Second Ave. Bus & Bike Lanes To Be Overhauled, Says DOT
At a Community Board 6 meeting, the Department of Transportation laid out its plan to overhaul a stretch of Second Ave. between Houston St. & 59th St. They’ll move the M15 bus lane from the curb to an “offset” lane, while also widening the bike lane from six feet to eight feet.
| 08 Mar 2024 | 01:13
Vehicles such as this NYC Sanitation truck frequently park in the curbside bus lane on Second Ave., forcing buses to veer into regular traffic lanes. A new DOT plan will “offset” the dedicated bus lane away from the curb. (
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Bike lanes on Second Ave., which are frequently blocked by vehicles, will be widened from 6 ft. to 8 ft. under a new DOT proposal. (
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A map depicting 2nd Ave.’s bus and bike lanes between Houston St. & 59th St, which will reportedly be overhauled by the DOT. They’ll be “offsetting” the route’s curbside bus lane, which will allow it function 24/7 without being blocked by traffic. (
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The NYC Department of Transportation has rolled out a plan to overhaul a substantial chunk of 2nd Avenue’s bus and bike lanes, citing an increase in cycling and a surge in illegal parking. The resulting congestion has slowed traffic from Houston St. to 59th St.
On March 4, a representative from the agency–Rachel Eisenberg–gave a PowerPoint presentation on their intended improvements to Community Board 6. Laura Azze-Singh, a bus planner with New York City Transit, also spoke on what overhauling one of the busiest routes in the city would look like.
The M15 and the M15 Select Bus lines run along the corridor, which hosts both curbside and offset lanes. An offset lane is essentially separated from the curb by one lane.
The stretch targeted by the DOT, however, is curbside-only. This also happens to be the lane used by the M15 Select Bus–which has a much larger ridership than the regular local-stop M15–during rush hour. Select Bus drivers are supposed to be allowed to run their weekday routes between 7 a.m.-10 a.m. and 2 p.m.-7 p.m., with all other parking uses allowed during off-hours. In practice, this clearly isn’t closely followed by other drivers, who frequently block the lane.
Gersh Kuntzman, the editor of the transportation outlet Streetsblog, has long documented this phenomenon. On the day of the DOT’s CB6 presentation, Kuntzman shared a video of him pointing out an array of police cruisers parked back-to-back along the avenue’s curbside bus lane.
“Why is this bus in the middle of a road? Because the bus lane is filled with NYPD vehicles,” he said. A delivery truck was also seen parked in the lane.
As part of the Automated Bus Lane Enforcement (ABLE) program, the DOT collects data on parking scofflaws from bus-mounted cameras. The most prominent “violation hotspots” occur where 2nd Ave. intersects with E. 18th St. and E. 20th St.
”Bus speeds are higher and bus speeds are more reliable during the hours when [curbside] bus lanes are in effect,” Azze-Singh said. However, she added, “we all know that bus lanes only work when they’re kept clear and available for buses to use reliably.”
The DOT’s proposed fix is simple: transform these pesky curbside lanes into an “offset” lane, by putting a dedicated parking lane for other vehicles next to the curb instead. Therefore, everybody from NYPD officers to Budweiser trucks could legally park in a lane devised just for them. The M15 bus lines would run more smoothly alongside these parked cars, 24/7.
As far as 2nd Avenue’s bike lane goes, the DOT said, it’s the “only continuous bike lane on the East side” of Manhattan. It reportedly also hosts a whopping 6,000 bicyclists and micromobility users (e-bike & e-scooter riders) per day. Between 2009 and 2019, “daily cycling” in NYC increased by 116 percent.
Given this increase in ridership, the DOT wants to widen the bus lane from six feet to eight feet, which could accommodate added capacity. It would also, the agency said, “encourage social cycling.” Added widening is encouraged at intersections.
They also want to transform painted pedestrian islands into more substantial concrete islands, protecting the safety of both cyclists and walking commuters alike.
The DOT hopes to complete the lane overhaul by this summer. Data collection and “performance monitoring” will begin in the fall. Until then, expect to see more bus lane hogging on 2nd Avenue.