Buses R Equality

As New Yorkers, we don’t stop for anything, so why do our buses? Buses in NYC are the slowest in the country despite having the highest ridership in the nation. Buses are essential in providing equal socioeconomic, educational, and healthcare opportunities to all, and they remain significantly cheaper to maintain and construct than other modes of public transportation. If buses remain slow, communities across NYC will suffer from greater road congestion, rising inequality, and longer travel times.  This petition urges New York City officials to recognize residents’ desire for greater input and access to bus rapid transit in their communities, and to increase transportation funding and policies that reflect community feedback. 

The Plan

The Buses R Us campaign stands to remedy the three core challenges facing bus rapid transit in New York City: budget constraints, negative public perception, and governmental inefficiency.

1) Encourage the government to better invest in taking feedback from communities before implementing infrastructure that is met with community opposition. We suggest implementing a new feature on the MTA App that enables New Yorkers to complete petitions, surveys, and interest forms on demand. This allows the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) to better identify and support eager communities seeking improvements such as bus lanes. 

2) Demand more allocation of funding to the NYC DOT for better bus rapid transit in order to meet the requirements of Local Law 195. LL195 or Local Law 195 forces the DOT to abide by a 5 year master plan that lists benchmarks for various transportation projects: including to build over 150 miles of protected bus. There needs to be a push for the city council, mayoral adminsitration, USDOT, and various statewide government bodies to agree to funding the infrastructure that moves the most populous city in the United States.

3) Guarentee public opinion is considered when creating the next 5 year master plan (Streets Plan) for 2027-2032. LL195 forces the DOT to create the Streets Plan and abide by it; however, on top of constraining budgets, the DOT claims benchmarks created were plainly unreasonable. Having public opinon influence this master plan not only helps the DOT focus on projects that the public actually approves of, but through public engagement, there will be an increase in the perception of the system, possibly leading to higher ridership levels. 

Why Buses?

Buses remain the most immediate and affordable way for the government to provide public transportation on a large scale. Communities that rely on cars are more likely to suffer from road congestion and air pollution, leading to various implications: including but not limited to lower socioeconomic capabilities, higher travel times, and increased risk of asthma. In order to sustain interconnection between the vast boroughs and communities of NYC, there needs to be various efficient ways to connect them, and buses are the most accessible, affordable, and immediate way to do so.

Why Now?

With the arrival of Zohran Mamdani as our mayor, there are both promises to be kept and a city budget to be allocated. The city budget will be officially determined by June 30, emphasizing the immediate importance of all New Yorkers to voice their wants and needs to a mayor who promised to build a new future. This petition stands as a way to show government officals that New Yorkers want to see progress made in bus efficiency, greater city budget allocated to bus transportation, and more accessibility to have their voice heard.