Since 1963, New York City has been using a system of bus lanes that are intended to give priority to buses, which contain more occupants than passenger and commercial vehicles. Most of these lanes are restricted to buses only at certain days and times, but some bus lanes are restricted 24/7. , there are of bus lanes within New York City (with an additional 23 miles of high occupancy vehicle lanes on highways which also accommodate buses).
The lanes are generally used to speed up MTA bus routes on the city's public transport system, which would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion. Bus lanes are a key component of the Select Bus Service (SBS) bus rapid transit network, improving bus travel speeds and reliability by reducing delays caused by other traffic.
Since implementation, the lanes have generally helped to increase bus reliability citywide. However, there have been controversies on the benefits of the bus lanes due to the resulting increased traffic and the methods used to enforce bus lanes during their operating hours. In 2010 the city began enforcing the rule by placing cameras that take photos and videos of violators, leading to increased reports of bus-lane violations.
Types of bus lanes A curbside bus lane runs along the curb. Vehicles are not allowed to park or stand in this lane, but may briefly enter this lane to make right turns unless otherwise specified.
An offset bus lane is placed one lane away from the curb. In this setup, vehicles are able to park or stand at the curb, but are not allowed to double park or stop on the bus lane. Vehicles may briefly enter this lane to make right turns unless otherwise specified.
There are also median bus lanes, which are placed in the center of the road. This setup is used along East 161st Street in the Bronx, used by the Bx6 and Bx6 Select Bus Service routes, Woodhaven Blvd in Queens, Kings Highway in Brooklyn and EL Grant Highway in the Bronx.
A busway typically allows buses and trucks to travel along the corridor, while also permitting local access via side streets for all other vehicles. Traffic regulations on busways vary. This type of busway began with the 14th Street Busway, originally only a temporary measure when the L train was shut down in 2019. Additional busways have been installed, beginning with Jay Street in Brooklyn, Main Street in Flushing, Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica, and 181st Street in Manhattan.
History
20th century As early as 1959, the city wished to build exclusive bus lanes on Lafayette and DeKalb Avenues in Brooklyn. The lanes would be built on streets that were to be converted from two-way to one-way streets. They were intended to increase the speed of bus service on these avenues, since without the bus lanes, the routes were projected to lose riders. However, traffic commissioner T. T. Wiley disapproved of the proposal, since the city did not install exclusive bus lanes.
The first two bus-lane corridors implemented in New York City were installed on May 20, 1963. One set of bus lanes was placed on Victory Boulevard in Staten Island, at the approach to the Saint George Ferry Terminal. The other set was placed on Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn between Boerum Street and Flatbush Avenue. The same year, the city's first highway bus lane was installed on the Long Island Expressway in Long Island City, under the proposal of Traffic Commissioner Henry A. Barnes. The Brooklyn bus lane soon encountered frequent traffic slowdowns, leading officials to propose adding no-parking signs and more traffic agents to enforce the lane. Another bus lane was soon installed along Hillside Avenue in Queens, with the westbound bus lane extending to the subway station at 169th Street. In 1969, one of the most congested corridors, 42nd Street between Third Avenue and Eighth Avenue, received a rush-hour-only bus lane.
Crosstown bus service on 49th and 50th Streets in Manhattan had one of the slowest speeds of those on any crosstown street in Manhattan: (walking speed). As a result, on June 12, 1979, to speed travel, lanes were implemented to be dedicated for use by crosstown buses and taxis. Cars without a destination on this pair of streets were prohibited on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. between Third Avenue and Seventh Avenue. A seven-minute reduction in travel time resulted from the change.
On May 26, 1981, the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) implemented Commissioner Sam Schwartz's plan for bus lanes on Madison Avenue. These were the first exclusive concurrent dual bus lanes on a city street. Two lanes along Madison between 42nd Street and 59th Street were reserved for buses between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m on weekdays in order to reduce congestion and increase mass transit usage. Twenty-nine traffic enforcement agents monitored the operation. This plan was one of three major transportation initiatives undertaken by the Koch Administration. The plan was put into place after the city took a study of traffic going down Madison Avenue: 24,000 people were moved by bus, while only 11,000 moved by car between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.. The maximum time to ride on a bus along the corridor was decreased from 36 minutes to 15 minutes. The Federal Urban Mass Transit Administration (now the Federal Transit Administration) provided a grant of $788,000 for the project. While intended to only last for a year, the plan was so successful that the bus lanes were maintained. Local bus speeds increased from to , a 65% increase. Express bus speeds increased from to , a 100% increase. While it was expected to decrease speeds for private cars and taxis, the overall speed of traffic on the remainder of the avenue increased by 10%.
Additional bus lanes were added in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1981, Manhattan alone had of priority bus lanes along First, Second, Third, Sixth, and Eighth Avenues; Broadway in Lower Manhattan; and 42nd and 57th Streets. Another federal grant of $575,000 allowed the city to hire 22 traffic agents to enforce bus lane rules. In 1982, the city started a pilot project in which it installed red thermoplastic strips along 10 bus lanes in Manhattan. The strips were installed to remind motorists of heavy bus-lane penalties. In 1982, a curbside bus lane was implemented on Third Avenue between 36th Street and 56th Street.
21st century
The NYCDOT started painting bus lanes red in 2007–2008, with the introduction of Select Bus Service (SBS). The first bus lane that was painted red was installed on 57th Street in 2007, but the red paint was removed two years later. The NYCDOT chose an epoxy-based red paint for visibility reasons, but after extensive testing and review of said paint, found that the red paint was only durable when applied on newer asphalt surfaces. In 2010, the NYCDOT began studying other epoxy-based red paints for use on bus lanes. As a result of the study, three brands of red paint were determined to be suitable for use on New York City bus lanes. In 2017, the Bx6 became the first corridor to use bus lanes in the median of the street, as opposed to bus lanes on the curbside or one lane away from the curbside. The median bus lanes supposedly speed up traffic by going around double-parked cars.
In January 2019, mayor Bill de Blasio promised to add of bus lanes a year as part of a plan to speed up the city's bus system. On April 18, 2019, de Blasio unveiled the Better Buses Action Plan, which recommended 24 locations where changes to speed up bus service should be made. As part of the plan, twenty-four corridors would receive new, upgraded, or protected bus lanes, in addition to other strategic measures intended to speed up bus service. In addition to new bus lanes on fourteen corridors and bus stop improvements to six locations, bus lanes will be upgraded along four corridors. These are Lexington Avenue between 96th and 60th Streets, Madison Avenue between 60th and 42nd Streets, and 42nd Street between FDR Drive and 12th Avenue in Manhattan, as well as Livingston Street between Boerum Place and Flatbush Avenue (potentially protected bus lanes) in Brooklyn. In October 2019, the New York City Council passed legislation mandating that of bus lanes be added in the city within five years.
A busway on 14th Street was implemented in October 2019 on a trial basis. In June 2020, de Blasio announced that the city would test out busways on Main Street and Jamaica Avenue in Queens, 5th Avenue and 181st Street in Manhattan, and Jay Street in Brooklyn. The 14th Street busway would become permanent, and of new bus lanes would be added. While the Jay Street busway was implemented in September 2020, none of the other projects were completed by that October, which had been the deadline set by de Blasio. The third busway to open was the Main Street corridor in Downtown Flushing, which had its southbound lanes converted in 2017 and its northbound lanes in January 2021.
In Eric Adams's successful campaign for the 2021 New York City mayoral election, he promised to add of bus lanes in New York City in four years. This was in accordance with the City Council's 2019 legislation that mandated 150 miles of bus lanes by 2024. The city added only of bus lanes in 2022, Adams's first full year in office, due to various objections from politicians and community groups who did not want bus lanes in their neighborhoods. By mid-2024, The New York Times estimated that fewer than of additional bus lanes would have been added in Adams's first three years.
In July 2026, mayor Zohran Mamdani released the report Next Stop: Fast Buses, Better Service alongside NYCDOT. As part of the plan, 50 corridors were listed as priority corridors for bus infrastructure improvements, which were based on where bus riders experiences the most delays on their journey and considered bus speeds, ridership, reliability, time for journeys and access to other transit modes, with five of them selected to become rapid bus corridors.
Notable corridors with bus lanes , the city's bus lane network is about long, representing three percent of the city's of streets.
Manhattan
North–south corridors For nearly their entire lengths, the northbound-only First Avenue between Houston and 125th Streets, and southbound-only Second Avenue between 125th and Houston Streets, form a directional pair of bus lanes used by the M15 corridor. The bus lanes are used by both the M15 local and SBS routes. Northbound-only Third Avenue between 36th and 123rd Streets, and southbound-only Lexington Avenue (southbound, between 30th and 96th Streets), is another directional pair hosting the M101, M102, M103, and M98 bus routes.
The two bus lanes of southbound-only Fifth Avenue carry the M1, M2, M3, M4, and M5. In fall 2017, a second bus lane was added to Fifth Avenue. They form a directional pair with the two northbound-only Madison Avenue bus lanes between 42nd and 59th Streets, which carry the M1, M2, M3, and M4. In November 2012, the hours of the double bus lanes on Madison Avenue were extended from 2 to 7 p.m. to 24 hours. The bus lanes were extended south to 23rd Street in 2026.
Northbound Sixth Avenue between 40th and 57th Streets, carrying the M5 and M7, is a directional pair with southbound Seventh Avenue, whose bus lane between 23rd and 42nd Streets) is used by the M7 and M20. In June 2026, the NYCDOT announced plans to extend the Sixth Avenue bus lane south to Watts Street and north to 58th Street. For the M20, Seventh Avenue is also a directional pair with northbound Eighth Avenue between 42nd and 57th Streets.