Midtown Bus Crowned Slowest In The City By Transit Advocates

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A notoriously bad Midtown Manhattan bus route was named the slowest route in the city, transit advocates announced Tuesday.

The M42 bus was the slowest of more than 200 routes analyzed by the New York Public Interest Research Group's Straphangers Campaign and TransitCenter, the groups announced. With an average speed of just 3.2 miles per hour it's hard to wonder why anyone would take the bus crosstown on 42nd Street.

The Straphangers Campaign and TransitCenter presented the bus route with its annual "Pokey" award Tuesday. It's the fifth time in 15 years that the M42 bus received the dishonor, which is given annually by the transit groups to the city's slowest bus route.

The "Pokey" trophy — a golden snail on a pedestal — was decided by analyzing the MTA's BusTime data for May 2018 among bus routes with more than 10,000 daily riders, according to a press release. This is the first year the groups used MTA data, switching from "limited, although accurate, physical field observations," according to a press release.

"Riding a bus can feel like being in a funeral procession, where you are awaiting a slow caravan of crowded, crawling and bunched buses," Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said in a statement. "It’s maddening. Much more can be done to make them run faster."

Of the city's ten slowest bus routes, nine are located in Manhattan, according to the transit advocacy groups.

The slowest bus routes in the outer boroughs were the B63 (4.7 miles per hour), the Bx19 (4.6 miles per hour), Q20A (6.4 miles per hour) and the S48 (7.3 miles per hour), according to the Straphangers Campaign and TransitCenter.

The Straphangers Campaign and TransitCenter also awarded its "Schleppie" award for the least reliable bus route Tuesday. The B12 bus from Lefferts Garden to East New York took home the dubious award, according to a press release. Routes were rated on reliability by analyzing how often buses arrived "bunched" at stops.

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