The New York City Department of Transportation recently completed a substantial portion of the East Gun Hill Road Bus Priority and Safety project in the Bronx.
The project will create faster and more reliable service for 40,000 daily bus riders and safer streets along a Vision Zero Priority Corridor.
East Gun Hill Road serves bus riders across two routes and connects to other local buses and four subway lines. A section of the road is a Vision Zero Priority Corridor because its per-mile rate of deaths and serious injuries is in the top 10 percent in the borough. Every week, an average of five people are injured in crashes.
The project will redesign the corridor by adding bus-only lanes and turn bays, improving visibility between drivers and pedestrians, helping prevent dangerous wide-angle turns, discouraging speeding, and redesigning more than 20 intersections to expand pedestrian safety, shorten crossings, and calm traffic.
The department installed concrete, block-long bus boarding islands to allow passengers to board buses quickly and safely by separating the bus lanes from general traffic.
Bus lanes were designed to ensure businesses can receive deliveries without blocking the lanes. The design features loading zones, metered parking, center-running, and curbside bus lanes.