{"id":23371,"date":"2025-10-30T23:29:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T23:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/23371\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T23:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T23:29:11","slug":"a-human-right-benches-promised-for-every-nyc-bus-stop-eventually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/23371\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;A human right&#8217;: Benches promised for every NYC bus stop &#8230; eventually"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block-key=\"g4nn9\">City transportation officials on Thursday promised to one day install a seat at every bus stop in the city, giving riders a place to rest their legs while they wait for the MTA\u2019s notoriously slow service.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"11rr\">Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said the department reached a $40 million agreement to add 875 benches at bus stops each year through 2035, eventually bringing seating to all the roughly 14,000 stops.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"42gfv\">The benches have arm rests that prevent people from laying down across them, part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/gothamist.com\/news\/new-benches-at-grand-central-madison-add-to-hostile-architecture-trend-that-deters-homelessness\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u201chostile architecture\u201d trend<\/a> that deters homeless people from sleeping in public spaces. At bus stops where there isn\u2019t enough space for a bench, transportation department officials said they would install metal bars that riders can lean on.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"9cb1l\">\u201cThis is not a privilege. This is a human right,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201c\u200aWe have to take care of the big things and the small things, and it is the small things, the details that make a difference in so many New Yorkers lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"f0262\">New York City\u2019s buses have remained among the slowest in the nation during Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 time in office. The mayor has repeatedly <a href=\"https:\/\/gothamist.com\/news\/advocates-worry-which-street-safety-project-mayor-adams-will-abandon-next\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">nixed or delayed<\/a> bus lane projects across the city designed to speed up service, and has never complied with a law passed in 2019 mandating the city install 30 miles of new bus lanes each year.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"9sh4t\">The buses themselves are operated by the state-run MTA, but the city is responsible for the streets and traffic patterns that slow them down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City transportation officials on Thursday promised to one day install a seat at every bus stop in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-23371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}