Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Andrew Cuomo

67 State Legislators Tell Cuomo: Speed Up Buses ASAP

New buses are nice, but without improvements like all-door boarding and transit signal priority, they don’t make service faster or more reliable. Photo: Flickr/NY Governor’s Office

A broad coalition of 67 state legislators want Governor Andrew Cuomo to pursue two potentially transformative improvements to NYC's notoriously slow and unreliable bus service.

In letters released today, members of the Assembly and State Senate from every caucus in the legislature called on Cuomo to implement transit signal priority and all-door boarding across the bus system [PDF].

Those are two of the top recommendations the NYC transit advocates put out last year in their Bus Turnaround report, which called on the MTA and Governor Cuomo to take immediate steps to reverse flagging bus speeds and declining ridership.

Transit signal priority holds green lights at intersections as buses approach. Starting next year, the MTA plans to bring the technology to its entire bus fleet, but it's playing catch-up: NYC DOT's 12,000 traffic signals already have the technology in place for transit signal priority, which has so far been limited to a few Select Bus Service routes.

The legislators urge Cuomo to expedite that rollout, ensuring the entire bus fleet is TSP-compatible by the end of this year.

All-door boarding, meanwhile, is much faster than the typical set-up where everyone pays at the front of the bus, but it's limited to Select Bus Service stops where riders get receipts from machines on the sidewalk. The ticket vending machines are expensive and sometimes unreliable, which makes them difficult to scale up across the entire bus network.

As the MTA begins to phase-out the MetroCard, there's an opportunity to shift to fare technology that enables all-door boarding at every stop. But agency officials have been reluctant to commit to system-wide all-door boarding, citing concerns about fare evasion that aren't borne out by experience in New York and other cities.

As the MTA considers bids for the next-generation fare payment system, legislators want Cuomo to ensure it includes the capability for electronic proof-of-payment, which would allow tap-and-go payment at any door and eliminate the need for the off-board fare machines.

"There are basic changes that can be made to improve bus service, right now, which would drastically improve average travel speed and reduce bus bunching," Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz, who chairs the committee with oversight of the MTA, said in a statement. "Cashless fares at all doors would greatly reduce the amount of time passengers spend boarding, and GPS technology would allow dispatchers and drivers to react to unexpected delays and evenly distribute buses."

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Beach Reading: Zohran Mamdani’s Answers to Streetsblog’s Mayoral Candidate Survey

Spend the holiday weekend with Zohran Mamdani's answers to Streetsblog's mayoral candidate questionnaire.

July 4, 2025

Friday Video: Why NYC Needs ‘Low-Traffic Neighborhoods’

London's Church Street, like so many of our business corridors, was choking on cars — until the advent of the low-traffic neighborhood.

July 4, 2025

Friday’s Headlines: E-Bikes in Parks … Permanently Edition

The Parks Department will permanently allow e-bikes in city parks following a two-year pilot. Plus more news.

July 4, 2025

Anti-Miracle On 34th Street: Adams Administration Pauses Work On 34th Street Busway

The highly-anticipated 34th Street busway may not happen under Mayor Adams after all, sources said.

July 3, 2025

Manhattan DA Says Alleged Central Park Hit-and-Run Cyclist Didn’t Flee, Drops Charges

Prosecutors said the 30-year-old cyclist "remained on the scene for about 45 minutes after the crash and waited for paramedics to arrive to treat the injured person."

Sean Duffy’s ‘Great America Road Trip’ Wants You to Drive to Central Park

Sean Duffy's "Great American Road Trip" encourages Americans to drive to sites in the most transit-rich and car-choked parts of the country.

July 3, 2025
See all posts