Roosevelt Island Southtown Traffic Pattern Study & Proposal - One Way Traffic For Main Street's West Channel And More Street Parking

Temporary Red Bus Route Image From RIOC (click to enlarger)

During the scheduled 6 month Tram shutdown, the Roosevelt Island Red Bus has been temporarily re-routed in Southtown. As described in this earlier post

The temporary bus route eliminates south-bound buses on West Drive, as well as the associated bus stops opposite the subway station. Instead, all bus and truck traffic will travel south-bound along East Drive. The RIOC bus will turn west at the fountain and continue to the front of the F Train Station, while the Coler/Goldwater and Q102 buses will turn east at the fountain-continuing south down East Drive toward Goldwater Hospital, and return Northbound as they do now. Please refer to the attached map for further details.

At the March 17 Roosevelt Island Board of Directors Operations Committee meeting (listen to the full webcast here), a Southtown Traffic plan was presented by LiRo Engineers for when the Tram returns to service in late August/early September.

As of now, the temporary Southtown traffic plan has both East and West Channel 's Main street remaining 2 way streets except the West Channel Main Street will not permit southbound Bus and Truck traffic which must use the East Channel.

Blackwell Turnaround Directing Bus/Truck Traffic To East Channel of Main Street

The Southtown Traffic Study presented at the Operations Committee meeting proposed that when the Tram returns to service all southbound traffic including cars will be directed to the East Channel at the Blackwell Turnaround with Main Street's West Channel becoming a one way northbound street making available approximately 25-30 new parking spaces on the subway station side of Main Street.

Possible New Parking Spaces On Main Street West Channel

Another issue discussed was the location of the Bus Stop for the Roosevelt Island Tram once service resumes. As of now the plan is for the Bus stop to be just past the water fountain


on the opposite side of the street from the Tram station on the side of 405 Main Street.


Safety objections have been raised for this bus stop location based upon hazards to elderly and handicapped persons having to cross the street to get to and from the Tram. RIOC is considering moving the bus stop to the Tram Station side by having the Bus loop around the fountain to the Tram station, pick up or drop off Tram passengers and then loop back around the Fountain as it heads towards the Main Street West Channel and the Subway Station.


Below is the Southtown Traffic Study PowerPoint Presentation made by LiRo Engineers.
Southtown Traffic Study