Buses on a roll since COVID cleared streets

The wheels of the bus are going round and round a lot quicker on the city’s streets thanks to a drastic reduction in car traffic during the coronavirus lockdown.

Data released by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority over the weekend shows the agency’s buses averaged 9.2 mph in April, a 15% increase from the 8 mph reported in the same month of 2019.

The biggest speed gains were recorded in Manhattan, where buses last month moved at an average 7.7 mph, a 30% increase from last year.

The faster service comes as bus ridership has fallen by more than 85% during the pandemic — requiring drivers to spend less time at stops while people jump on and off. But the bigger source of the gains is that streets across the five boroughs have been practically car-free the past two months.

Traffic on the MTA’s bridges and tunnels is down roughly 40% since early March. Taxi and for-hire vehicle ridership has fallen by more than 85% in the same period. And data from the transportation analytics company StreetLight shows the number of miles traveled by cars in the city over the past three weeks is down by roughly 77% compared with

January.

“The improvement in bus speeds clearly demonstrates that the key driver of declining bus speeds has been the traffic volume on our roadways,” said Craig Cipriano, the head of buses at the MTA. “Well-enforced bus priority including dedicated bus lanes, transit signal priority and automated bus lane enforcement are all means to making these improvements sustainable.”

Cipriano noted the plan to implement congestion pricing in Manhattan, which would tax drivers who travel below 60th St., will also improve speed. That program still awaits signoff from the Trump administration.

p ment in bus speeds is promising for straphangers, it’s still far short of Mayor de Blasio’s goal to speed up service by 25% by the end of 2020.

That could be a tough milestone to hit as the mayor proposed drastic cuts to the city Department of Transportation’s budget, including areductiontohis“BetterBus Action Plan” that aimed to quickly expand the city’s network of bus priority lanes.

Transit advocates have called on the mayor to quickly roll out a set of emergency bus lanes to prevent a “carpocalypse” when life in the city begins to reopen.

“Mayor de Blasio has to get serious about this and treat it as a life-or-death thing for the city’s economy,” said TransitCenter spokesman Ben Fried. “The streets have to be ready to accept displaced riders from the subway. Everything we’ve seen in other cities shows people will be hesitant to travel in an enclosed system during the pandemic.”