{"id":201230,"date":"2025-09-05T03:16:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T03:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201230\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T03:16:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T03:16:29","slug":"most-nyc-buses-arent-providing-fast-or-reliable-service-comptroller-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201230\/","title":{"rendered":"Most NYC buses aren’t providing fast or reliable service, comptroller says"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than half of New York City buses got failing grades in a new analysis<\/a> by Comptroller Brad Lander that crunched MTA data on speeds, on-time performance, and frequency of delays.<\/p>\n

Buses in Manhattan were the worst in the city, with 73% receiving a D or F. Lander blamed heavy traffic that often forces buses to travel at a laughable 5 miles per hour.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThis is our effort to help provide a report card system that helps us get out of life in the slow lane and get those buses moving faster,\u201d Lander said in an interview. Lander has long been focused on street safety and has used his office to scrutinize bus service. <\/p>\n

Lander\u2019s report card arrives as bus speeds have become a key issue in the race for mayor. Democratic nominee and front-runner Zohran Mamdani has campaigned on a promise<\/a> to speed up buses by making them free for all riders. His leading rival Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, has proposed making buses and subways free<\/a> for the poorest New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

Mayor Eric Adams, also running as an independent, has promised to add a busway to speed up the notoriously slow buses on 34th Street<\/a>. Adams had been criticized for slow-walking the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the buses were free and folks could get on at the front or the back door, that makes boarding a good deal faster,\u201d Lander told Gothamist.<\/p>\n

The MTA has installed OMNY readers in the front and back of buses, but riders are currently only supposed to board through the front doors<\/a> (with the exception of Select Bus Service buses).<\/p>\n

The transit agency cites high rates of bus fare evasion for not allowing riders to board at the front and back.<\/p>\n

Despite efforts to crack down on bus fare evaders, 55% of riders on SBS buses did not pay the fare in the first three months of the year, according to MTA data. On regular buses, 44% of riders skipped the fare over the same period.<\/p>\n

There were success stories within the data. The implementation of congestion pricing below 60th Street coincided with a boost to bus speeds as overall traffic was reduced. Data showed that the scores of 106 bus lines that run through the toll zone improved 9.2% from January to June. Express buses sped up the most during that time.<\/p>\n

Each borough had its standout stars. The B31 in Brooklyn, which runs from Gerritsen Beach to Midwood, got an A, as did the B84 in East New York. The Bx29 in the Bronx that runs from Pelham Bay to City Island received the only A in that borough. The M60 select bus that runs from LaGuardia Airport to Harlem won high marks, as did the the Q35 in Queens, which runs from Brooklyn College to Rockaway Park. Staten Island\u2019s S89 and the SIM26 both got As.<\/p>\n

The MTA is in the midst of redesigning the bus routes in each borough in an effort to speed up commutes. The MTA fully implemented the redesigned Queens bus network<\/a> last Sunday.<\/p>\n

Lander criticized the MTA for not publishing line-by-line bus data that could help the public track service. The agency didn\u2019t respond to a question about creating publicly available goals for each line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MTA agrees with Comptroller Lander that faster buses are essential for riders, which is why we are undertaking all-borough bus network redesigns to speed up service with improved routing and stop spacing, expanding automatic camera enforcement, and significantly improving speeds in Manhattan through congestion relief,\u201d Frank Farrell, an acting NYC Transit executive overseeing buses, wrote in a statement. \u201cThe fact remains that dedicated bus lanes are needed to make a material impact on bus speed citywide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advocates said the pokey service is all too familiar.<\/p>\n

“It’s bus report card time and the results are grim. As riders know all too well, the slowest buses in America still aren’t showing up for us in the way we need and deserve,\u201d Riders Alliance spokesperson Danny Pearlstein said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than half of New York City buses got failing grades in a new analysis by Comptroller Brad…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":201231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-201230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115149523112687799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}