NYC DOT begins construction on new bus lanes on Hillside Avenue in Queens
The New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) has started construction of new bus lanes on Hillside Avenue in Queens, designed to deliver faster bus service and shorter waits for more than 215,000 daily riders on 22 bus routes along the corridor. The project is one of the agency’s longest bus priority projects in history, bringing nearly eight miles of offset bus lanes from 144th St. to Springfield Blvd., where buses currently travel as slow as four mph.
“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,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “Our new design will bring consistent, camera-enforced bus lanes across the corridor while also freeing up curb space to support local shops and their deliveries. We look forward to delivering this project and improving Hillside Avenue for everyone.”
NYC DOT says the Hillside Avenue bus priority project will improve service for 194,000 daily bus riders along 17 Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bus routes—in addition to another 21,000 daily riders along five Nassau County bus routes—and improve connections to four nearby subway lines, the Long Island Rail Road and the JFK AirTrain. NYC DOT notes that on its own, the buses on Hillside Avenue would be the 18th largest transit system by ridership in the U.S.
Hillside Avenue intersects several neighborhoods of eastern Queens, including Briarwood, Jamaica, Hollis and Queens Village. According to NYC DOT, about 60 percent of nearby residents take transit to work and 83 percent of Hillside Avenue users are bus riders—even though buses are allocated less than a third of the roadway space.
Currently, certain sections of Hillside Avenue feature curbside bus lanes in operation during rush hours. The agency says the inconsistent curbside bus lanes were among the first installed in the city in 1969, and the 2025 project represents their first major upgrade in more than 50 years.
NYC DOT’s proposed design will feature a parking lane on each side of the street, as well as one travel lane for vehicle traffic, one lane for left turning vehicles and one lane for bus traffic in each direction. The new offset bus lanes would be in effect 24/7 and enforced via the MTA’s ACE system of bus-mounted camera enforcement.
The eastbound bus lane will run from 144th St. to Springfield Blvd. The westbound bus lane will run from 143rd St. to Springfield Blvd. The design will speed up bus service while also adding more than 600 parking and loading spaces to support local businesses receiving deliveries.
NYC DOT notes the proposal is the result of nearly 300 pedestrian surveys conducted in multiple languages, visits to more than 400 businesses and more than a dozen meetings with community boards, local elected officials and other stakeholders.