Mamdani Gives Harlem Bus Riders Their Own Lane on E. 116th Street

Mayor Mamdani’s crusade for faster buses will take another big step this summer when the Department of Transportation puts bus lanes in both directions on E. 116th Street in East Harlem, where buses today crawl at just 4 miles per hour.

DOT’s redesign, which officials presented to the local community board earlier this month, will put 24/7 red-painted bus lanes in both directions of the crosstown corridor from Fifth Avenue to Pleasant Avenue, along with various pedestrian safety fixes and protected bike lanes on north-south Pleasant Avenue between 116th and 120th streets.

Around 65,000 people ride buses on 116th Street each day, traveling at half the citywide average bus speed, according to the state comptroller’s office — in a district where 85 percent of people use transit to get to work and 83 percent of households don’t own a car.

Speaking to Manhattan Community Board 11’s transportation committee on June 11, DOT representatives noted that bus lanes on nearby Lexington Avenue improved bus speeds by 19 percent and cut traffic injuries by 24 percent.

The plan also adds metered parking and truck loading zones to increase curb access and get illegally double- and triple-parked cars out of the way of buses — the key obstruction to buses today, according to riders who spoke to Streetsblog on the corridor this week.

“Streets are flooded, everybody’s got a car,” said Jose Lara, a bus riders headed home from his first day at a new job. Lara told Streetsblog he’d opt for different route next time.

“I don’t think I like this bus,” he said. “It’s kind of slow.”

Estella Walker, who rides the bus regularly to get to and from work, also complained about the brazen double parking — and the long waits that often result from it.

“A lot of traffic and a lot of cars parking everywhere,” Walker said. “There are long waits, especially on Saturdays.”

The MTA’s M116 buses are already equipped with automated camera enforcement that ticket drivers for illegal double parking and blocking bus stops. Once the bus lanes go in, those cameras will also let MTA and city to ticket drivers for blocking the bus lanes.

The 10 bus routes that traverse or cross 116th Street connect to four subway stations.

DOT’s redesign would cover the eastern leg of the corridor, and bring much-needed safety fixes to both 116th Street and Pleasant Avenue. Between 2020 and 2024, 317 suffered injuries in car crashes within the project’s parameters, according to city figure compiled by NYPD and DOT. A moped driver struck and killed pedestrian Anette Camaya at Pleasant Avenue and E. 118th Street back in 2020.

DOT’s redesign repurposes a total of 61 parking spots to make room for proven safety tools like sidewalk and curb extensions, speed humps, pedestrian islands and hardened daylighting to make pedestrians more visible to turning drivers. The agency also plans to restrict left turns from 116th Street onto Park Avenue under the elevated Metro-North tracks, where traffic crashes have injured nine cyclists and six pedestrians since 2020.

On Pleasant Avenue, DOT wants to put a parking-protected bike lane in each direction along with painted pedestrian islands and curb extensions to shorted crossing distances and slow driver turns.

Implementation is scheduled to happen this summer, DOT said. The redesign is just the latest piece of Mayor Mamdani’s “fast buses” agenda. So far, Hizzoner has announced or advanced bus priority projects on several corridors in Manhattan, Fordham Road in Bronx, Broadway in Queens and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

Officials have teased plans to put out a more comprehensive citywide bus improvement roadmap sometime this summer.

“The 116th Street project area is a critical crosstown corridor with 10 bus routes and over 65,000 daily bus riders that connects to the B, C, 2, 3, and 6 subway lines,” DOT spokesman Vincent Barone said in a statement. “Bus and pedestrian priority will mean faster bus service and safer streets for all New Yorkers in this area, but especially the 79% of residents who do not own a car.”