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If your Madison Avenue bus has ever inched uptown at a pace that feels more like sightseeing than a commute, relief is officially in sight. City Hall has announced it’s moving forward with a long-stalled redesign that will extend double bus lanes on Madison Avenue between 23rd Street and 42nd Street, creating a faster, smoother ride for nearly 100,000 daily riders.
The Department of Transportation says the project will make buses more reliable for the 92,000 local and express passengers who use this stretch every day as well as supporting the city’s congestion pricing goals by making it easier to get into Manhattan’s core without a car.
Transit leaders believe the move is a long-overdue win for riders. “Bus lanes are key to getting buses through traffic and keeping riders moving,” said NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow in a statement. “It’s great news that NYC DOT is moving forward on longstanding bus lane legal commitments to speed up buses on Madison Ave. When paired with bus lane enforcement, nearly 100,000 riders of the M1, M2, M3, M4, Q32 and express buses going to midtown will save time getting where they need to go.”
The redesign borrows from a proven playbook. On nearby Fifth Avenue, similar double bus lanes boosted local bus speeds by up to 12 percent and express bus speeds by up to 20 percent. On Madison south of 42nd Street, where buses currently crawl at speeds as low as 4.5 miles per hour, those kinds of gains could feel revolutionary.
Under the new plan, buses will get dedicated lanes, traffic interference will be reduced and enforcement will be tightened so cars stop treating bus lanes like casual parking spots. City officials say the work will wrap up by the end of the year.
And actually riding these faster buses won’t require any special hoops to jump through. There are no tickets to reserve—just tap your OMNY card, phone or smartwatch when you board, or swipe your MetroCard the classic way. Regular MTA fares apply, free transfers still work the same and unlimited passes remain the best deal for frequent riders looking to turn speed gains into daily time savings.
The routes set to benefit include the M1, M2, M3, M4, Q32 and multiple express buses funneling commuters into midtown. For anyone who relies on those lines, the extension promises one of New York’s rarest upgrades: a commute that finally moves at something close to real-life speed.