NYC bus speeds

How fast city buses actually move, including time stopped at stops and lights. History from the MTA's published speeds; the latest days from our own tracking of every bus.

Weekday speeds by borough

Average speed of all buses, Monday to Friday, by month.

The congestion pricing zone

Local buses on weekdays, 6 am to 8 pm: the part of each trip inside Manhattan's zone below 60 St, and the rest. Pricing started January 5, 2025.

Latest days

Citywide speed each day from our own tracking, all hours. The MTA's numbers come out a month later.

Every route

How this works

Speed is miles travelled over hours taken, adding up all buses, so busy routes count for more.

  • HistoryThe MTA's bus speeds by route (monthly, since 2019) and congestion zone bus speeds (since 2023).
  • Latest daysEvery bus reports its position about every 30 seconds. We place each report along the bus's route and divide distance by time. Layovers at the ends of routes, detours and GPS glitches are left out.
  • CheckOn a test day our route speeds were within 10% of the MTA's for 91% of routes, and 8.66 vs 8.59 mph citywide.

Caveats: the zone comparison is all local buses together, so service changes on some routes can move it. A single day of our tracking moves with weather and events; compare like with like (weekday with weekday).