Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Gov. Kathy Hochul, the city Department of Transportation and the MTA have unveiled a proposal for making the city’s buses run 20% faster along 50 “priority corridors” — a change they say could save riders up to six minutes on trips along those routes.
They also pitched building five “rapid bus corridors,” bus rapid transit-style routes equipped with infrastructure that allows the vehicles to move quickly and with neighborhood bus stations, across the city.
Both proposals are part of the city’s and state’s broader new 51-page “Next Stop: Fast Buses, Better Service” plan, which offers a roadmap for increasing buses’ speeds and reliability, while improving the rider experience.
“It’s going to give precious time back to our neighbors, make our bus system easier, more reliable, and more comfortable for everyone,” said Julia Kerson, Mamdani’s deputy mayor for operations, during a July 7 virtual press briefing ahead of the announcement.
“The city’s got the streets, and the state has the buses, and together we’re committed to delivering fast buses and better service for New Yorkers,” she added, speaking to the city’s and state’s shared responsibility in the endeavor.
But while the plan was very much a collaboration between the city and the state, it appears to have been spurred by Mamdani’s campaign pledge to speed up city buses.
During the same briefing, DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said making buses faster is key to Mamdani’s affordability agenda because saving low-income riders just a few minutes on their commutes each day can allow them to more easily access employment, education, and health care.
“Delays can cost bus riders wages if their bus is late,” Flynn said. “If you live in the outer boroughs today, you might be forced to make sacrifices in order to dedicate thousands of dollars a year from your paycheck toward owning a car, maintenance, insurance, gas money, because it’s the only reliable way to get around.”
How NYC bus action plan aims to make trips faster
The M42 bus on 42nd Street.File Photo by Barbara Russo-Lenon
City and state officials said the up to six minutes in time that riders will save on their trips as a result of the plan’s implementation will come from a combination of making buses move faster and reducing delays at bus stops to less than two minutes beyond scheduled wait times.
“That savings is basically real travel time experienced by our riders,” said a state official speaking to reporters during the briefing. “So it’s a combination of your travel time, so increased speed on the journey, plus less waiting time.”
Flynn said officials selected the 50 priority corridors featured in the plan, which serve 25 of the city’s slowest bus routes, by looking at where riders experience the most acute delays. They also looked at other factors such as how many people take the bus on that route, whether it arrives on time, the length of a trip, and access to other modes of public transit.
The plan outlines a combination of methods to make buses faster along their identified routes. Those include:
- Continuing to build bus priority infrastructure — such as physically protected bus lanes and busways;
- Installing traffic signals that allow buses to spend less time at red lights, also known as queue jumps and transit signal priority
- Redesigning routes; and
- Replacing over 40% of the current fleet with new buses.
It also includes a commitment from the MTA to finally implement all-door boarding on buses by 2027. The agency has been slow in enacting all-door boarding for years after the COVID-19 pandemic, citing fears that it would lead to more fare evasion.
When it comes to improving the rider experience, the plan calls for installing 300 new bus shelters by 2028, adding seating to 875 bus stops this year, and installing 90 real-time passenger information displays at stops this year, with another 2,900 by 2030.
More enforcement and an SBS upgrade
Riders boarding an MTA bus near City Hall.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
The bus action plan also includes boosting enforcement against drivers who obstruct bus lanes and busways, which adds to service delays.
To that end, the MTA plans to expand its Automated Camera Enforcement (ACE) program to over 50 additional routes by next year, the city committed add 200 more stationary bus lane cameras by next year, and the NYPD will increase its enforcement from 14 to 20 routes daily.
The rapid bus corridor piece of the plan would mark a significant step toward many advocates’ long-sought goal of upgrading the MTA’s current Select Bus Service (SBS) model to one more closely resembling bus rapid transit in other cities.
“The Select Bus Service program was a huge step forward when it was launched, and you see those routes still deliver significantly better experience for riders, and what we’re doing is we’re taking it to the next level,” said a city official.
The plan sets a goal of ensuring 90% of New Yorkers live within a half-mile of a subway, commuter rail line, SBS route, or rapid bus station.
It identifies Flatbush Avenue, where the city is currently adding protected center-running bus lanes, as the first such location for a rapid bus corridor to be completed by 2030. It also identifies four more routes to launch public engagement this year: Brooklyn’s Utica Avenue, Queens’ Northern Boulevard, the Bronx’s Tremont Avenue and Cross Bronx Expressway, and one connecting the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn with JFK Airport in Queens.
A city official said the plan envisions expanding SBS service with “even more dedicated and protected bus space.”
“Things like raised or near-level boarding islands, significantly more robust bus stations, and waiting areas for passengers with more amenities, even looking at those stations almost like hubs for their neighborhoods with public space improvements,” they said. “Basically, we’re taking the best of Select Bus Service and doubling down on it.”