The Indypendent65%
Bus Riders Respond to Mayor Mamdani’s Plan to Speed Up Buses Across the City 45%
By Elsie Carson76%
7/30/2026, 7:21:40 AM
Topics: Public Transit, City Government
BS Summary: This article contains 27 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Negativity Bias, and Pessimism Bias, with Anecdotal as the most egregious example at 28.2% saturation with 383 hits. Analysis detected 1,605 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,357 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 42.5% and a BS Rank of 45% (13,913 of 25,250 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 55.10% of the article peer group.
Zohran Mamdani made the promise of “fast and free buses” one of the centerpieces of his 2025 mayoral campaign.
Delivering the “free” part of that commitment has proven elusive due to a lack of funding from the state.
But on July 8, Mayor Mamdani began to deliver on the other half of his promise.
Standing alongside Gov.
Kathy Hochul, he unveiled a 51-page plan to expand bus infrastructure across the city and speed up ride times for bus passengers by six to 12 minutes.
“Our streets are public spaces,” Mamdani said.
“How we design them reflects who we believe they are for.
Today, we make a decision that puts working New Yorkers first.”
The plan — “Next Stop: Fast Buses, Better Service” —identifies 50 priority bus corridors for improvements.
New York City buses currently travel an average of eight miles per hour, but go as slow as five miles per hour on some heavily congested routes.
Mamdani said better service will include more designated bus lanes, easier boarding, more buses on the road and more bus stops with seating and shelter from the elements.
But what does better service actually look like for people who depend on buses every day?
The Indypendent spoke with bus riders to gauge public reaction to the mayor’s plan.
Lisbon, Utica Avenue
What is your experience with the buses?
Some buses are real slow, in truth.
Like the B6 on Glentwood that goes back that way, that bus is real slow sometimes it takes too long to wait for that bus to come; too much time you have to wait for them.
Sometimes I wish while I’m riding them [The Buses] that they go quicker.
Besides that I don’t really have a problem with them.
Do you feel like the buses are crowded?
Yeah yeah, the one on Utica is crowded a lot.
That stop over there is crowded.
There are no seats, I tell you that one is crowded.
Even the one here, those two cross buses are crowded because those are the main streets; like Utica, Church [Ave], and Flatbush, even in Nostrand, those are the main spots where more buses should be put because those are real crowded
Steve, 33, Utica Avenue
What are your thoughts on Mamdani’s proposed policy to make buses faster?
I don’t think you can really do anything, because the street itself is small you know?
It’s not really a big street, especially around here, it’s more congested with people if anything.
No matter what you do, the people are gonna be here so, it’s like you’re trying to limit the amount of people who want to walk in the community.
So it’s like, I don’t think it’s a road congested thing, that’s literally the community, it would cut into the culture overall.
I don’t need to take the bus, everything is in this area; if I need to go somewhere I can just take an Uber.
I don’t really want to deal with people.
You can’t really go around it though because it’s New York City, it’s over-congested to begin with.
So who am I to complain about the bus being crowded because I’m one in a million people.
Tia Toussaint, Student Nurse
I feel like he can get it done, he’s gotten a lot of things done so far.
Especially because there’s always construction
I hate the buses.
The buses are nasty, the buses take long, sometimes there are delays.
I personally don’t take the bus, I drive, but even with driving there’s always traffic.
It depends on the day really, it really depends on the day.
What are your thoughts on ticketing cars that pull into bus stations?
I personally don’t like that just because sometimes you just stop at a bus stop like really quickly, it’s something quick, and then you get a ticket, and then the ticket is like hundreds of dollars; that’s my only problem.
As far as the buses, I feel it would be important for them because the cars are blocking the lane, so I guess on that part it’s okay, but a ticket, I don’t know; it depends on how much the ticket is.
What are your thoughts on the addition of more shelters at bus stops?
I think that can go both ways, especially with the homeless population.
That might encourage them a new place to have all their baggage and things like that.
But I know the elderly population, it might be a positive for them, since it’s hot.
They need somewhere to sit, and they might be overheated.
Usually the doctors pick us up and take us and bring us where we need to go.
I’ve taken buses in the past and they’ve been good.
I haven’t had any delays or anything, but the overcrowdedness is insane.
You have to be up against people and on top of each other.
I like my distance.
It discourages me from taking the buses.
I wish I had skates or a scooter so I could go up and about my business
Some streets, like this one on Atlantic, they shortened the block on the street going down Livingston.
There’s school buses that have to pick up children and the cars can’t pass by because at first it was two lanes on each side but now it’s one lane on each side and including the bike lanes…it’s crazy.
There’s a lot of changes going on and I understand they want to make the city better and I get it.
What are your thoughts on Mamdani’s plan to implement 2,300 new buses?
I feel like the biggest concern would be congestion, but I don’t see that as an issue.
Like I’ve lived in other cities that have a lot of buses running and that have been running exclusively on buses, I’ve lived in other cities where you have dedicated bus lanes.
I don’t think congestion will be an issue.
I mean honestly, transit when you get further, it gets more sparse.
I definitely have issues sometimes where I’m trying to get somewhere that I know is close – I could drive it in 10 minutes – but I don’t have a car, but the way that the train routes are you have to take the bus to get to those specific blocks.
I definitely have issues with buses being really full, and I’ve had buses pass me because they were full; especially if school was out or if school is starting.
So maybe at certain times of day they [the buses] could be better.
Do you prefer the bus stops with or without the shelter overhead?
I mean it doesn’t make a big difference for me in terms of safety, but it makes a difference for weather.
So if it’s sheltered, for sure, for like rain and snow
Anonymous, 16, Jenny, 17
Do you think making bus service faster to save 6-12 minutes makes a difference?
ANON: That’s doing nothing.
I’m not confident it’ll work, and the buses are really late because of how packed they are or if something is happening on the street or if something is going on in the bus in general
JENNY: And they have to readjust mad buses so people can get on time like that’s gonna take mad work.
ANON: Sometimes three buses come at the same time, four buses coming at the same time; it’s already so inconsistent
JENNY: Every time I’m trying to get on the bus it says 17 minutes, 18 minutes; nobody got time for that.
Y’all gotta hurry up, no shade.
ANON: I feel like the buses in the morning and in the night should be the fastest, because there’s barely any people in the night, and in the early morning there’s nobody that’s gonna be outside.
JENNY: They’ve gotta hurry up with the night service because there’s actually people who get out of work at a certain time at night and they have to wait mad long.
And at night time there be crazy stuff happening on the buses and trains.
Analysis
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