M23 Receives The Dreaded Pokey Award!
Today, The Straphangers Campaign handed out its annual award for the slowest local bus route in New York City. The award known as the “Pokey” is now in its 6th year & continues to point out the worst of the worst as far as slow bus service is concerned. However this year is special as The Straphangers Campaign has introduced a second award known as the “Schleppie” which goes to the New York City’s least reliable line according to official transit statistics.
This year’s winner of the “Pokey” is known other than the M23. The M23 serves as a crosstown route connecting riders from Avenue C to the Chelsea Piers via 23rd Street. The M23 earned the award by clocking the slowest bus speed at 4.0 miles per hour at 12 p.m. on a weekday. This is quite horrible considering the average person walking would clock in at 3.0 miles per hour.
The winner of the inaugural “Schleppie” is the M1 which services Fifth, Madison, & Park Avenues respectively. According to reliability statistics kept by the MTA’s New York City Transit division, 1 out of every 3 M1 buses have big gaps in service or are off schedule. This is the worst rating out of all 42 buses the agency measures with these statistics.
Manhattan routes swept both awards but the Straphangers Campaign provided a list of buses that would win the Pokey for individual boroughs if such an award was given out:
- Brooklyn – B63 4.9 mph
- Bronx – Bx19 5.0 mph
- Manhattan – M23 4.0 mph
- Queens – Q56 6.1 mph
- Staten Island – S61 11.7 mph
Quite frankly is anyone surprised that the winners were bus routes in Manhattan? The traffic in that borough will always lead to unpredictable & unreliable service. This is just the facts of life when dealing with buses in Manhattan. For those interested in reading the Straphangers Campaign press release, here it is:
The NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives today presented two separate awards for poor bus service in New York City.
The first is the sixth-annual “Pokey” for the slowest local bus routes in New York City. The actual Pokey award is a golden snail on a pedestal. The second is a new award called the “Schleppie” for the city’s least reliable buses and is based on official transit statistics. The Schleppie is comprised of lumbering elephants mounted on a pedestal.
schleppieThe winner of the 2007 Pokey is … the M23 crosstown. The M23 had the slowest bus speed at 4.0 miles per hour as clocked at 12 noon on a weekday. This is not much faster than the 3.0 m.p.h. maintained by the average person walking. Last year’s winner was the M14A crosstown.
The NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives today presented two separate awards for poor bus service in New York City.
The first is the sixth-annual “Pokey” for the slowest local bus routes in New York City. The actual Pokey award is a golden snail on a pedestal. The second is a new award called the “Schleppie” for the city’s least reliable buses and is based on official transit statistics. The Schleppie is comprised of lumbering elephants mounted on a pedestal.
The winner of the 2007 Pokey is … the M23 crosstown. The M23 had the slowest bus speed at 4.0 miles per hour as clocked at 12 noon on a weekday. This is not much faster than the 3.0 mph maintained by the average person walking. Last year’s winner was the M14A crosstown.
The winner of the 2007 Schleppie is … the M1 Fifth/Madison/Park Avenue. Nearly one in three of its buses have big gaps in service or are off schedule, the worst record for the 42 key local routes for which MTA New York City Transit calculates reliability measures.
Weekday noontime speeds for the Pokey were found by volunteers riding 23 of the city’s slowest bus routes. Reliability was measured for the Schleppie by using measures kept by MTA New York City Transit on how well buses kept to scheduled times and intervals. (See attached methodologies.)
“Our awards highlight what bus riders know from bitter daily experience: New York City has the pokiest and schleppiest buses in the nation,” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign.
Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said: “But help is on the way. Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing will yield faster and more reliable bus service if it is allowed to move forward.”
Among possible “Bus Rapid Transit” strategies being considered are:
• Wider bus lanes with expanded hours and physical means to discourage cars from entering;
• Pre-boarding fare payment at high-volume times and places to reduce dwell time at stops;
• Reconfigured bus stops to speed boarding and satellite dispatching of buses; and
• Bus priority signals to help buses stick to schedule.According to the groups, the slowest bus routes in each borough are:
B63 4.9 mph Between Bay Ridge and Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Bx19 5.0 mph Between Fordham in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan
M23 4.0 mph Crosstown on 23rd Street in Manhattan
Q56 6.1 mph Jamaica, Queens to East New York, Brooklyn
S61 11.7 mph Between Staten Island Mall and St. George Ferry TerminalBus routes that vary most widely from scheduled times or intervals in four boroughs – and as a result have the most bunching together or big gaps in service – are, according to the groups:
B15 26.4% unreliable Between Bedford-Stuyvesant and JFK
Bx41 26.1% unreliable Between Wakefield and to Hub on White Plains Road
M1 32.8% unreliable Between Harlem and East Village
S78 24.4% unreliable Between St. George Ferry Terminal and TottenvilleFull tables of bus speeds and reliability are attached. Schleppies went to any route with an average of unreliability greater than 20%. As a result, no Queens bus route received a Schleppie.
In the 2002 Pokey Awards, the groups found that the city’s slowest bus route was the M96. In 2003, the groups awarded the Pokey to the M23, in 2004 and 2005 to the M34, and in 2006 to the M14A, which travels crosstown in Manhattan along 14th Street. However, the groups cautioned that comparisons with some past findings were difficult due to changes in methodology over the years. In addition, changes in bus speeds since 2004 have generally been too minor to demonstrate significant trends.
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