As bus ridership plummets, new Bus Turnaround coalition releases solutions to fix NYC’s struggling buses

Reversing the decline in bus ridership and performance has become urgent as quality indicators have plummeted: from 2002 to 2015, bus ridership fell 16%, despite citywide population growth and record subway ridership. Today’s report, “Turnaround: Fixing New York City’s Buses,” draws best practices from other global cities that have reversed their own declining bus ridership and recommends a series of New York-specific changes that can fix buses in our unique city.

Despite declining ridership, adopting these changes would have an immediate impact on millions of New Yorkers’ lives: on an average weekday, New Yorkers take approximately 2.5 million rides on city buses.

Today’s report was released by the new NYC Bus Turnaround Coalition, which is composed of Riders Alliance, NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign, TransitCenter, and Tri-State Transportation Campaign. In light of plummeting ridership and declining quality of bus service, the coalition is calling for City and State agencies to fix the failing NYC bus system by rethinking bus service from the ground up, working with community leaders, bus riders and public officials to rethink our streets, routes and bus operations.