If you’ve ever cursed at a late bus while standing on a freezing corner or in the blistering heat, Comptroller Brad Lander has some news: it’s not just in your head. NYC’s bus system really is that bad.
A brand-new report card from Lander’s office, aptly dubbed “Life in the Slow Lane,” graded every bus line in the city, and the results are just as depressing as your daily commute.
More than half of all buses citywide—56%—earned a D or F. In other words, they’re just as unreliable as the subway you’ve already built excuses around for being late.
The worst offender? Manhattan—nearly three out of four buses (an astounding 73%) flunked.
Here, traffic is so brutal that some buses crawl at speeds as low as 5 mph. That’s slower than a jogger in Central Park, slower than your grandma power-walking with a tote bag, and slower than the delivery e-bike that nearly ran you over this morning. At that pace, you might as well just walk.
Brooklyn riders aren’t spared either.
The borough’s buses are the worst at “bunching”—that nightmare scenario where you wait forever, then two buses show up at once like some cruel MTA prank.
And express buses? They manage to pick up some speed on bridges and highways but still fail miserably at being on time. In fact, all ten lines with on-time rates below 50% are express routes. Imagine paying extra for a bus that’s late half the time.
Citywide, average bus speeds hover around 9 mph—exactly where they were ten years ago. Years of promises about “bus priority” and “faster commutes” have basically delivered nothing but more time to finish your podcast.
With that being said there are some tiny bright spots: buses that run through the congestion pricing zone south of 60th Street actually sped up this year, and a handful of lines like Brooklyn’s B31 and B84 scored rare A grades.
But for the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers, the ride remains miserable.
As Lander put it, this report is meant to be a wake-up call. But for locals who’ve been groaning about both subways and buses for decades, it feels more like déjà vu. Another report, another failing grade, and another reminder that though the city never sleeps, public transit is permanently stuck in traffic.
