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Work on new bus lanes for Brooklyn's Flatbush Avenue to begin this fall
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Sep 4, 2025
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Department of Transportation
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Sep 4, 2025
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A transformation of Brooklyn’s traffic-clogged Flatbush Avenue could begin as soon as the end of the month, city transportation officials said Thursday, presenting new details on the plan to deliver “train-like” service to bus riders.
Transit officials were expected to present Brooklyn’s Community Board 2 on Thursday night with the latest on the plan to replace two car lanes with bus-only lanes in the center of Flatbush Avenue between Livingston Street and Grand Army Plaza.
The redesign would dramatically overhaul one of Brooklyn's busiest and most dangerous roads. The section through Downtown Brooklyn, parts of Park Slope and Prospect Heights carries riders on 12 bus routes. Department of Transportation statistics show buses travel slower than four miles per hour on average during rush hours.
“We are excited to get Flatbush Avenue moving. Today, 132,000 daily bus riders are stuck waiting too long for slow buses, drivers are caught in a mess of traffic, and pedestrians are left crossing intersections clogged with vehicles," Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez wrote in a statement. "These new bus lanes will speed up bus service and make the street safer for everyone.”
Bus boarding islands will be installed along Flatbush Avenue.
Department of Transportation
Officials didn’t provide a specific date for the start of the work, but stated that it could begin this fall. It isn’t expected to be complete until the fall of 2026. That’s a reflection of the scale of the redesign, which transit officials said was due to the project's size and complexity.
The work includes six large concrete bus boarding islands in the center of the avenue that separate bus lanes from car traffic, more than 14,000 square feet of new painted pedestrian space, 11 new loading zones for local businesses and up to 14 new bike parking areas.
According to transportation department data, 140 people have either been killed or severely injured along Flatbush Avenue in the last five years, making it one of the most dangerous roads in Brooklyn.
The start of construction represents a milestone in a yearslong push to overhaul Flatbush. The Adams administration first proposed adding bus lanes at the start of 2023.
But like many other bus projects, Mayor Eric Adams took a stop-and-go approach to Flatbush Avenue that aggravated street safety advocates. Adams killed an ambitious redesign of Fordham Road in the Bronx, and gave the green light to a busway on 34th Street after furious criticism that the administration was slow walking the redesign.
The redesign will also result in the rerouting of small segments of the B63 and B69 buses that travel on Flatbush Avenue.
Tagged
brooklyn
transportation
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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