Mayor Mamdani’s crusade for faster buses will take another big step this summer when the Department of Transportation puts bus lanes in both directions on E. 116th Street in East Harlem, where buses today crawl at just 4 miles per hour.
DOT’s redesign, which officials presented to the local community board earlier this month, will put 24/7 red-painted bus lanes in both directions of the crosstown corridor from Fifth Avenue to Pleasant Avenue, along with various pedestrian safety fixes and protected bike lanes on north-south Pleasant Avenue between 116th and 120th streets.
Around 65,000 people ride buses on 116th Street each day, traveling at half the citywide average bus speed, according to the state comptroller’s office — in a district where 85 percent of people use transit to get to work and 83 percent of households don’t own a car…