Make Bus Service Frequent & Reliable
New York City’s buses are the slowest in the nation. Bus lanes carve out dedicated street space to expedite trips for bus riders. This change, often as simple as paint and signs, boosts ridership, improves bus speeds and reliability, reduces wait times, congestion, crash rates, greenhouse gas emissions, and childhood asthma rates, and offers freedom of movement. Paired with bus shelters, which shade and protect New Yorkers from extreme weather, building bus lanes can make riding the bus an experience that is at least as comfortable and efficient as riding the subway. Transportation Alternatives is fighting to:
Create a network of efficient, camera-enforced busways and bus lanes with a focus on the slowest bus routes, including the construction of the 30 miles of bus lanes and busways legally required annually under the Streets Plan
Introduce features typical of high quality bus rapid transit on high-ridership bus routes across the city, including all-door boarding, center-running bus lanes, and boarding islands
Install bus shelters with seating, shelters or greenery, and countdown clocks at all bus stops to protect New Yorkers who ride the bus from dangerous heat and inclement weather
Making bus service frequent & reliable…
…helps the New Yorkers who need it most.
Bus riders have substantially lower median incomes than other New Yorkers, are less likely to have a bachelor’s degree, and are more likely to be an immigrant, a person of color, and have a child at home.
...makes our streets more efficient.
Where a single lane of cars can move, at most, 1,600 people each hour, a dedicated bus lane can move as many as 8,000 people each hour and a car-free busway can move as many as 25,000 people in the same time. Converting car lanes into bus lanes on the M60 bus line reduced travel times by 36%, and the car-free busway on 14th Street in Manhattan reduced travel times by 24%.
…keeps riders safe, cool, and comfortable.
New York City’s hottest bus stops see summer temperatures averaging 14.5°F hotter than the coolest, despite being less likely to have a bus shelter. Adding a shelter and a countdown clock cuts perceived wait times in half.
