New bus lanes coming to Hillside Avenue in Queens

New bus lanes are coming to Hillside Avenue in Queens.

Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said construction of the new lanes had begun on Tuesday to improve wait times and provide faster service for 22 bus routes in Eastern Queens once completed later this year.

According to transportation officials, about 215,000 riders will benefit from the nearly eight miles of new bus lanes.

“Hillside Avenue is one of the most important commuting corridors of Queens, but currently features an inconsistent, patchwork design with some stretches of the street offering frequently blocked curbside bus lanes and other sections without any bus lanes at all,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

He said the updated streets will feature parking on both sides of the avenue, a travel lane for cars, a left turn lane and a camera-enforced lane dedicated to buses. The changes would free up curb space to support local shops and their deliveries, he said.

Officials said about 600 new parking spaces and loading zone areas are planned.

Buses running along 144th Street to Springfield Boulevard experience congestion, slowing them to as little as 4 miles per hour, according to the transportation department. The new project will add lanes to help buses bypass cars and trucks on the road.

The project is particularly important because of the sheer number of riders on the route, transportation officials said.

They estimated that if the buses along Hillside Avenue were a single transit system, it would be the 18th largest such system by ridership in the United States.

The department estimated that 60% of the residents near Hillside Avenue rely on and commute on public transit, and 83% of those ride the buses.

But transportation officials said less than one-third of road space is currently dedicated to buses, leading to extreme congestion.