Transit
Streetsblog Basics
Fewer People Are Riding the Bus Because There Are Fewer Buses to Ride
Remember when the Great Recession decimated transit agency budgets, but the White House and Congress refused to step in and fund bus service while spending billions of dollars to subsidize car purchases? Well, the hangover continues to this day, leaving bus riders in the lurch.
May 29, 2015
Q44 Select Bus Service: Bus Lanes for Flushing and Jamaica, Not in Between
DOT and the MTA have released the plan for Select Bus Service on the Q44 linking Jamaica, Flushing, and the Bronx, which serves 44,000 passengers daily. The areas that need bus lanes most -- downtown Jamaica and Flushing -- are in line to get them, but not the rest of the route.
May 28, 2015
DOT and MTA Years Behind Schedule on Traffic Signal Tech to Speed Buses
Bus riders spend a lot of time stopped at red lights, but they don't have to. A technology called transit signal priority, or TSP, speeds up transit trips by adjusting signal timing so buses hit more green lights and fewer reds. TSP has a proven track record in New York, but on several routes, implementation is years behind schedule.
May 21, 2015
Trottenberg: DOT Skipped Its Legally-Required Data Report Last Year
DOT is almost six months past due on a report card required by city law that measures whether the city is meeting its goals of reducing car use, improving safety, and shifting trips to walking, bicycling, and transit. Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg says her department is skipping a year and will instead issue a report covering two years of data in the fall.
April 30, 2015
As Subway Trips Climb, MTA Bus Ridership Continues to Stagnate
While subway ridership hit a 65-year high last year, the story for surface transit in NYC is different. Bus ridership has yet to recover from a major round of service cuts in 2010, and in 2014 it lost some ground, according to new stats from the MTA.
April 23, 2015
Subway Ridership Hits 65-Year High. Does Cuomo Care?
Subway ridership hit a 65-year high in 2014, serving 1.75 billion trips last year, the most since the New York City Transit Authority was formed in 1953. That's an increase of 2.6 percent over 2013 and 12 percent since 2007, according to the MTA. The subway now serves 5.6 million passenger trips on an average weekday, and 6 million on an average two-day weekend.
April 20, 2015
Harlem Bus Lane Foes: Good Streets for Bus Riders “Trampling Our Liberties”
Community board meetings in central Harlem have officially gone off the deep end.
April 15, 2015
Bus Lanes Coming to 125th Street in West Harlem This Summer
Bus riders may not be stuck in crosstown traffic on 125th Street much longer. DOT plans to extend bus lanes from Lenox Avenue to Morningside Avenue this summer [PDF].
April 3, 2015
Woodhaven Select Bus Service May Get Physical Separation in Some Areas
After unveiling the preferred design for six miles of the Woodhaven Boulevard Select Bus Service project earlier this week, DOT and MTA met yesterday with advocates, elected officials, and community board members to go into greater detail. The agencies are considering physical separation for bus lanes at key locations on Woodhaven, and they showed potential designs for the southern stretch of the project on Cross Bay Boulevard.
March 27, 2015
Utica Avenue Select Bus Service Will Roll Out This Fall
The B46 is the second-busiest bus route in New York City, carrying nearly 50,000 passengers each day. A subway line on Utica was planned decades ago but never built, and today bus riders on the B46 struggle with crowded conditions and slow trips. Now service is set to get faster and more reliable with the addition of bus lanes and off-board fare collection later this year [PDF].
March 20, 2015