[J. Will]

Why New York City has a second-tier bus system

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/articl...ier-bus-system

New York City does in fact have a version of bus rapid transit. It’s called “Select Bus Service.”

But select bus service is so lacking in the accoutrements typically associated with bus rapid transit that some transit experts argue it doesn’t even merit the label.

It has no truly separated bus lanes, or elevated boarding platforms. It has off-board fare collection in places, but not universally. Its "dedicated" bus lanes are only dedicated in theory, demarcated by a frequently ignored terra-cotta-colored paint. Other vehicles routinely infringe upon them, and when those vehicles are making right turns, they actually have to.

SBS buses move through the city’s grid more quickly than ordinary buses, but not that much more quickly.

In 2011, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy issued a report called “Recapturing Global Leadership in Bus Rapid Transit,” in which the authors came up with a way to grade the robustness of a bus rapid transit system based on its inclusion of elements like off-board payment, connectivity, right-of-way enforcement, separated lanes, elevated boarding platforms, and so on.

The top score was 100. The Institute gave New York City’s system a failing grade of 35 and called it, stingingly, “not BRT.”

The city and M.T.A., says Giles, can do “much, much more.”