Manhattan Has The City's Slowest Buses, New Report Finds

NEW YORK CITY — Manhattan has a desperate need for speed.

More than half of New York City’s bus lines earned poor marks in a new report card released Thursday by Comptroller Brad Lander, and Manhattan routes fared the worst: 73 percent of buses in the borough were graded D or F, the highest share of any borough in the city.

Lander’s office pointed to Manhattan street traffic as a key factor, with some buses crawling at average speeds of just five miles per hour.

Citywide, 186 routes out of the city’s 332 bus lines received a grade of D or F.

The analysis, based on real-time MTA data, measured on-time performance, average speed, and frequency of service delays. The report also tracked how bunched-up different buses get when they get unevenly spaced out, Lander said.

"New York City is home to the largest bus network in all of North America, yet pedestrians can walk faster than some buses, like the M34 in Midtown," Lander said.

Lander said the goal of the report card is to give riders and policymakers a clearer picture of how the system is performing — and to help city and state leaders pinpoint where improvements are most needed.

"From Brooklyn seniors waiting over 20 minutes for bunched buses to Manhattan commuters crawling at slow 5 mph speeds, the impact of the City and MTA’s failures is unmistakable and felt daily for thousands."

There is some encouraging news, though: after congestion pricing took effect, on-time performance rose from 60.6 percent to 70 percent, and speeds ticked up slightly from 10.7 to 10.9 mph, with express buses seeing the biggest gains.

As part of the report, Lander made suggestions to the MTA, including increasing speeds by 15 percent citywide, which he said would move 90 percent of C-grade bus lines to B-grade or better.

"The MTA agrees with Comptroller Lander that faster buses are essential for riders, which is why we are undertaking all-borough bus network redesigns to speed up service with improved routing and stop spacing, expanding automatic camera enforcement, and significantly improving speeds in Manhattan through congestion relief," Frank Farrell, the NYC Transit acting senior vice president of buses, said. "The fact remains that dedicated bus lanes are needed to make a material impact on bus speed citywide."

Want to know what mark your local bus got? Scroll or search the table below.

For questions and tips, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.