Photos: Riders Alliance\Twitter
New York, NY–The grassroots Riders Alliance, New York City’s organization of public transit riders campaigning for better bus and subway service, today released a digital tracker with a citywide map showing where bus lanes have been promised — and actually implemented.
“Riders need to know where our City government is improving bus service,” said Riders Alliance Digital Strategist Derrick Holmes. “With this new bus lane tracker, we can crowdsource the latest details on what bus priority projects have been completed. By making this information public, we can also hold the mayor and Department of Transportation accountable for meeting their legal mandate and fulfilling campaign promises to speed up our slow buses. The clock is ticking and riders’ patience has worn thin.”
The goal of the new tracker is to amplify and spread the news as bus lanes are completed and highlight the pressing need to meet the legal mandate of 20 new miles of bus lanes and busways this calendar year. The New York City Streets Plan law, enacted in 2019, took full legal effect in January and requires the City to build at least 150 miles of protected bus lanes in five years; Mayor Eric Adams has promised to complete 150 miles in four years.
New York City holds the dubious distinction of providing the slowest bus service in the United States. This is despite also boasting the most bus riders of any US city. After several decades of complete neglect, City officials began work on a small scale to improve bus service beginning in 2008, making incremental improvements to a handful out of nearly 250 bus routes. Once increased congestion undermined those gains and at the prodding of organized riders, the City began an expanded bus priority program in 2019, starting with the 14th Street busway.
Today’s bus lane tracker announcement comes at a watershed moment for bus service in New York. Three years of significant new projects have produced major speed increases in project areas and along select routes but have yet to move the needle on bus speeds overall. Riders anticipate that with a doubling in the number of bus lanes and busways in the next few years, the needle will begin to move on citywide speeds, a change that is long overdue.
