Construction is underway on a major redesign of the 116th Street crosstown bus corridor running through Harlem and East Harlem, Manhattan. Led by the New York City Department of Transportation in partnership with the MTA, the project will add 2.5 miles of offset and curbside bus lanes, dedicated traffic signals known as queue jumps, protected bike lanes, and 35,000 square feet of new pedestrian space along a corridor serving more than 65,000 daily bus riders across ten routes. The redesign was presented to Manhattan Community Board 11’s transportation committee in June and calls for 24/7 red-painted bus lanes in both directions from Fifth Avenue to Pleasant Avenue.
To carve out the dedicated lanes, DOT will eliminate 19-foot shared parking-and-travel lanes and repurpose 61 parking spaces for sidewalk and curb extensions, pedestrian islands, speed humps, and hardened daylighting. Between 2020 and 2024, 317 people were injured in crashes within the project area, according to city figures compiled by NYPD and DOT. Left turns from 116th Street onto Park Avenue beneath the elevated Metro-North tracks will be restricted, and three new mid-block crosswalks, new traffic signals, and on-street bike parking will be installed along the corridor. An NYC DOT Art mural is planned for the intersection of East 120th Street and Pleasant Avenue.
Map of 116 Street overhaul, via NYC.
On Pleasant Avenue between East 116th and East 120th Streets, the project will install a parking-protected bike lane in each direction, creating new connections to existing lanes serving Randall’s Island and the Harlem River waterfront. Updated parking regulations, including metered parking and truck loading zones, are intended to improve curb access and clear the double and triple parking that riders identify as the corridor’s chief obstruction. DOT has cited bus lanes on nearby Lexington Avenue, which improved bus speeds by 19 percent and cut traffic injuries by 24 percent, as precedent for the redesign.
Construction on the 116th Street redesign is expected to continue through fall 2026, according to NYC DOT.
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These bus and bike lanes bring traffic to a halt.