Drive to East End Avenue, in order to improve M79 select bus service and also make the stretch safer.

The proposed changes include:

Upgrades to 15 already existing bus stops, including adding shelters and seating, as well as improving ADA conditions.
Upgrades to 14 bus pads along the route, which are the flat concrete surfaces located in front of bus stops that help roads withstand the weight of stopping and starting buses.
Upgrades to nine median tips/pedestrian refuges.

Along with planned upgrades to existing features, the proposed capital plan along 79th Street will also add the following elements.

Four bus bulbs, which is where the curb line near a stop gets bumped out to create a wider sidewalk.
13 sidewalk extensions along 79th Street.
Plant more than 20 new trees along 79th Street, along with installing storm water basins, which appear as expanded tree beds that help with periods of excessive rain.

The exact details and locations of all of these proposed upgrades and additions are still in the planning phase, and the DOT doesn’t have added information as of this point.

The total cost of the project is expected at $60 million, with $25 million for the DOT work — $10 million on the West Side and $15 million on the East Side. And then, $35 million for the needed New York City Department of Environmental work.

In terms of timeline, the DOT expects the design work to be completed in the fall of 2025, construction to start in the summer of 2026, and the project to be completed in the winter of 2030.

The new proposed capital project work comes less than a decade after a major street improvement project from the city in 2017 for the 79th Street thoroughfare that launched the M79 select bus service, added bus lanes, and improved bus stop amenities along the corridor.

Since that project was completed, bus speeds on 79th Street have improved by an average of 8 percent, the number of late buses decreased by 45 percent, and total injury incidents for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists are down 57 percent, when comparing averages from 2012-2016 to 2017 to 2024, according to the DOT.

With that being said, the M79 select bus is still one of the busiest in the city with 13,500 daily riders, and there were 26 people killed or severely injured along the 79th Street corridor from 2020 to 2024. That puts it among the top third of most dangerous bus routes in the five boroughs.

The spokesperson from the DOT also provided diagrams for proposed changes to each of the M79 bus stops on the west side.