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The M23 Bus Earns the 2007 Pokey Award

The slowest bus in New York City is... Manhattan's M23, crosstown at 23rd Street.

The slowest bus in New York City is… Manhattan’s M23, crosstown at 23rd Street.

Remind me again why New York City hasn’t eliminated private automobiles on its major crosstown streets and established dedicated rights-of-way for buses, special loading  zones and times for delivery trucks?

CityRoom has the details:

“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
M.T.A. New York City Transit calculates reliability measures,” the
Straphangers and Transportation Alternatives announced in a news
release.

In addition to ranking the M23 the slowest bus route in the city,
the annual survey identified these routes as the slowest by borough:
the B63 in Brooklyn (4.9 m.p.h.), the Bx19 in the Bronx (5.0 m.p.h.),
the Q56 in Queens (6.1 m.p.h.) and the S61 on Staten Island (11.7
m.p.h.)

“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, the staff lawyer for the Straphangers
Campaign.

Photo of Aaron Naparstek
Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.

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