NEW YORK CITY—After Monday's attempted suicide bombing in the Port Authority Bus Terminal, New York City's public transportation system is back to normal. This requires different public entities cooperating to tackle the ongoing challenges of providing Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus, subway and railway services to a 2.7 billion annual ridership.

In Part I of “Rethinking NYC's Public Transportation,” Globest.com reviewed the Regional Plan Association's recommendations for the subway system. In Part II, today's article looks at New York City comptroller Scott Stringer's Nov. 27 report, “The Other Transit Crisis: How to Improve the NYC Bus System,” and transportation entities' responses.

Stringer indicates that similar to being the neglected stepchild, the MTA bus system is overlooked, as subways, commuter rails and bridges “enjoy more attention and resources.”

The report describes bus routes as “slow, unreliable, long, meandering, confusing, congested and poorly connected.” It calls the MTA buses old and the shelters deficient. It points out that the bus system has lost 100 million passengers from 2008 to 2016.

The comptroller notes buses travel a dismal 7.4 hours miles per hour along local, Select Bus Service (SBS) and express routes, being the slowest among the largest bus companies in the country. The report criticizes the SBS performance, lack of enforcement of bus-only lanes, and the existence of far fewer dedicated lanes than in other major cities.

The report says the Transit Signal Priority (TSP) technology that coordinates communication of MTA buses to DOT traffic lights is active at only 260 intersections along only five of the bus routes. This technology reduces time waiting at stop lights.

Stringer points out that New Yorkers with lower incomes, people of color and immigrants statistically depend more upon buses and are hurt the most by the services' shortcomings.

The report on page 8 provides 19 recommendations.

MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota responded to Stringer's report saying traffic congestion and New York City's consistent inability to manage traffic flow and enforce existing traffic laws is what's harming bus services. “The proper and progressive way to deal with the scourge of traffic is for everyone to support a responsible congestion pricing plan,” says Lhota. “Traffic congestion is keeping the most reliable and advanced fleet in recent history from moving as efficiently as it can and should.”

City Hall has refused to support congestion pricing.

The MTA notes that city government is responsible for many of the factors impacting bus performance including traffic congestion. According to the MTA, the city builds the bus-only lanes, enforces violations of cars blocking or using these lanes, performs traffic studies, modifies the street signals essential for the TSP technology, and installs and maintains the bus stop shelters.

The MTA tells GlobeSt.com that it has already implemented or begun work on several of the comptroller's recommendations. It contends that the current fleet of buses is the most reliable and advanced in recent history with the mean distance between failures twice what it was in 2011 (6,400 miles compared to 3,307). It credits aggressively enhanced maintenance for these improvements.

Advanced safety and security systems are being installed and the entire fleet is wheelchair accessible. A pilot program is testing wider use of electric buses and clean energy buses are part of the fleet. The MTA received 277 new buses in 2017 as part of its 2015-2019 capital program and is slated to receive another 1,700.

With SBS, the MTA is developing a new fare payment system to facilitate all-door boarding.

The agency notes that the entire bus fleet will be ready to work with the TSP technology by 2020. However, this requires that the city perform traffic engineering studies at intersections and modify traffic light hardware.

As to the decline in ridership, the MTA points not only to traffic congestion but also to demographic shifts. The outer borough bus ridership has transferred to subways, with riders increasingly traveling from the boroughs to Manhattan for work and leisure, according to the spokesperson.

However, the MTA has reported that average weekday subway ridership dropped to 5.7 million this September from 5.8 million, in September a year ago. The Authority also acknowledged that people riding the bus this September declined to 1.9 million per day from 2.0 million per day in September 2016.

New York City's Department of Transportation tells GlobeSt.com that it welcomes Stringer's interest in the bus system but was surprised that the following recent bus-related developments were not part of his report:

Last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would expand SBS with 21 new routes over the next 10 years. Working with the MTA, DOT announced plans to extend bus priority treatments on local routes that would allow buses to reach a half million more riders each day. These improvements were made possible by the administration's $270 million in funding.

The administration has doubled the previous rate of SBS implementation including the newest line along Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards in Queens. In July, DOT announced an expansion of TSP, quadrupling its use with routes beyond the SBS network.

Finally, the DOT spokesperson says the department is grateful for Stringer's support as several of the report's recommendations will require his office's active assistance. The department says it hopes to work with the comptroller in advancing state legislation for bus-lane cameras, and in expediting contracts and city expenditures for new bus shelters.

Instant Insights /

Part II: Rethinking NYC's Public Transportation - Buses

Related Stories

Recommended For You