page_title: MTA Regional Bus Operations
section_title: Speed
hierarchical_section_title: MTA Regional Bus Operations / Quality of service / Speed
caption_attribution_description: English: MTA Bus 5721 headed west on the Riverside Dr bound M79
context_page_description: MTA Regional Bus Operations is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA. As of February 2018, MTA Regional Bus Operations runs 234 local routes, 71 express routes, and 20 Select Bus Service routes. Its fleet of 5,725 buses is the largest municipal bus fleet in the United States and operates 24/7.
  The division comprises two brands: MTA Bus and MTA New York City Bus. While MTA Bus is an amalgamation of former private companies' routes, MTA New York City Bus is composed of public routes that were taken over by the city before 2005. The MTA also operates paratransit services and formerly operated Long Island Bus. As of 2018, MTA Regional Bus Operations' budgetary burden for expenditures was $773 million.
context_section_description: As of 2017, MTA buses on local buses run at average speeds of 7 to 8 miles per hour (11 to 13 km/h), the slowest of any major bus system nationwide. MTA Select Bus Service routes had marginally faster speeds, averaging 8.7 miles per hour (14.0 km/h). The average speed varies between boroughs, with Manhattan having the lowest average local-bus speed (6 miles per hour [9.7 km/h]) and Staten Island having the highest (11 miles per hour [18 km/h]). In 2017, sixteen of the seventeen bus routes with average speeds of less than 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h) were located in Manhattan. Conversely, eight of the eleven routes with average speeds of more than 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) were located on Staten Island. On average, buses generally spend a little more than half of the trip (54%) in motion, while 22% of the trip is spent at bus stops and 21% is spent idling at red lights.
  The Straphangers Campaign, another riders' advocacy group, gives out "Pokey Awards" to the slowest bus routes of each year. The slowest bus routes are typically crosstown bus routes in Manhattan, with 14 of the slowest bus routes in 2017 being crosstown bus routes. In 2017, the slowest bus route was the M42 crosstown bus on 42nd Street, which had an average speed of 3.9 miles per hour (6.3 km/h), approximately a walking pace. This was followed by the M31/M57, M50, and M66 crosstown buses on 57th, 49th/50th, and 65th/66th Streets respectively, all of which averaged less than 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h). Other "winners" of the Pokey Award include the M79 on 79th Street and the M23 on 23rd Street, both of which have now been converted to Select Bus Service routes. However, Select Bus Service routes only serve 12% of all bus riders as of 2016, and the average bus route is 10% percent slower than it was in the mid-1990s.
  A 2015 study found that 35 MTA routes with significant ridership figures had average speeds of less than 15 miles per hour (24 km/h), and that the M66 crosstown bus had an average speed of 3.1 miles per hour (5.0 km/h). Slow bus rides were not limited to Manhattan routes; the Bx2 bus in the Bronx and the B35 bus in Brooklyn both ran at speeds of less than 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h). In 2018, the riders' advocacy group Bus Turnaround Campaign rated each bus route based on speed and reliability, and gave 75% of city bus routes a "D" or "F" grade. As a result, in early January 2019, mayor Bill de Blasio promised to raise bus speeds by 25% by the next year.
  As a result of these slow average speeds, MTA Regional Bus Operations has the highest per-mile operating cost of all city bus systems in the U.S., with a per-mile cost of $30.40. If the operating costs were closer to the U.S. average, MTA buses would have the highest farebox recovery ratio among U.S. cities' bus systems.
caption: A bus on the M79 route, once ranked one of the slowest in the system
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