Following a recent cost-saving measure from the MTA to remove printed schedules at all bus stops, Council Member Andrew Cohen and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz have penned a letter expressing their displeasure. The decision, which the MTA estimates to save approximately $550,000 per year, has also elicited complaints from bus riders, advocates, and elected officials throughout the city. The MTA indicates on their website that there are 16,350 bus stops citywide with an average of 2.4 million bus riders per day.
In their letter, Cohen and Dinowitz challenge the cost-effectiveness of saving a half-million dollars per year at the expense of easily accessed information for bus riders. A 2015 report from NYC Department of Consumer Affairs about mobile phone ownership indicates that 40% of people over the age of 60 and 15% of people with incomes under $31,200 per year do not have a smartphone.
The MTA has suggested that in lieu of printed schedules at each bus stop, that customers could simply log on to their MYmta smartphone app to check the schedule. The MTA also offers schedule information by calling 511 and navigating their automated voice-recognition system or by texting bus route and stop information to 511123. However, a test of the 511 system from Assemblyman Dinowitz’s office resulted in an estimated 7-9 minute wait to speak with a live representative after the voice recognition failed to identify which stop information was being requested. The texting service also only provided information about the next arriving bus, and did not offer any information about when a bus was scheduled to arrive at a future time.
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said: “At a time when we should be expanding information access to all bus riders, such as adding modernized bus maps and route frequency information, it is very unfortunate that the MTA has decided to eliminate an essential service for many of their customers. Not everyone has or wants to use a cell phone to figure out when the bus is supposed to come. Eliminating printed schedules at bus stops to save a little bit of mouney seems penny wise and pound foolish, especially as we see money continue to be wasted on things like bus washing facilities that weren’t built large enough to fit the necessary equipment.”
Council Member Andrew Cohen said: “To think that every person will be able to pull out a smart phone to figure out when something as important as when the bus should be arriving, is not considerate of our community members that do not have access to technology or have the understanding of how to do so. This is a modest amount of capital that the MTA is trying to save compared to the system-wide investments that the MTA needs to make. The need for information about when the bus arriving is very important to my constituents, so much so that bus countdown clocks have been a consistent ballot item on my yearly Participatory Budgeting process and that I have invested over $520,000 in City funding towards since 2016. This is not where the MTA should be cutting cost, and it does not improve equitable service for all patrons- which should be the goal.”
