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NYC advances Bronx busway to speed commutes, improve safety along Tremont Avenue
By
Cory Schouten
Published Jul 15, 2026
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Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
By
Cory Schouten
Published Jul 15, 2026
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The Bronx is set to get its first busway later this year as the city revives a project to transform a Tremont Avenue corridor that serves 39,000 daily riders.
The plans call for safety improvements at eight intersections to shorten pedestrian crossing distances and slow turning vehicles, an eastbound busway from Third Avenue to Southern Boulevard, a westbound busway from Southern Boulevard to Belmont Avenue, and an offset shared bus-and-bike lane eastbound from Webster Avenue to Third Avenue.
City officials say the city’s busways — lanes reserved for buses, emergency vehicles and trucks, enforced by bus-mounted cameras and the NYPD — have been shown to boost bus speeds by as much as 60% and reduce injuries by up to 45%. Cars are allowed to use the lanes to access homes or businesses but must take the next available right turn.
Tremont Avenue has been one of the most dangerous streets in the Bronx: The city noted that 630 people were injured in crashes along the corridor from 2020 to 2024, including 46 severe injuries and four deaths. And buses in the corridor are among the city’s slowest, averaging as slow as 5 mph for some routes.
Also Wednesday, the mayor’s office said it has opened a feedback portal and has plans for a series of meetings to gather input on three of Brooklyn’s busiest transit corridors: Flatbush Avenue, Utica Avenue and Church Avenue. A combined 13 routes there serve about 150,000 daily bus riders.
“New Yorkers should not lose hours of their lives sitting in traffic on a bus. From the Bronx to Brooklyn, we’re building streets that move people instead of sticking them in gridlock,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. “These projects will make commutes faster, make our streets safer and return precious time to nearly 200,000 New Yorkers every single day.”
Mamdani touted the plan as a continuation of his campaign pledge to improve the city’s notoriously slow bus service. The announcement comes a week after Mamdani and the state-controlled MTA announced a new plan to speed up buses for 2 million New Yorkers along some of the most sluggish routes in the city. Last month, Mamdani gave the green light to a similar busway plan for 34th Street in Midtown.
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Cory Schouten
Cory Schouten is an editor, writer and content strategist based in Manhattan. He has held senior newsroom roles at The Wall Street Journal, Crain’s New York Business and Columbia Journalism Review.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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