Where buses lose time

Every stretch of every bus route, shaded by how much time buses lose there to traffic on a weekday, with the city's bus lanes on top. Most of the time lost is on streets with no bus lane.

Streets losing the most, with little or no bus lane

Stretches where both stops are on the same street, added up across routes and directions. Under half the route on a bus lane.

How this works

The MTA publishes how long buses take between timing stops on every route, by hour (bus route segment speeds).

  • Time lostA stretch's average time on weekdays 7 am to 7 pm, minus its time in its fastest hour of the day, times the number of buses. Roughly the time buses spend stuck beyond what the street allows when it's clear.
  • Bus laneThe share of the stretch within 15 m of a lane on NYC DOT's bus lane map.
  • RidersWeekday daytime boardings on all routes using the street (MTA), for scale.

Caveats: timing stops can be a mile or more apart, so a stretch can mix streets. A lane in either direction counts, as do lanes that only run at rush hour, and DOT's map can lag new lanes. Some lost time is boarding, which no lane fixes. Streets with lanes are still among the slowest: lanes went where buses were slowest.