Construction is underway on a paired redesign of DeKalb and Lafayette Avenues, two parallel corridors running from Downtown Brooklyn to Broadway at the Bedford-Stuyvesant border. Announced November 5, the project will install 2.7 miles of new offset and curbside bus lanes, protected bike lanes, and pedestrian safety upgrades along DeKalb Avenue between Broadway and Flatbush Avenue and Lafayette Avenue between Ashland Place and Patchen Avenue.
The work is intended to speed up service for the 18,000 daily riders of the B38, which runs between Downtown Brooklyn and Ridgewood, Queens.
According to design documents DOT presented to Brooklyn Community Board 3 in September, the treatments vary block by block. DeKalb Avenue will receive a 24-hour offset bus lane between Cumberland Street and Flatbush Avenue, with a barrier-protected bike lane where geometry allows, while the stretch from Cumberland Street east to Malcolm X Boulevard will get a part-time curbside bus lane and a parking-protected bike lane.
On Lafayette Avenue, a barrier-protected bike lane will run from Ashland Place to Fulton Street, part-time curbside bus lanes will operate between Adelphi Street and Patchen Avenue, and the segment east of Marcy Avenue will be protected by jersey barriers. Curbside bus lanes will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, with curbside parking permitted overnight; offset lanes will operate around the clock. Enforcement will come from stationary bus lane cameras and bus-mounted automated camera enforcement.
Since 2021, crashes on the two avenues have injured 841 people, 47 of them severely, and killed one pedestrian, with the intersections at Bedford, Washington, and Nostrand Avenues, Fulton Street, and Broadway among the worst hotspots, according to DOT data. The surrounding area is heavily transit-dependent: 80 percent of residents within a quarter-mile of the B38 commute by transit, bicycle, or on foot, and 62 percent of households do not own a car.
According to the community board presentation, installation of the bus lanes, bike lanes, and safety upgrades is slated for completion this fall, with monitoring and public engagement continuing through winter 2026-2027 and additional treatments under study for spring 2027.
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Excellent. It’s a busy bus corridor and drivers tend to treat the bike lane as a takeover lane or use it to double park.
Great to have faster, more reliable buses and safer bike routes.