Celebrating the Launch of Select Bus Service
Select Bus Service has come to the Upper East Side!
With the Second Avenue Subway still years from completion, the East Side has long suffered from a shortage of reliable mass transit. For this reason, I have advocated implementing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) improvements to the M15 bus lines, which operate in one of the most congested corridors in Manhattan. Thanks to off-board payment and three door entry, SBS means wait times will be significantly reduced. Dedicated bus lanes, signal priority, and bus lane camera enforcement will also make SBS trips faster and more reliable. The pilot program of SBS in the Bronx on the Bx12 improved bus speeds by 20% and increased ridership by 30% over the service it replaced.
While I am excited about the convenience and efficiency of Select Bus Service, I remain concerned about the lack of separated bus lanes along this corridor. In December of 2009, I along with a number of other East Side elected officials called on the NYC Department of Transportation to institute separated bus and bike lanes along First and Second Avenues. Buses running via a true BRT system on the current M15 route from beginning to end would be approximately thirty-three percent faster, on average, than SBS buses on the same route.
I am also concerned that crosstown bus lines serving the East Side have been hit with disastrous cuts. Unless the MTA restores service to these lines, residents won't get the full benefit of SBS and our community will continue to be under-served by mass transit.