Watch out for the “speeding” buses!
Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to increase bus speeds throughout the city by 25 percent — to a whopping 9 miles per hour.
The mayor promised to add 15 miles of bus lanes this year — and he will budget seven new bus lane-dedicated tow trucks will make sure vehicles don’t block the lanes and hold buses up, he said during his State of the City address Thursday.
“We’re going to double our pace of installing dedicated lanes just for buses, helping them to move faster,” de Blasio said of his plan to make commutes faster for more than 60,000 New Yorkers. “And we’re going to keep those bus lanes clear. The NYPD is adding its first-ever tow-truck units dedicated solely to keeping parked cars out of bus lanes.”
New York City Transit buses move at some of the slowest paces in the country, studies done in the past year have shown.
The mayor also wants to install pylons along two miles of bus lanes as a deterrent to other vehicle drivers, and he is calling on the state to pass bus-mounted camera enforcement.
Transit advocates say they are thrilled by de Blasio’s plan.
“We are happy to see the mayor take the lead on this, seeing how important better buses are,” said Stephanie Burgos-Veras, senior organizer at Riders Alliance. “Riders have been suffering and this is a great step for the city.”