Baby on board: MTA to make room for strollers on all NYC buses

By next year, the MTA wants to have all buses outfitted with a spot for parents and guardians to park a stroller.

The transit agency said Thursday it is expanding a pilot program that converts two seats by the rear doors of the bus into a designated stroller space. Currently, about 75% of the system’s 6,000 buses have been retrofitted to allow riders to flip two seats to store strollers, according to New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow.

“We’re making our bus network a better option for parents, families to get to where they need to go and expanding our open stroller pilot for our New Yorkers,” Crichlow said at a news conference. “This program means that buses will have clearly marked places that separate from the existing priority seating for those using them for wheelchairs and walking devices.”

The pilot program started in 2022 on select buses and expanded to more than 1,000 buses in 2023.

MTA officials are estimating that every bus in the city’s fleet will be retrofitted with the stroller area between the end of the year and the first quarter of 2027. The expansion of the program was supported by funding from the state legislature’s latest budget, according to Crichlow.

All new buses will also have designated stroller space, MTA officials said.

Redesigning the back seats to flip upwards will also allow more people to fit in buses, according to MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo. Now four people can stand where two people used to sit.

“Accessibility is universal and it touches the hundreds of thousands of families with children in New York,” Arroyo said. “On average we have over 150,000 births here in New York City [every year] … We are not confined to what exists, we are open to reimagining the system and thinking about what can be and what’s needed.”

Riders lugging strollers are still required to board in the front of the bus and move to the back. The MTA is in the midst of addressing a major fare evasion problem. The latest figures show about 48% of all bus riders don’t pay the fare when boarding.