The New York Resident, March 1, 2004
A Bumpy Debate
Articulated Buses Clog City Streets, Residents Say, But Carry More Folks
Kate McGregor

Articulated buses, those mammoth mass-transit vehicles made of two buses fused together by and accordion-like structure in the middle seen lumbering along a couple of routes throughout Manhattan, have slowly become a permanent fixture within the city’s bus transit system, much to the chagrin of bus riders, cabdrivers and commuters.

The 60-foot-long buses – standard buses are 40 feet – carry roughly twice as many passengers and have 22 extra seats while spanning nearly one-third the length of a city block. Many people complain they are long, bulky, and slow and tend to congest traffic, especially on cross streets where traffic flows in both directions. For New Yorkers living on the East Side who are forced to rely on bus service because other transportation alternatives simply do not exist, the use of articulated buses has spawned heated debate and much frustration.

“They are long and cumbersome and have the unfortunate effect of sticking out and holding up traffic as they wait for people to board,” said Gorman Reilly, President of CIVITAS, a union of citizens for the Upper East Side and East Harlem. “When such a big bus pulls in, it takes a long time to load.”

In January, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority began using the buses exclusively on the M15 routes, which traverse the length of First and Second Avenues from Lower Manhattan to 125th Street. The MTA runs three articulated buses for every four standard buses, which means increased dwell or idling times to accommodate more boarding passengers.

Sources at New York City Transit argue that the reduction in frequency is more than compensated by the “very large” increase in capacity on the route.

“The use of articulated buses provides a minimum 10 percent increase in rush-hour capacity and a minimum 17 percent increase in non-rush-hour capacity,” said spokeswoman Marisa Baldeo.

Certainly some do like them. John Villanueva, a sophomore at Baruch College and a frequent contributor, under the pseudonym Diamond Five, to the Rider Diaries of the public advocacy group, NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign, feels they “handle crowds well.” He added, “I haven’t seen dwell times to be any higher; however, only one can occupy a bus stop at a time, so there can be a queue when entering stops.”

But many, including Betty Cooper Wallerstein, Founder and President of the East 79th Street Association and an advocate for better transportation on the East Side for more than 20 years, feels the buses are slower, the back stair and the handle rings too high and the ride very unsteady and uncomfortable.

“The worst flaw,” she said, “is that these buses are bulky and large. They do not belong on New York City thoroughfares,” a sentiment shared by residents throughout the city.

John C. Liu, the Queens City Councilmember who chairs the Committee on Transportation, said he often receives complaints that the buses are too large for city streets, dangerous to pedestrians and traffic, not as user-friendly to those who use wheelchairs and scooters, and too long for bus stops.

In June 2002, the transit authority procured a contract for 260 “artics” which were initiated on various routes – the crosstown M79 and M86 for example – in 2001 as part of a pilot program. That September, despite the criticisms, 10 to 15 buses began arriving each month until late last year, when the contract was fulfilled. Seventy-seven articulated buses are in service during the rush-hour period on the M15 route alone, Baldeo said.

She added that because of their “accordion feature, they actually have a tighter turning radius than the 40-foot buses. Also they relieve traffic congestion because we are able to operate fewer buses along the route, with increased capacity of passengers.”

Yet riders and advocates continue to claim otherwise.

“Their mode of operation is not to discuss ridership; they don’t care about calls telling them [the buses] are ineffective,” Wallerstein said. “Their reaction is to purchase more.”

“We testified against implementation of articulated buses in the fall,” said Pat McCandless, the transportation liaison for New York State Senator Liz Krueger, “because they cut the amount of buses dispatch on a route. They say they are giving more seats, but in effect they are cutting service. Fewer buses means more people entering them and more lag time.”

Baldeo acknowledge that they do receive a tremendous volume of complaints about the city’s bus service; however, since making routes “articulated,” they have “not received one complaint,” she said.