NYC Comptroller Report: MTA Falls Short of Obligations to Express Bus Riders with Disabilities

 

A new report from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander finds that the MTA’s express bus service routinely leaves riders with disabilities without reliable, safe, respectful, or on-time service, despite being designed to fill a critical gap for New York communities in public ‘transit deserts’—areas with limited or no access to inter-borough rail service. The report was based on a survey of express bus riders and field observations by teams that included auditors from the Comptroller’s Audit Bureau and New Yorkers with disabilities. 

“All New Yorkers deserve accessible, equitable and timely service,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “MTA express bus service is often the only public transit option for outer borough communities, yet our report found it is not a viable option for many wheelchair users. The MTA must provide drivers with adequate training, equipment, oversight, and proper staffing to deliver reliable and equitable service to all.”  

Unlike low-floor local and Select Bus Services vehicles with accessible front door ramps, high-floor express buses require external wheelchair lifts to provide full accessibility. Since 2018, the MTA piloted only one potentially viable ramp-equipped express bus design across the transit system. As riders with disabilities and accessibility advocates highlighted in roundtables with the Office of the Comptroller—improving design is a critical step in making Express Buses more accessible. 

In 2023 and 2024, the Comptroller’s Office gathered insights and testimonials from advocates within the disabled community through roundtables, which informed the project’s scope and its recommendations. In August 2024, the Audit Bureau distributed surveys to 458 riders at express bus stops across all five boroughs to assess rider satisfaction with express bus accessibility, performance, and communication. 81.5 percent of respondents reported riding MTA express buses three or more days per week. A staggering number of riders with disabilities reported experiencing inappropriate, rude, hostile, or threatening behavior from drivers and/or other passengers when using or attempting to ride MTA express buses accessibly.  

The key findings of the survey identified:  

• Of the 11 respondents who used or attempted to use wheelchair lifts: 
• 5 reported frequent driver difficulties operating lifts. 
• 3 stated drivers never deployed lifts. 
• 5 experienced hostile behavior from drivers or passengers during boarding.  
• More than a third of all respondents (34.5%) reported that buses fail to operate according to schedule during weekday rush hour. Similarly, 28.4% of respondents stated that buses do not adhere to the schedule outside of rush hour. 
• Nearly 70% of respondents reported that service cancelations impacted them, with 7.6% of those affected reporting they had to wait more than an hour for the next bus.  
• According to MTA statistics from January through September 2024, The MTA canceled 16,516 trips. The MTA canceled these trips because no bus operator was present (12,803 trips, 77.5%), a road call or mechanical failure occurred (2,949 trips, 17.9%), no buses were available (501 trips, 3%), and/or other reasons arose (263 trips, 1.6%).” 
• 85.4% of respondents reported using the BusTime website in the last year, while 53.7% said they used the MTA app. A significant number of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with both platforms, but more so with the MTA app.  
• BusTime users reported dissatisfaction or strong dissatisfaction with the accuracy (29.4%), timeliness (25.6%) of service alerts, and accuracy of real-time bus locations (23.8%).  
• Similarly, MTA app users expressed dissatisfaction or strong dissatisfaction with the accuracy (36.6%) and timeliness (32.5%) of service alerts and the accuracy of bus locations. 

Together with the rider survey results, the Office of the Comptroller partnered with community across the city, in a first-of-its-kind set of joint field observations that paired auditors from the Comptroller’s Audit Bureau with express bus riders with disabilities, in order to gather insights on how MTA express buses perform in real conditions for wheelchair users who rely on proper MTA training and oversight to board safely.  

Audit Bureau teams observed 25 sample MTA express buses. Auditors found that nearly 1-in-4 wheelchair users could not board express buses due to wheelchair lift issues or, even worse, drivers did not stop for wheelchair users waiting at designated stops. The report found that many MTA drivers lack proper training and guidance on MTA express Bus lift operation, ADA requirements, and the MTA’s own standards for service accessibility. Among the 19 observed instances of riders using wheelchairs who successfully boarded express Buses, nine (47%) experienced delays. In one case, boarding took over 20 minutes for a rider. In 16 of the 19 (84.2%) instances, wheelchair users were not safely positioned onto lifts or secured inside the bus. These chronic delays highlight a clear gap in the MTA’s training protocols and oversight for wheelchair lift operations. 

Officials found that Staten Islanders wheelchair users were disparately impacted by poor express bus service. Citywide, wheelchair users were unable to board in nearly 25% of all observed express Buses, whereas 50% of the Staten Island riders who use wheelchairs were unable to board. Anecdotally, one rider described routinely waiting for multiple buses to travel from Staten Island to Manhattan, highlighting systemic failures in the MTA’s ADA-compliant training for drivers. Auditors were paired with volunteers and observed their experiences boarding or attempting to board express Buses.  

To address these alarming issues with express Bus service citywide and improve transportation accessibility, the Comptroller’s Office offered the following recommendations: 

1. Immediately conduct refresher trainings on wheelchair lift operation, as well as ADA and MTA requirements for providing service to people with disabilities. This includes immediately informing Bus Command Center (BCC) of lift issues, safely boarding customers, securing wheelchairs, making bus stop announcements as required, and appropriate etiquette.
2. Ensure that all express bus drivers receive annual hands-on training in operating wheelchair lifts and provide express bus drivers with field instructions for operating wheelchair lifts. 
3. Separately report MTA express bus wheelchair lift deployments, including the number of failed and successful deployments. 
4. Pilot additional low-floor entry buses or other accessible bus designs and consider implementing those buses when the MTA retires older vehicles. 
5. Make meaningful efforts to engage the accessibility community on new bus designs, including designs that provide ramp entry. Those efforts should include, but not be limited to, selecting buses to pilot, accessibility features and bus design, and revenue service pilots. When piloting new bus designs, ensure the MTA equips demonstration buses with the accessibility features it proposes to implement and engages a diverse and large enough sample of people with disabilities so their feedback can reflect the broader needs of riders with disabilities.   
6. Compare MTA express bus scheduled pick-up and drop-off times to actual times and revise bus schedules as necessary to ensure they are realistic and as accurate as possible. 
7. Address bus driver shortages and mechanical failures to minimize the impact of service cancelations. If shortages cannot be addressed, revise schedules to reduce cancelations
8. Improve MTA communication applications to ensure that they provide customers with accurate and timely information on service alerts, bus locations, and estimated bus arrival times. 

The Comptroller’s Office urges the MTA, City officials, and key stakeholders to prioritize these recommendations and work together to create a transit system that truly serves all New Yorkers. 

Read the Comptroller’s report at https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/metropolitan-transportation-authoritys-express-bus-accessibility-and-user-satisfaction/