Just in time for Opening Day, the Mamdani administration announced today that construction has officially begun on a major project to improve crosstown bus service and pedestrian safety along East 161st Street near Yankee Stadium. The project will bring westbound bus-only lanes, convert the 161st Street underpass to buses only, and create one of the city’s only fully protected, center-running bus lanes stretching from Concourse Village West to just west of River Avenue.
For the more than 25,000 daily riders who depend on the Bx6 Select Bus Service to get across the South Bronx, this is welcome news. If you’ve ever tried to take the Bx6 across 161st Street on a game day—or any day, really—you know the frustration of sitting in a bus that’s barely moving while cars, double-parked trucks, and general chaos turn the corridor into a parking lot.
We’ve been covering the need for better bus infrastructure in The Bronx for years now. Back in 2017, when the city announced six new Select Bus Service lines coming to The Bronx, we noted that crosstown mass transit in the borough was absolutely abysmal. The Bx6 SBS was supposed to help fix that, and to its credit, it did—slightly. But “slightly” isn’t good enough when you’re a working parent trying to get across the borough to pick up your kid before afterschool closes or simply trying to get around.
The new project will reconstruct East 161st Street from Ruppert Place to Morris Avenue, along with portions of East 163rd Street between Washington Avenue and Tiffany Street. Concrete boarding islands will replace the current setup, preventing cars from blocking bus lanes, something we’ve documented happening repeatedly along other corridors. Full-length bus bulbs at stops will speed up boarding and finally give riders proper shelters and seating.
If this sounds familiar, it should. When bus lanes came to 149th Street back in 2020, we were cautiously optimistic. But as we reported the following year, those lanes were plagued with cars and trucks consistently parked in them between Morris Avenue and Bergen at The Hub. Without enforcement, painted lanes are just suggestions. That’s why the concrete infrastructure in this new project matters; you can’t park on a concrete island.
The pedestrian safety improvements are equally significant. Curb extensions, medians, and pedestrian refuge islands will shorten crossing distances near the stadium—an area that sees over three million visitors a year and where dodging traffic has become a sport in itself even when the Yankees aren’t playing at home. The city says pedestrian refuge islands reduce deaths and serious injuries by 35.5%, a welcome statistic with every increasing pedestrian deaths across the city.
After the Bronx Bus Redesign was implemented, the MTA reported that Bronx bus routes went from some of the slowest in the city to outperforming the rest of the system. That momentum needs to continue and this project, with a 2028 completion date, could be a real game changer for bus commuters in the South Bronx—pun intended.
But as always, the proof is in the execution, not the press conference. Construction has already started on East 163rd Street and the DDC says they’ll phase work to avoid interfering with baseball season. Now let’s hold them to that promise and make sure this project delivers for the tens of thousands of Bronxites who depend on these buses every single day, not just the fans heading to the stadium.
