New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released a “report card” for all 332 bus routes in the city on September 4th. The results revealed that 186 routes (approximately 56%) received grades of D or F, highlighting the widespread issues of slow speed and unreliability in the city’s public transportation.
The study, titled “Life in the Slow Lane: New York Bus Evaluation Report,” utilized real-time bus data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to analyze punctuality, driving speed, and delay frequency. Each route was graded from A to F to facilitate more precise improvements by the city and state governments.
Poor Overall Performance: Over half of the routes received a grade of D or lower, with only 27 routes (8%) rated B or higher, and a mere 7 routes achieving an A grade.
Manhattan Shows Worst Performance: 73% of Manhattan buses received D or F grades, with some routes averaging a speed of only 5 miles per hour, nearly equivalent to walking speed.
Serious “Bus Bunching” Issue in Brooklyn: 15% of bus routes in Brooklyn experience vehicle clustering at stops, significantly higher than the citywide average of 10.6%, leading to passenger wait times exceeding 20 minutes.
Mixed Performance of Express Buses: While express buses operate at higher speeds, their punctuality is notably lower than local and SBS buses, with all 10 routes with punctuality below 50% being express buses.
SBS Performs Better: 16% of Select Bus Service (SBS) routes received A or B grades, outperforming local and express bus routes.
The report also noted that following the implementation of congestion pricing in January, the reliability of 106 bus routes within the congested fee zone improved by an average of 9.2% over five months, with express buses showing the most significant speed improvements.
The report called upon the city government and MTA to establish performance-oriented improvement goals, including: (1) increasing the citywide average speed by 15% to elevate 90% of C-grade routes to B or higher; (2) reducing the “bus bunching” percentage on high-frequency routes from 10.6% to 5%; (3) improving the punctuality of the 40 worst-performing bus routes.
Lander emphasized, “New York City has the largest bus network in North America, but some buses are slower than pedestrians. From elderly residents in Brooklyn waiting 20 minutes to Manhattan commuters traveling at 5 miles per hour, passengers are experiencing the consequences of a failing bus system every day. This report provides a clear blueprint, pinpointing the most urgent directions for improving bus services.”