Can’t spell Flatbush without bus. So improving the B41 route remains a crucial issue for transit advocates in the Riders Alliance, who say the slow commute times disproportionately impact Black New Yorkers.
Brooklyn’s Flatbush Avenue remains one of the most congested roadways in the city, serving as a “spine” across the borough. The B41 route runs across the avenue from the upper Downtown Brooklyn down to the southeastern King’s Plaza, providing many connections to MTA subways and other buses, along with trains like the Long Island Railroad.
Due to traffic, the bus runs significantly slower than the citywide average, moving at just four miles per hour in some busier segments. Last summer, the city unveiled formative plans to paint a priority bus lane across Flatbush Avenue. But nearly a year later, proponents feel the wait is long enough — in more ways than one.
“The improvements that we’re looking to do on Flatbush Avenue is to redesign the street in a way that’s going to prioritize buses,” said Riders Alliance senior organizer Jolyse Race. “Which usually means adding bus lanes [and] bus ways to the streets. The [NYC] Department of Transportation is who would address that and so and the mayor is in charge of the DOT… so our target is definitely the mayor — there is a law that went into effect called the Streets Plan law.
“It came into effect in 2022 and it mandates that the mayor put in 150 miles of bus lanes and busways throughout his administration.”
Otherwise known as Local Law 195, the legislation would allow the city to improve the Flatbush Avenue corridor which the Adams administration identified as a priority. Public pressure remains on the city to deliver, including in the form of protests from Riders Alliance organizers and City Councilmembers like Rita Joseph and Crystal Hudson over the recent months.
According to the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT), the city has not installed the bus lane but will provide the local community with a design soon. Additionally, the efforts will begin in the northern segments by Downtown Brooklyn, where the traffic is the slowest but the residents are the wealthiest.
“We appreciate the support for faster and more reliable buses on Flatbush Avenue,” said a DOT spokesperson. “We have been refining our design proposal for the first phase of this project and look forward to sharing more soon with the local elected officials, community boards, and other stakeholders.”
An overall demographics survey by the DOT of the Flatbush Avenue corridor found 44% of the residents identified as Black and 59% of households lacked access to a car. Roughly 985,000 people live in the coverage area.
Data developed by the Rider’s Alliance and Pratt Center for Community Development similarly recorded a significant Black ridership across Flatbush Avenue. And they also found nearly all respondents dealt with negative consequences from bus delays, including more than half facing extreme weather conditions during prolonged waits. 32% said they lost pay, got reprimanded and/or got fired for lateness due to bus times.
The report author Sylvia Morse, the senior program manager for research & policy at Pratt Center for Community Development, told the Amsterdam News that the report stems from better understanding bus rider priorities. She points to Flatbush Avenue’s role beyond transit as a commercial hub, with many respondents telling her they rode the B41 to shop and eat out, and would increase spending habits if the bus ran more efficiently.
“In each neighborhood that Flatbush Avenue passes through, it’s a commercial corridor [and] a center of neighborhoods,” said Morse. “It’s not just like an artery that passes through. It doesn’t function like a highway. It’s a really complicated street. It
“We get at this in some of the survey questions and the focus groups that we did, like balancing that any city plans to address bus improvements on Flatbush Avenue take into account the many different ways that people are using the street.”
Retired nurse Anne Sookoo said she regularly rides the B41 and got involved with Riders Alliance’s advocacy thanks to her granddaughter. She takes the bus to medical appointments and shopping. “I started looking at Flatbush Avenue and tried to visualize a bike lane and I think this is the right time to do it.”
Danna Dennis, a Riders Alliance senior organizer, said New Yorkers are waking up to transit-related issues.
“Flatbush has always had traffic my entire life,” said the Brooklyn-born Dennis. “I think that’s true of so many routes and so much service. The change you’re seeing now isn’t necessarily on how the bus is running. The changes now that people are fighting for better service more than ever whether it be in Albany, whether it be locally here in City Hall. [And] whether it be ridership saying, ‘hey, we are not going to accept this anymore.’”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
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