While talk on the mayoral campaign trail has focused on free city buses, transit advocacy group Riders Alliance is laying out a blueprint to make buses faster.
And it’s urging the next mayor to make its plan a reality.
Bus Rapid Transit would allow buses to travel farther and faster without cars blocking the lanes, as happens with the city’s current dedicated bus lanes, which are painted red.
In some cases, Riders Alliance is calling for bus lanes down the center of busy streets. The lanes would be physically protected and limit vehicles from turning in front of those buses. The group also wants the next mayor to create enclosed bus stations level with the bus floor, for ease of boarding, as well all-door boarding, something currently only available for Select Bus Service.
”We have worked toward Bus Rapid Transit now with Select Bus Service for the better part of two decades, and our buses aren’t moving nearly as fast as New Yorkers need,” Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director for the Riders Alliance, told Gothamist.
The group singles out a few locations where it would like to add Bus Rapid Transit routes: Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, Fordham and Tremont Roads in the Bronx, and Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in Manhattan. The new report finds Brooklyn and Bronx riders could save 10 to 15 minutes on each trip with Bus Rapid Transit, compared to the current bus service.
“That’s an amazing amount of time back in people’s lives, back in people’s days, and compensating in part for all the time we’ve taken from people over the years in slow and unreliable traffic,” Pearlstein said.
A study by the group People-Oriented Cities found this type of bus service on Fordham Road, where Mayor Eric Adams killed a planned busway, could increase service by 30%. That means riders traveling from 10th Avenue to White Plains Road would shave 10 minutes off their routes. The trip from Broadway to Stillwell Avenue could save 13 minutes.
Brooklyn riders who’ve dreamed of a new subway line down Utica Avenue could instead save 10 minutes traveling from Fulton Street to Kings Highway and shave 17 minutes off the trip from Dekalb to Kings Plaza with a Bus Rapid Transit lane.
Building a new subway line costs billions of dollars and takes decades of planning and construction. But creating Bus Rapid Transit lines is cheaper and can be done more quickly.
A recent report from the comptroller found average bus speeds in Brooklyn and the Bronx were about 8 miles per hour, and Manhattan buses crawled at an average speed of about 7 miles per hour.
“The person who drives a private car is seizing a great deal of public space for their private use compared to people who are using public transport or other modes,” said Jarrett Walker a consultant in public transport planning and policy and author of the book Human Transit. “That’s the fundamental reason to give buses priority and enable buses to operate more rapidly and reliably through the city.”
Walker said he supports the push and added it’s been successful in most cities where it’s been implemented, like San Francisco and Buenos Aires.
In its report, Riders Alliance called the prospect of Democratic nominee and front-runner Zohran Mamdani winning the mayoral race a “golden opportunity to advance true Bus Rapid Transit in New York City for the first time.”
The group has endorsed Mamdani for mayor and supports his push for free buses, a move that the candidate’s campaign believes would cost $630 million a year. Mamdani wants to raise taxes by 2% on people in the city earning more than $1 million a year in order to pay for the free buses.
But that plan requires approval from Albany and signoff from the MTA. Bus Rapid Transit wouldn’t require negotiating with state lawmakers.
“Fast and free buses is totally doable in the context of City Hall and is a responsible and responsive promise,” Pearlstein said. “Contrast that with Andrew Cuomo, who has clearly displayed PowerPoint slides promising to build a new New York City subway system, which is totally irresponsible and ridiculous.”
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told Gothamist that Riders Alliance is overlooking Mamdani’s “shocking lack of experience, accomplishments and unrealistic and unworkable plans because he’ll yes them to death.” Cuomo, the former governor, is running for mayor as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary.
“Irresponsible and ridiculous is exactly how I describe the advocacy industrial complex,” Azzopardi wrote. “The bottom line is that it’s clear the system is being mismanaged and Andrew Cuomo is the only one in this race with a record of fixing what’s broken.”
He didn’t say if Cuomo would be interested in installing bus rapid lines.
Riders Alliance is also calling for the next mayor to move forward on bus projects stalled under the Adams administration in the first 100 days, as well as a plan to reform the permitting process so these projects don’t get trapped in bureaucratic red tape.
