\u201cWhen you have long, slow rides, it discourages folks from popping into a store, that\u2019s lost money for our businesses,\u201d Casey Martinez, a representative of the Church-Flatbush Community Alliance, a central Brooklyn business improvement district<\/a>, said at a rally with transit advocates and union members on Wednesday. \u201cWe are here, as the Church-Flatbush BID, with our fellow riders to say to Mayor Mamdani, \u2018Please extend the bus lane now, make Flatbush Avenue \u201cfast and free.\u201d<\/p>\n Martinez, who works for real estate firm and BID member United American Land, made her comments alongside members of Riders Alliance, NYPIRG and LIUNA Local 1010 at the bustling commercial intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Nostrand Avenue.<\/p>\n The local BID\u2019s support contrasts with other business groups that have sunk other bus projects, most recently on Fordham Road in the Bronx, which the Belmont BID successfully held off<\/a> for years during the Adams administration. (Mamdani, who ran on a platform of \u201cfast and free\u201d buses, pledged this year to advance<\/a> the project.)<\/p>\n But where Belmont BID leader Peter Madonia and Bronx institutional interests like Fordham University insisted their business depended on car drivers, Martinez pointed to a 2024 Pratt Center survey that found<\/a> 70 percent of people who go to Flatbush for shopping, eating or entertainment destinations use the bus.<\/p>\n That makes a bus lane all the way down Flatbush Avenue a no-brainer, Martinez said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want more shoppers. We want more people to spend money, not drive through,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n The Department of Transportation broke ground last month on an bus lane redesign of Flatbush Avenue north of Grand Army Plaza to Livingston Street. <\/p>\n Rider advocates hope Mamdani won\u2019t wait to continue the red painted lanes south into Flatbush proper.<\/p>\n \u201cPoor bus service wastes my time and causes stress,\u201d said Riders Alliance member Lynette Lewis. \u201cThe B41 has made me late for work, prolongs my commutes and sometimes forces me to talk to my therapist on a crowded bus, because a B41 showed up 25 minutes late. No one wants to be talking about their trauma in front of a bunch of strangers because the bus took longer than it should have to show up.\u201d<\/p>\n The B41 is the primary bus line on Flatbush Avenue, but the B9, B103, Q35 and BM2 also run on the street.<\/p>\n DOT has always suggested that it wants to bring bus priority to all of Flatbush Avenue, going back to when it began outreach on the idea<\/a> early in Mayor Adams\u2019s term. <\/p>\n Buses run the slowest on the stretch of Flatbush Avenue north of Grand Army Plaza, but double parking and traffic congestion keep buses mired at speeds<\/a> of less than 7 miles per hour<\/a> on large stretches to the south, DOT said at the time.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/B41-Flatbush-and-Nostrand.jpeg\")
A pair of B41 buses that deserve the red carpet treatment. Dave Colon<\/p>\n