Thanks to Chris O’Leary at On Transport for posting the best documentation we’ve seen so far of NYPD’s utter disregard for the 34th Street bus lane. He took this picture yesterday during the middle of the evening rush, around 6 p.m., a time when there’s absolutely no excuse:

The shoulder lane is dedicated to buses only between 7am and 7pm on weekdays. But the eight empty police cars parked in the lane between 5th and 6th avenues would suggest otherwise.

As a result, buses had to load and unload in the one eastbound
travel lane, causing gridlock and leaving cars in the crosswalk of a
major pedestrian crossing.

Who will enforce the law when the enforcers won’t even obey the law?

We’ve seen traffic enforcement SUVs clog this bus lane before, but these are regular precinct vehicles, without a doubt. "At first I figured they were responding to an emergency," O’Leary said, "but there
was no police presence on the street or sidewalk, they were ALL
unoccupied, and the lights and engines were off."

The community affairs desk at Midtown South denied that officers from that precinct ever park in this bus lane. Perhaps officers from another precinct decided to make a pit stop and, just for good measure, mess with all the straphangers counting on Select Bus Service to get around town.