While New Yorkers Abandon the Bus, Cuomo Trumpets Frills No One Asked For
Andrew Cuomo must not think much of New York City bus riders. Today the governor trumpeted the arrival of new buses with onboard Wi-Fi and USB ports -- literally the last thing bus riders say they need.
By
Brad Aaron
4:44 PM EDT on April 18, 2017
Andrew Cuomo must not think much of New York City bus riders. Today the governor trumpeted the arrival of new buses with onboard Wi-Fi and USB ports — literally the last thing bus riders say they need.
Here’s a partial list of improvements Cuomo could deliver that — unlike USB ports — would substantially boost bus travel times and reliability:
- fare payment tech that enables fast, all-door boarding;
- equipping the whole bus fleet with transit signal priority (the MTA says it’s working on it);
- systematically reevaluating and adjusting routes to efficiently align with current travel patterns;
- road pricing to free buses from gridlock.
What Cuomo has done is stiff straphangers time and again, making a shell game of the MTA budget as fares keep rising.
People are abandoning the bus because Cuomo has allowed service to deteriorate and fares to rise. Happy talk and frills aren’t going to bring them back.
Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.
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