MTA

Buses on the M86 are moving faster and people have noticed -- ridership on the crosstown route is on the upswing again after declining for years.

Bus ridership in New York City has steadily declined since 2002, and bus riders put up with the slowest average speeds in the nation. But the MTA is in no hurry to fix the problem.

Just how bad do bus riders have it in NYC? Today the transit advocates with the Bus Turnaround campaign launched a web site that lets you look up any route in the system and see how it performs. Spend a few minutes on the site and you'll see why ridership has fallen 16 percent citywide since 2002.

An MTA bus driver killed a senior on the Lower East Side this morning.

For customers, the price of a trip on Access-A-Ride, the MTA's service for New Yorkers with disabilities, is the same as a subway fare. But for the MTA, the cost of providing the service is much higher. At $72.65 per trip (the cost has risen since 2014, when the figures for the above table were compiled), Access-A-Ride is the most expensive paratransit system to operate in the nation. The high costs of the program eat into the MTA's ability to provide subway and bus service.

Here's a really cool project years in the making: Queens native and OpenPlans alum Anthony Denaro put New York City subway and bus lines on one map.

The impending L Train shutdown should be a blessing in disguise -- the impact of losing service west of Bedford Avenue for 18 months is so great, there's no good option that doesn't involve carving out lots of street space for buses, biking, and safer walking. Major redesigns of 14th Street, the Williamsburg Bridge, and the streets connecting to the bridge are called for.