Sunday, passengers taking the Bx12 Limited bus route in New York's Bronx experienced a different ride than the usual. The buses had changed colors and the stops became "stations." With the use of dedicated lanes, pre-paid boarding, and limited stops, the city hopes to reduce the time to travel the whole route by at least 10 minutes in the future. The buses, however, aren't much faster when looking at the printed schedules.
The Select Bus Service, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority calls it, only cuts three minutes during the midday service off the pre-Select Bus Bx12 Limited service. The MTA, however, says that they will monitor the route closely and then reflect on the time savings.
One of the biggest time savers is the reduced boarding times. With automatic ticket machines, riders swipe their MetroCards or pay their fares at Select Bus stations and receive a receipt. Passengers can then board through any door of the bus. The line uses a proof-of-payment system, where ticket inspectors randomly show up to enforce the payment of fares.
Dedicated lanes painted in red will be in effect on weekdays from 7 to 7, but the buses will not have cameras mounted in the front to snag violators like they do in London. The city will have to rely merely on NYPD to ensure that the bus lanes are only for public transit. At a few intersections, there will be signal priority, where the traffic lights will hold the green for a bus, or speed up the red light when a bus is waiting at the intersection.
The Select Bus Service only cost $10 million, which is much cheaper than implementing an entire rail line. An estimated 25,000 daily passengers will use the service, and this number is expected to grow.
