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Six-Month-Old Select Bus Service Is A Success
By
Garth Johnston
Published Apr 29, 2011
Modified Apr 29, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Apr 29, 2011
Modified Apr 29, 2011
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Remember when the city launched its Select Bus Service program in October on First and Second Avenues and had a whole lot of problems? And how Mayor Bloomberg said nobody would write about how the program was a success in six months? Well, we do. We mentioned how well it was doing in January and now we're happy to mention that newly released stats from the DOT show the experiment is actually doing really, really well. Y'know, if you believe everything the DOT says.
According to the agency (you can see the report below) the new Select Bus Service is already running 15 percent faster than the old Limited was. Specifically, when moving it goes about 11 percent faster and the time it takes waiting to load and unload passengers has been reduced by 36 percent. The new lanes have also brought a slight improvement to traffic speeds (as measured by taxi cabs) on Second Avenue, with minimal change on First.
Even more interesting, the new service has brought an average of 4,000 more people to the M15 each day, despite a decline in Manhattan bus ridership of five percent in the same period.
And the bike lanes on the thoroughfares are, by the DOT's count, doing great too. On First Avenue there were more riders counted on the lanes in each of the snowy months of December, January and February than were last June (when the lanes were not there). And on Second Avenue, where there were already more bikers, the number of cyclists rose by 55 percent from June to April.
So what is next for First and Second Avenues? More bus bulbs to facilitate faster bus boarding, and an expansion of the signal priority traffic lights from Houston to South Ferry. Sounds good to us!
Tagged
department of transportation
dot
mayor bloomberg
sbs
select bus service
Garth Johnston
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