Livingston Street ‘Protected’ Busway Launches Tuesday Outside Transit Offices in Brooklyn

Downtown Brooklyn’s Livingston Street will become one-way for cars next Tuesday as the city converts the bulk of the street into a two-way red-paint “protected” busway — and a top MTA official is already warning his workers to follow the new rules, according to a internal memo obtained by Streetsblog.

“To ensure the success of this project, MTA employee and agency vehicles are prohibited from parking in … Livingston Street bus only lanes” between Boerum Place and Flatbush Avenue, said the Nov. 9 memo from New York City Transit President Richard Davey, whose agency occupies several large office buildings on Livingston.

“While this is a real win for our riders, it means that we at MTA must equally follow the rules, which will be strictly enforced for everyone, including all MTA employees,” Davey wrote.

NYPD enforcement will begin “shortly after the distribution of this memo,” he added.

The new busway converts Livingston between just west Hoyt Street and Flatbush Avenue to one-way-only for private cars and trucks, with a lane of westbound traffic next to red-painted bus lanes in both directions. “Protection” will eventually come in the form of camera enforcement of bus lane rules, DOT spokesman Vin Barone said. Some short segments of the busway also have concrete bus stop islands separating the red paint lanes from regular traffic.

New York City Transit’s human resources office sits just west of Hoyt Street. A few blocks away, the bus and subway authority has another office building — 130 Livingston — that takes up an entire block bounded by Livingston Street, Boerum Place, Schermerhorn Street and Smith Street.

DOT’s redesign of the stretch also included a new bus layover on Schermerhorn Street right next to 130 Livingston that Davey also mentioned in his memo.

“We’re serious about getting Transit employees, MTA employees, out of bus lanes in those hopefully rare circumstances where they thought it was a good idea to park there,” MTA spokesman Tim Minton told Streetsblog.

“They’re going to find out it’s not as smart as they thought, because they’re going to get summonsed or towed.”

Davey’s memo aimed “to remind them of their obligation not only as MTA employees but as citizens to get their vehicles out of the busway,” Minton added.

Additional reporting by Dave Colon