Automated enforcement cameras are coming to the 14th Street busway, the MTA and city announced on Wednesday.
Cameras mounted to the front of M14 buses will start flagging drivers who are illegally parking, loading or idling on 14th Street busway beginning Thursday.
Drivers busted using the bus lanes will be issued warnings until Jan. 20, when the fines kick in.
The Department of Transportation largely banned cars on the crosstown thoroughfare between Third and Eighth avenues beginning in October, in a bid to speed up one of the nation’s slowest bus routes.
Drivers are still allowed to use the street between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Officials say the MTA plans to have the parking scofflaw cameras installed on 128 city buses before the end of the year.
The cameras already mounted on buses that run the B44 and M15 routes have flagged 20,000 bus-lane blockers over the last month, MTA stats show.
Meanwhile, the city Department of Transportation’s fixed-location cameras, which have been giving warnings since the car ban began Oct. 2, will start dolling out financial penalties on Dec. 2.
Fines start at $50 and increase by $50 for each additional offense, with $250 being the maximum penalty within a 12-month period.
Bus travel times on 14th Street are 38% faster than they were a year ago, according to MTA data. Ridership is up big time, too, jumping 21% since the busway’s launch last month.
“In six weeks of the busway, 14th Street has already seen a dramatic transformation with faster buses and higher ridership on the M14 SBS,” DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said in a statement.
But one M14 bus rider expressed skepticism.
“The bus lanes are working well, it doesn’t take much time, and I don’t have to wait a long time for the bus to come,” Andrea Alexander, 33, of the Lower East Side told The Post. “[But] there’s always traffic, especially during rush hour. It’s Manhattan, bus lanes won’t fix congestion.”