Congestion Pricing Would Save Riders of Most Queens and Brooklyn Express Buses One to Two Hours Per Week Riders Alliance Follow Oct 30, 2018 · 4 min read

New York’s tens of thousands of express bus riders commute some of the longest distances in the city. They pay $6.50 per ride. They hail from far flung neighborhoods in the outer boroughs sometimes deemed ‘transit deserts’ because they lack good subway connections.

Many express bus riders are even designated ‘supercommuters’ by the Census Bureau, because they travel more than 90 minutes each way to get to work.

With many spending upwards of 15 hours each week in transit, their time is especially precious.

According to this new route-by-route analysis by the Riders Alliance, a grassroots organization of transit riders, congestion pricing could return express bus riders in Brooklyn and Queens an hour or two of their valuable time each and every week.

Congestion pricing is a policy that would charge cars and trucks to enter the Manhattan central business district south of 60th Street. One effect of congestion pricing would be to discourage and reduce unnecessary vehicle trips into the congestion zone, reducing traffic congestion.

The reduction in congestion would in turn speed travel both within the congestion zone and on approaches to it, including on streets in the outer boroughs. The Balanced Transportation Analyzer, a tool used by the state’s Fix NYC panel, which proposed a congestion pricing regime earlier this year, found that, once in effect, congestion pricing would increase traffic speeds by 20% within the central business district and by 7% on approaches to it.

Those percentages in turn dictate the Riders Alliance’s time savings predictions for Queens and Brooklyn express bus routes.

So, how’d we do the analysis?