A Better Busway Is Coming To Livingston Street In Downtown Brooklyn
Lemme upgrade ya.
The Mamdani administration will extend the Livingston Street busway one block west of its current terminus at Smith Street, freeing an existing bus lane from a morass of placard abuse. Additionally, the city will add a companion westbound bus lane to Joralemon Street this fall, all of which follows through on a promised second phase of the bus priority project.
This fall, DOT will further advance the Livingston Street busway — first installed in 2024 between Smith Street and Atlantic Avenue — and slightly tweak the existing project to give more buses more room to maneuver.
West of Smith Street, the city will finally alter the existing curbside bus lane setup between Smith and Boerum Place, where a construction project at New York City Transit’s headquarters and rampant placard abuse have stymied bus speeds since the busway’s installation.
The new plan will shift the westbound bus lane from the north curb between Smith Street and Boerum Place to create an offset bus lane with a right turn at Boerum Place. Existing parking space on the south side of the street will move to the north curb, and the eastbound bus lane will replace the parking along the curb. According to a presentation DOT gave to the Transportation Committee of Brooklyn Community Board 2 on Sept. 3, the bus lanes’ new placement will ensure they better align with the existing bus lanes on Livingston Street,
The westbound offset bus lane will be active 24-7, but the eastbound bus lane on the curb will only activate between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays, which DOT spokesperson Will Livingston said was a fit for traffic patterns and eastbound buses that use the block.
Redesigning the street will also remove buses from of a morass of placard abuse on that stretch of Livingston Street — at least in theory. In its presentation on the project, DOT specifically noted that the curbside bus lane on the north side of the street is choked by illegally parked cars that slow down buses.
“Westbound Livingston Street right turn onto Boerum Place has heavy turning volumes, and placard abuse within the right turn bay/bus lane, creates bus delays,” the agency wrote.
The regular illegal parking by MTA employees on Livingston between Smith and Boerum is bad enough that in 2024 former New York City Transit President Rich Davey vowed to personally ticket and tow any car he saw parked in the bus lanes there in order to clear them off for buses. Davey’s threat did not prove enough to keep the red paint clear, so the city will try rearranging the street geometry instead.
DOT is also tweaking the extant busway east of Smith Street, by eliminating the painted median that divides the eastbound and westbound bus lanes between Gallatin Place and Hoyt Street. The agency is doing this to widen the eastbound bus lane, which DOT says will allow MTA buses to get around school buses and Access-A-Ride buses that pull to the curb next to the Helen Keller Services office on Livingston Street. Eliminating the median will also allow westbound bus drivers to head west either in the bus lane itself, or pull into the general travel lane midblock and use that to head west if the bus-only signal is red.
Beyond these segments of Livingston, DOT will also redesign Joralemon Street between Boerum Place and Court Street to emphasize freedom for buses. The MTA’s accessibility and station work at the Borough Hall station is almost finished, and with construction staging leaving the area, the city will be able to install a wide curbside bus lane on the north curb. That curb will operate 24/7 and can better accommodate the 50 buses per hour that serve the block during rush hour.
Furthermore, DOT will remove a slip lane from Joralemon onto Court Street, which will rationalize traffic and create a safer pedestrian experience.
The project includes a new two-way protected bike lane, on Livingston Street between Court Street and Boerum Place, that will connect the under-construction bike lane on Boerum Place and Adams Street. That will lay the groundwork for a future expansion of the Court Street bike lane north of Schermerhorn Street. Livingston, the DOT spokesperson, said DOT will reveal the details of that project in the coming months.
Livingston added that that the upcoming changes, which are planned for this fall, belong to DOT’s larger effort to adjust projects after the agency completes them and New Yorkers begin to use them.
“DOT always evaluates its projects and makes adjustments afterwards as needed to better meet the needs of New Yorkers on the street,” he said. “Phase 2 of the Livingston Street Bus priority redesign will refine some of the traffic patterns implemented in Phase 1 to better support bus service while continuing to enhance safety for everyone.”
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