New York's Select Bus Service

Reinventing Transit: report case study

New York City has the highest bus ridership of any transit system nationwide, but those buses are also notorious for being slow. Crippled by high levels of traffic congestion and long boarding lines, buses in New York frequently show up late and easily get stuck in traffic.

But now, the city’s Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) and Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) are working together to create a revolutionary approach to bus travel that is more suitable for New York’s crowded streets. Called the Select Bus Service, this new service employs many of the features seen in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems elsewhere like L.A.’s Orange Line or Eugene’s EmX. These have already yielded significant improvements.

Service improvements

Select Bus Service offers many features not seen on normal city buses. 

• Designated bus lanes
• Off-board fare collection to speed up boarding
• Transit signal priority (gives buses a green light more often)
• Specialized bus branding and stations
• Boarding through any door on the bus
• More frequent service 

Benefits and performance

While Select Bus Service debuted only recently in June 2008, preliminary results show some remarkable improvements. On the new Fordham Road Select Bus Service in the Bronx (which replaced the existing limited stop service) the following changes have been observed:

• 14–24% decrease in trip time—the average rider saves over 5 minutes on each trip
• 4,000 increase in daily passengers—a 25% increase
• 98% of riders are satisfied or very satisfied with Select Bus Service. 96% of riders report that the new fare machines are easy to use.

Future expansions

Select Bus Service is the first step towards a full-fledged network of priority bus corridors.

View the report notes.

See more innovative projects included in the Reinventing Transit report.

Posted: 22-Apr-2009; Updated: 09-Feb-2008