Eyes on the Street: Fulton Street Gets Its New Bus Lanes

Council Member Laurie Cumbo tried and failed to get DOT to scale back the project.

By David Meyer
May 18, 2018

New bus lanes are in place, but not yet in effect, on Fulton Street. Photo: Jon Orcutt

Faster trips are on the way for riders of the B25 and B26 on Fulton Street. DOT has striped bus lanes between Grand Avenue and Fort Greene Place.

Bus riders make nearly 20,000 trips each day on the B25 and B26. At peak hours, however, traffic slows buses down to about 7 mph, according to DOT. These new bus lanes, which are in effect westbound from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and eastbound from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, should change that.

The bus lanes are not being enforced yet, according to TransitCenter’s Jon Orcutt, who sent in these photos.

The fact that the bus lanes have been painted means the city didn’t back down to pressure from Council Member Laurie Cumbo and some Fulton Street merchants. More than two-thirds of households in this City Council district don’t own cars, but Cumbo had pushed DOT to scale back the bus lane hours.

While that effort didn’t succeed, DOT had already cut the hours nearly in half at the behest of Fulton Street merchants. As a result, the bus lanes won’t be painted red. Agency guidelines call for the more visible terra cotta treatment for bus lanes that are in effect at least six hours a day, said Orcutt, and these lanes don’t make the cut.

The city's plan to extend bus lanes on Fulton Street. Image: DOT — The city’s plan to extend bus lanes on Fulton Street. Image: DOT

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The city's plan to extend bus lanes on Fulton Street. Image: DOT

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The city's plan to extend bus lanes on Fulton Street. Image: DOT

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