Testimony to the NYC Council Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Good afternoon, I’m Brian Fritsch, Associate Director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, PCAC. Thank you to Chair Brooks-Powers for the opportunity to testify today.
On Monday, we stood with the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign to announce the winners of the 18th annual Pokey and Schleppie awards, given to the city’s slowest—the M42— and least reliable—the Q8—high ridership bus routes. We do this to highlight the need for more investment from not only the MTA, but also NYC DOT.
This is in part because both the M42 and Q8 are good examples of what the MTA is doing right to make buses run more reliably. The M42, while still objectively slow, was also considerably faster than in 2024, a direct result of congestion pricing. Likewise, the Q8 recently had 25% of its over 100 stops cut during the Queens Bus Network Redesign in a smart effort to make it more reliable. Will see how it does in next year’s awards—we’re hopeful!
We also, for the first time this year, offered a new “Mazel award” for the most improved service to the M79, which improved from 6.63 to 7.25 MPH, and the SIM32 express bus, which jumped by more than 2 MPH. Neither of these improvements would have been possible without congestion pricing.
In short, riders are seeing progress, but we can only continue to do so with a city—and especially a mayor—willing to properly enforce busways and priority bus lanes, invest in signal priority technology, and, we sincerely hope, finally follow the NYC streets plan.
We also would be deeply appreciative of a Mayoral Administration that promises to keep affordability a priority and partner with this council to expand the Fair Fares program. Currently, Fair Fares only enrolls about a third of eligible New Yorkers, which is dismal. We would love to see automatic enrollment in the future, so that low-income residents who are already getting other benefits that clearly qualify them for Fair Fares don’t have to jump through additional hoops. If they are struggling to enroll, we should make things easier.
Additionally, expanding Fair Fares to over 200% of the Federal Poverty Level would finally expand eligibility to minimum wage New Yorkers, who are incredibly likely to be transit dependent. Coupled with other improvements like fully free fares for the lowest income New Yorkers and expansion to the commuter railroads and express buses in New York City, we could take this program from a good idea to one that transforms how people move around the city.
As a Council, you have been steadfast in your commitment to riders. Let’s get on board with making bus service and Fair Fares even better. Thank you.