The expansion of bus-mounted traffic enforcement cameras is yielding faster and safer trips for bus riders, according to new data shared by MTA officials on Monday.
Buses with Automated Camera Enforcement, which the MTA introduced last year, move 5 percent faster and get into 20 percent fewer bus crashes in bus-only lanes and busways, officials said.
The benefits don't stop there — routes with the ACE treatment also see up to 10 percent fewer bus emissions, according to MTA figures.
"It's not just speed increases, we're also seeing reductions in collisions," Chief Officer of Bus Technology Sunil Nair told MTA board members on Monday. "You're getting all those benefits right across the entire route of the bus, which makes our buses that much more faster, accessible and customer loading that much safer."
ACE cameras enforce against drivers blocking bus lanes and bus stops as well as drivers who slow down buses by double parking. The benefits of bus-mounted cameras are most pronounced on bus lanes and busways — which have experienced speed boosts of 10 percent and 20 percent, respectively — but just 7 percent of city streets where buses operate have any bus lanes at all.
Nair noted major boosts on particular lines. While the city's 181st Street busway boosted speeds for the BX35 by 20 percent between April 2021 and April 2023, bus speeds jumped another 20 percent with the introduction of camera enforcement to the route in April 2023, he said.
On routes without dedicated bus lanes, bus speeds jumped 22 percent on sections of the Q69, 15 percent on sections of the M101 and 12 percent on sections of the Bx19, Nair said.
Crashes also dropped dramatically on the Bx19, with a 36 percent reduction in crashes when bus lane enforcement cameras came to the route — and a 20 percent drop in crashes on the rest of the route when ACE cameras debuted.
Further demonstrating the program's effectiveness, just 9 percent of violators commit more than one violation, officials said.
Thanks to ACE cameras, bus drivers can pull into stops more easily because bus stops are blocked 40 percent less of the time compared to before camera enforcement — leading to a nine percent reduction in bus crashes at stops.
"Accessibility is such an important challenge as we start to implement the system," said Nair. "Wheelchair users, the elderly, people with other impairments — who use our buses primarily — find it difficult when our bus stops are blocked, or when cars or vehicles double park across a direction of travel."
So far ACE encompasses just 20 percent of MTA's service miles, with 60 more routes set to join the program in the next three years, starting with the M2 and M4 on April 28, Nair said. That will bring ACE coverage to 50 percent of MTA bus route miles.
Advocates for bus riders urged the MTA to expand the program as fast as possible to speed up New York City's "slowest buses in the country."
"Automated enforcement is essential and can't roll out quickly enough," said Riders Alliance Director of Policy and Communications Danny Pearlstein.
"Riders also need priority treatments like busways and bus lanes on many more streets and, of course, all-door boarding on every bus. With the slowest buses in America, the City and MTA should maximize the use of every single tool in the box to deliver the fast, reliable service we deserve."
The MTA first implemented the on-board cameras that could ticket offenders outside the red paint last July, after State Legislators authorized the program in 2019. ACE is now live on 34 routes serving 700,000 daily riders, officials said.
By the end of 2025, the system will be in place on 64 routes serving 1.1 million riders; by the end of 2027, ACE will be on on 93 routes and over 3,000 buses.
MTA buses chief Frank Annicaro said that the new wealth of data from the cameras help the MTA find better ways to find and clear out trouble spots along routes and pick where to deploy on-bus cameras.
"Typically it starts with ridership, it's speeds, it's where we see significant delays, significant incidents," Annicaro said in response to a question on how the MTA will pick the next batch of buses with ACE capabilities.
"Now with ACE, it's expanded the ability to really get into that granular data, because with we're not reliant on the bus lanes. We can see if there's a particular area where our service is completely impeded."
