There’s an amusing video on Streetfilms talking about the annual “awards” for the slowest and most unreliable bus route in New York City:
New York City has some of the slowest bus service in the country. The 9th annual Pokey and Shleppie Awards, given by NYPIRG’s Straphanger Campaign and Transportation Alternatives, shine a spotlight on this unfortunate fact by recognizing the slowest and most unreliable buses in the Big Apple. Tune in above to see which routes earn the oh-so-prestigious award.
We won’t spoil the surprise by telling you the winner, but even despite speeds slower than walking, the slowest route in New York City carries 3.7 million passengers annually. The runner-up, the M14, carries 12 million riders a year. Higher speeds would not only help all those New Yorkers get to work or spend more time with their families, they’d also surely increase ridership.
That’s why the Straphangers are organizing support for Select Bus Service along Brooklyn’s Nostrand Avenue. The current limited bus service there, the B44, ranked as the fourth-slowest bus in the borough — not quite a Pokey Award winner, but a real contender. With innovations like off-board fare payment, dedicated bus lanes, and transit signal priority, the B44’s 13.3 million annual passengers could soon face a far faster ride. In the Bronx, Select Bus Service on Fordham Road improved bus speeds by 20 percent and ridership by 30 percent. In the first month of operation, Select Bus Service on First and Second Avenue cut trip times by 14 to 19 percent.
I wonder what routes would get the prize in Auckland. My guess is that the Link Bus is probably the slowest route. The most unreliable, at least from my experience is the 224 route that runs between Midtown and Henderson via St Lukes & New Lynn.
What do others suggest?
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The Link’s a tricky one, because how do you measure its progress? It’s a loop, after all, so from where does it start and at where does it finish? If we’re going to allow loop services, the City Circuit is no speed demon either.
On the other hand, if we reduce the list to point-to-point services my nomination would absolutely go to the 312 which is apparently Midtown-Onehunga by way of every back street between Campbell Road, Great South Road and Onehunga Mall.
Route 233/243 is the closest bus to my home but I avoid it during the day (when 233 rund but 243 does not) due to its St Lukes detour. Takes forever if traffic is busy around the mall – it has to queue up in traffic in both directions. I’d rather walk to the 248 or the other way to the train. And often (like today) I end up driving instead.
Any bus going up or down Queen Street is slower than walking (including 2 green phases for pedestrians on the corner of Victoria/Queen Sts making buses sometimes wait 6 minutes at one traffic light!!)
Yeah what if we put the transit, oh I dunno, hey, what about underground? There’s an idea, then it wouldn’t have to compete with all the street traffic…. crazy I know, would just have to be more efficient, then perhaps the whole city would work better….? Perhaps we should ask some clever and knowledgeable people about the economics of doing that? And then take their advice.
Last Tuesday night the 8.00pm 017 from K Road to Britomart down Queen St took exactly 28 minutes. This is outside rush hour! I bet you can walk almost twice as fast!
Yeesh, by my calculations that is an average speed of 3.2km/h! You could easily walk twice that speed.
Recently a driver on the 028 from Grey Lynn to Queen Street asked me what the route was.
He didn’t know to use Picton Street or whether to turn into Wellesley or Victoria Streets to get to Queen Street. That must be due an award of some kind.
Thats disgraceful.
My award would probably go to the LINK and all Queen St buses. Also the two times I caught 881 buses (more than a year ago) they were both very late, the second about half an hour late. I think the City Circuit is a waste of precious subsidies and fuel and slows down all the other buses and should be done away with as soon as we have integrated ticketing.
I would like to nominate the Britomart to Papakura Buses- they are scheduled to take about twice as long as the trains they almost perfectly Duplicate, and still the locals ‘expect’ them to run 20 minutes late coming into Papakura. There should be a series of feeder services to the trains instead
I think the city circuit is worthwhile, I use it occasionally and it is always packed, and quicker than walking (sometimes only marginally!). Remember not everyone can walk more than a few hundred metres. We should keep it until we get the rail loop- In the mean time, bus lanes on Queen Street Please!
I have used the Central Connector a few times recently to get from work (catch bus at top of Symonds) to Newmarket Station and I am disappointed- 15 minutes is a disgrace for a route used by multiple buses per minute! There need to be bus lanes right to the traffic lights, and those sensors that prioritise green lights for buses (but more so than our current ones). We definitely need bus lanes on Broadway, and probably lower Khyber Pass too. This may seem over the top to some, but we are talking about dozens of bus routes and thousands of people per hour… its all about increasing the capacity of congested roads, and giving people the freedom to travel quickly if they wish- currently everyone is forced to crawl at walking speed
The Link can’t really be replaced by the CBD tunell, it connects areas such as Ponsonby to K’Rd and downtown, which the tunnel won’t help with. Better to install some buslanes on roads like K’Rd, Victoria Street, and Ponsonby Rd.
rtc it will for me, I’ll ride B-mart to K-rd to skip the hopeless slow queen St section of the link. With the CBDRL the link could steer clear of the valley touching rail stations at K B-mart and Grafton. It should go across Grafton Bridge instead of go down Queen
I agree, the Link should go straight across Grafton Bridge and K Rd to Ponsonby Rd uptown, and along Fanshawe St or perhaps via Tank Farm downtown. Cut out the time consuming diversions into the Queen St valley.
If they ever sort out a proper integrated ticket the Link could become all but obsolete if people can utilise the grid of buses criss-crossing the city.
No I don’t think we can replace The Link with the CBD tunnel, I was talking about the City Circuit. I think the link plays, and will continue to play a vital role in the network as the most inner cross town route. I use it all the time to go around the city when transferring rather than going into town, then transferring and coming back out. Ponsonby road definitely needs bus lanes- down its centre. It aspires to being a pedestrian friendly area, and how better to achieve that than to split the car lanes up, create median bus stops, and speed up bus travel
reading between the lines in the AT monthly report, looks like the City Circuit may be redesigned to service the tank farm/viaduct in time for the RWC. A 10min service for this would be good enough for tourists. 10 min frequency not good enough for commuters who have to transfer in the CBD though.