New Yorkers take 2.5 million rides on the city’s buses every day. While NYC’s buses provide essential transit, especially in areas beyond the reach of the subway, they are among the nation’s slowest and least reliable.

TransitCenter, Riders Alliance, Straphangers Campaign and Tri-State Transportation Campaign have issued an agenda of practical strategies to improve the performance of NYC buses across the city. The recommendations are set forth in the publication: “Turnaround: Fixing New York City’s Buses.” Today the groups and Streetfilms launched the film edition of the Bus Turnaround agenda, featuring bus-riding New Yorkers from all boroughs.

Transit advocates have observed declining bus system ridership for years, in spite of New York’s increasing population, a growing economy, and record-high subway ridership. To figure out what could be done about it, they spoke to industry experts and researched successful efforts in peer cities to identify common sense solutions for NYC’s bus system.

Turning around the city’s vast bus system is a big challenge, but other large cities have shown the way. By transforming how riders get on and off the bus, designing streets to prioritize buses, adopting better methods to keep buses on schedule, and redesigning the bus network and routes, NYC’s transit leaders can turnaround the decline of the city’s buses and attract riders back to the system.

New Yorkers can get involved in the Bus Turnaround campaign by visiting ridersny.org/buswoes

Press Release | Bus Woes | Turnaround Report