NYPIRG STRAPHANGERS CAMPAIGN • TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES

News Release

Embargoed for Release:
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

For More Information Contact:
Gene Russianoff at 212-349-6460
Paul Steely White (212) 629-8080

Annual “Pokey” Award for Slowest City Bus Goes to M23;
Route Clocked at Snail’s Pace of 4.0 MPH

New “Schleppie” Award Goes to M1;
City’s Least Reliable Bus, Plagued by Bunching and Gaps In Service

Groups See Hope for Faster, More Reliable Buses In Congestion Pricing

pokey The NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives today presented two separate awards for poor bus service in New York City.

schleppie The winner of the 2007 Pokey is … the M23 crosstown. The M23 had the slowest bus speed at 4.0 miles per hour as clocked at 12 noon on a weekday. This is not much faster than the 3.0 m.p.h. maintained by the average person walking. Last year’s winner was the M14A crosstown.

The NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives today presented two separate awards for poor bus service in New York City.

The first is the sixth-annual “Pokey” for the slowest local bus routes in New York City. The actual Pokey award is a golden snail on a pedestal. The second is a new award called the “Schleppie” for the city’s least reliable buses and is based on official transit statistics. The Schleppie is comprised of lumbering elephants mounted on a pedestal.

The winner of the 2007 Pokey is … the M23 crosstown. The M23 had the slowest bus speed at 4.0 miles per hour as clocked at 12 noon on a weekday. This is not much faster than the 3.0 mph maintained by the average person walking. Last year’s winner was the M14A crosstown.

The winner of the 2007 Schleppie is … the M1 Fifth/Madison/Park Avenue. Nearly one in three of its buses have big gaps in service or are off schedule, the worst record for the 42 key local routes for which MTA New York City Transit calculates reliability measures.

Weekday noontime speeds for the Pokey were found by volunteers riding 23 of the city’s slowest bus routes. Reliability was measured for the Schleppie by using measures kept by MTA New York City Transit on how well buses kept to scheduled times and intervals. (See attached methodologies.)

“Our awards highlight what bus riders know from bitter daily experience: New York City has the pokiest and schleppiest buses in the nation,” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign.

Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said: “But help is on the way. Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing will yield faster and more reliable bus service if it is allowed to move forward.”

Among possible “Bus Rapid Transit” strategies being considered are:
• Wider bus lanes with expanded hours and physical means to discourage cars from entering;
• Pre-boarding fare payment at high-volume times and places to reduce dwell time at stops;
• Reconfigured bus stops to speed boarding and satellite dispatching of buses; and
• Bus priority signals to help buses stick to schedule.

According to the groups, the slowest bus routes in each borough are:

B63	4.9 mph	Between Bay Ridge and Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Bx19	5.0 mph	Between Fordham in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan
M23	4.0 mph	Crosstown on 23rd Street in Manhattan
Q56	6.1 mph	Jamaica, Queens to East New York, Brooklyn
S61	11.7 mph	Between Staten Island Mall and St. George Ferry Terminal

Bus routes that vary most widely from scheduled times or intervals in four boroughs – and as a result have the most bunching together or big gaps in service – are, according to the groups:

B15	26.4% unreliable	Between Bedford-Stuyvesant and JFK
Bx41	26.1% unreliable	Between Wakefield and to Hub on White Plains Road
M1	32.8% unreliable	Between Harlem and East Village
S78	24.4% unreliable	Between St. George Ferry Terminal and Tottenville

Full tables of bus speeds and reliability are attached. Schleppies went to any route with an average of unreliability greater than 20%. As a result, no Queens bus route received a Schleppie.

In the 2002 Pokey Awards, the groups found that the city’s slowest bus route was the M96. In 2003, the groups awarded the Pokey to the M23, in 2004 and 2005 to the M34, and in 2006 to the M14A, which travels crosstown in Manhattan along 14th Street. However, the groups cautioned that comparisons with some past findings were difficult due to changes in methodology over the years. In addition, changes in bus speeds since 2004 have generally been too minor to demonstrate significant trends.

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