Select Bus Service: Bus Rapid Transit for New York City

Select Bus Service: Bus Rapid Transit for New York City

Last Wednesday, the MTA New York City Transit, NYCDOT, and NYSDOT introduced the second in a series of Select Bus Services to New York City. The Select Bus Service (SBS) is a form of Bus Rapid Transit, which the project describes as “[combining] the speed, reliability and amenities of rail-based rapid transit systems with the flexibility of buses.”

New York City is known for its high density of people, and like the rest of the country, it is trying to find solutions to the problem of increased greenhouse gas emissions and fuel prices. Also like other urban areas, it has a bus system already in place, and this existing infrastructure allows the city to implement this program, which will expand their service, increase ridership, and decrease travel times and fuel consumption.

The first rollout of the service was in the Bronx, along Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway. Future demonstration corridors are planned for Manhattan, Staten Island, and Brooklyn over the next few years. If successful, these demonstration corridors will become permanent, and more corridors will be created throughout the city. In general, this project hopes to “improve the speed, reliability and appeal of the bus system, city-wide” as well as offer measurable benefits to current customers, attract new riders, and support growth and redevelopment.

For more information on this project or bus rapid transit in general, please visit: http://www.mta.info/mta/planning/sbs/ and http://www.nbrti.org/.