Advocates for increased public transit in Queens are butting heads over a proposed Select Bus Service corridor on Woodhaven Blvd, one of the boroughs major throughways.

Around a dozen members from the Queens Public Transit Committee (QPTC) demonstrated against the proposed SBS Sunday, a program that commuter groups such as the Bus Rider’s Alliance have been pushing for. The group fears that the reduction in traffic lanes as a result of the SBS will lead to increased congestion and longer travel times for drivers.

“We’re trying to unite commuters, the city tried to divide us by saying we need bike lanes, we need bus lanes, we need to demonize the driver,” said Phil McManus, Chair of the QPTC. “We’re not committing crimes, all we’re trying to do is to get to work, to go shopping, and that’s everybody.”

The project is slated to cost $231 million and is set to be implemented in 2017. It is currently still in the planning phases but the NYC Department of Transportation has listed Woodhaven as a priority route for SBS in the city.

Transportation activists have championed SBS as a way to service transportation starved areas in a fast, cost-effective manner. Introducing dedicated bus lanes, spaced out bus stops, and terminals that allow passengers to pay before embarking expedite the buses in SBS corridors. The goal is to mimic the speed of subways without the infrastructure costs.

The DOT estimates that the corridor will serve 30,000 commuters per day and cut travel times by 25-30 percent.

McManus’s group are advocating for a different strategy to solve Queens’s transportation woes. The QPTC wish to see the currently dormant Rockaway railroad track, which connects north and south Queens, rebuilt by the MTA.

The protestors distributed literature outlining this plan. “Stop stealing speed limits!” and “Stop stealing left turns!” were some of the group’s chants, as they stood on the corner of the busy intersection of Hoffman Ave and Woodhaven Blvd in gloomy weather.

These chants are directed at how the proposed SBS route will affect drivers in north Queens.

The road is currently 8 lanes wide and 3.2 miles long. It is a major throughway that intersects with several arteries in Queens, such as Jamaica Blvd, Queens Pkwy, and Rockaway Blvd. It’s also a local truck route, which adds to congestion.

According to the final design of the new bus lanes, released by the DOT in March, Woodhaven will be reduced to 6 traffic lanes and two dedicated bus lanes. Local traffic lanes will be introduced at either edge of Woodhaven. Left turns will also be banned at several intersections to expedite traffic. Furthermore – in line with Vision Zero, the City’s plan to eliminate traffic related deaths – the speed limit will be reduced and pedestrian islands will be installed to break up the daunting cross along 8 lanes of traffic.

Bus Rider’s Alliance has been a leading campaigner for bus rapid transit, another name for SBS. Josselyn Atahualpa, Community Organizer for the Bus Riders Alliance and Queens native, believes that people with the privilege to have a car should be more considerate of the needs of bus users.

“When drivers are complaining about traffic, whereas you see bus riders stopping every other stop, crowded with 100 other people. It’s problematic,” Atahualpa said. “A lot of people live in the [SBS] raceways and need to access schools, in the northern part of Queens, don’t have any other options.”

She pointed to the success of already implemented SBS corridors in the Bronx and Harlem as signs of how it can impact communities, especially disabled and elderly commuters for whom driving is not an option.

SBS has also been introduced to reduce the number of accidents along the Woodhaven corridor and make it safer for pedestrians.

Chair of Community Board 10 Betty Bratton said his constituents are skeptical over the SBS corridor and how it will actually reduce pedestrian accidents.

“Does it create a pedestrian issue somewhere else? If you do away with left turns at one intersection, the vehicles that are trying to turn left [will go] somewhere else,” he said.

McManus added that drivers are bearing the cost of the new SBS through tickets that they pay and called on law enforcement to ticket pedestrians and other commuters as vigilantly as they ticket drivers.

“If I drive a car and somebody walks in front of me and he doesn’t look, is it my fault that I hit him? When he walked through the light, he j-walked, or the bicyclist went the wrong way,” he said. “Some commuters pay more than others. And that’s not fair, we should have equality.”

While the two groups remain at odds on the pros and cons of the SBS corridor along Woodhaven Blvd, all parties agree that improvements are needed for commuters travelling with Queens.

“As the city grows, mass transit needs to grow with it,” Atahualpa said. “In a smart way.”