By Philip Newman
The slowest bus in Queens is the Q58, according to the transit advocacy agency Straphangers Campaign.
The Straphangers reported that the Q58’s average speed is 7.7 miles per hour on its route from Ridgewood to Flushing.
Although slow, the Q58 was far from slowest among slow buses with the M79 crosstown in Manhattan winning the Straphangers’ Pokey Award while averaging 3.2 miles per hour.
The Straphangers Campaign said Hawaiian volcanos’ lava flows faster than the M79 travels, averaging 6 miles an hour.
“I’d think twice before trying to evacuate from an erupting volcano in an M79 bus,” said Gene Russianoff, attorney for the Straphangers. ”Fleeing on foot would be faster with an average human walking at a speed of about 3.5 mph.”
The S48/98 of Staten Island averaged 8.3 miles per hour between Mariners Harbor and St. George Ferry Terminal.
The Straphangers also awarded its Schleppie in recognition of buses bunched together or service spread at long internals.
The most unreliable was the M15 between uptown and downtown on the East Side of Manhattan where 33 percent of the buses in this category. Adding to the woes on this route, the M15 has the highest ridership in the city out of 192 local bus routes.
Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, had a happier outlook on the plight of bus passengers.
“Now there is real hope for Mayor (Bill) de Blasio’s plan to build a network of 20 Select Bus routes,” he said.
The high speed super express buses employ pre-boarding ticketing through any door and, in the future, the ability to prolong green traffic lights to allow SBS buses to avoid time-consuming stops.
