New Yorkers take great pride in their ability to move quickly. However, millions of bus riders lose precious time every day because our leaders place less value on their time compared to others. As highlighted in a new report by the Riders Alliance, it’s time for a shift in priorities.
New York’s buses are famously the slowest in the country due to political negligence. Our leaders do not prioritize bus commuters, treating our travel time as negotiable. For many, including health aides, teachers, restaurant workers, and caregivers, these wasted minutes translate to lost wages, missed appointments, and less time with loved ones.
This is why the proposal by Zohran Mamdani to make buses fast and free represents a sensible policy choice. Eliminating fares would consume less than 1% of the city’s budget. Similar to making the Staten Island Ferry and student OMNY cards free, prioritizing buses and their riders on city streets boils down to political determination and the mayor’s choice.
Conversely, the so-called “experience” candidate, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, made the reckless proposal to “build a new subway system,” an idea that raises unrealistic expectations of what City Hall can achieve.
The New York subway system took decades to construct and is operated by the MTA, under gubernatorial control. Under Cuomo’s tenure as governor, train delays surged, costing New Yorkers a staggering $280 million annually in lost time.
Although Cuomo promised a transportation plan during his primary campaign, he never delivered one. Instead, he focused on leveraging the public’s fears about the subway and the “chaos of e-bikes.” In contrast, Mamdani secured victory in the subway rider primary.
Cuomo’s bus record in Albany was poor. Focused on appearances, he ordered a blue and yellow bus fleet. Meanwhile, his MTA canceled the planned expansion of Select Bus Service and slow walked efforts to speed up Brooklyn’s B82 route.
Mamdani meanwhile led legislative efforts to improve bus and subway service emerging from the pandemic, piloting free bus service in each borough, improving ridership and safety.
Working together with Mamdani and his team, Riders Alliance members won more frequent subway service on 14 lines. What motivated him then, and now, is fairness for riders.
The stakes are high. Bad bus service demands serious attention. A 2024 survey of 1,800 Flatbush Ave. bus riders by the Pratt Center and Riders Alliance found that 91% of bus riders have been negatively affected by delays.
Of those surveyed, two out of three riders endured long waits for service in extreme weather. Half of riders paid for a car service or taxi because the bus didn’t come in time. One in three riders was fired, reprimanded, or lost pay at work.
The next mayor will have big opportunities to boost bus service. Stalled bus priority projects on Fordham Road and Tremont Ave. in the Bronx and on Manhattan’s Fifth Ave. would speed up hundreds of thousands of commutes.
Improvements on Fordham and Fifth are opposed by a small number of powerful figures. Hundreds of thousands of bus riders lose time every day because our needs have come last.
But better buses are not just good policy, they’re the law. The Streets Plan law mandates 30 miles of new bus lanes each year and requires a new Streets Plan at the end of next year, meant to guide improvements for the next half decade.
The next Streets Plan should lay out a vision to bring true bus rapid transit to New York, with the potential to speed up some of the longest commutes in the nation from the northern Bronx to eastern Queens, southern Brooklyn and Staten Island.
By combining protected, high capacity bus priority lanes with intersection priority and level boarding through every door, bus rapid transit can deliver major speed improvements, shaving 10 to 15 minutes off of many trips and save riders a lot of valuable time every day.
Bus rapid transit is standard in Latin America and Asia. It’s saving riders time in Cleveland and Indianapolis, Albany and Buffalo. Since nearly half of New Yorkers lack easy access to our subway, our buses are a lifeline. But they’re failing.
Bus riders are the backbone of New York’s economy, riding from distant neighborhoods to deliver vital services in health care, education, hospitality and other essential sectors. It’s about time that the city values the time of the people who make life here possible.
The June primary showed a critical mass of New Yorkers yearning for transformative change that puts working people first. With much better buses, that transformation in our politics can be matched on our streets in the most tangible way — with more time to live our lives.
Plum is executive director of Riders Alliance.
