This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation.<\/p>\n
Sign up<\/a> to get the full version, which includes answers to reader questions, trivia, service changes and more, in your inbox every Thursday.<\/p>\n New York City bus service might be slow<\/a>, but more riders across the five boroughs will soon have an easier time figuring out how long they\u2019ll have to wait at their stop.<\/p>\n The city transportation department inked a deal this week to add countdown clocks at more than 1,400 stops with a \u201cdigital panel on the side of the bus shelter,\u201d documents show. The new digital clocks will also have a text-to-speech feature for the visually impaired.<\/p>\n The transportation department plans to outfit 2,900 of the city\u2019s roughly 15,000 bus stops with countdown clocks by 2030.<\/p>\n Officials said 700 countdown clocks are already installed at bus stations.<\/p>\n Some New Yorkers noted the existing countdown clocks were unreliable.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, bus rider Arlen Sun waited at a Downtown Brooklyn bus stop with a countdown clock that said both a B61 and B65 would arrive in zero minutes. Several minutes went by without a bus in sight.<\/p>\n Sun, 25, checked Google Maps, which said the next bus wouldn\u2019t arrive for another 10 minutes. He said he has little faith in the countdown clocks and rarely even looks at them.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aThey don’t really work, and you gotta use online,\u201d Sun said.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI feel like buses, you can’t really have set schedule for these things, because it’s never going to be on time really,\u201d he said. \u201cI guess that’s just a part of taking a bus.\u201d<\/p>\n The new countdown clocks will be a mix of digital screens affixed to the sides of bus shelters<\/a> and other panels attached to bus poles. The city\u2019s bus shelters are managed by the company JCDecaux, which has a deal with the city to build and maintain the shelters in exchange for the right to put up advertisements.<\/p>\n The city plans to hire a contractor to install 1,400 of the countdown clocks on bus poles.<\/p>\n The transportation department plans to spend $17 million to install the clocks, which doesn\u2019t include the cost to maintain the equipment, officials said.<\/p>\n Officials said the new countdown clocks will be installed at locations based on ridership and what they call an \u201cequitable approach\u201d to ensure \u201call New Yorkers\u201d can access the technology.<\/p>\n The city’s current bus countdown clocks aren’t exactly cutting edge.<\/p>\n Stephen Nessen \/ Gothamist<\/p>\n Countdown clocks take some of the worry out of waiting on platforms and are a service subway riders across all lines have enjoyed for years. MTA officials said the new screens will sync with the transit agency\u2019s bus location system to ensure accuracy.<\/p>\n \u201cThese displays will bring the same type of real-time arrival estimates we provide through Bus Time, the MTA App, and screens on subway platforms, and we’re grateful for their partnership,\u201d MTA Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Rieara wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani earlier this year announced plans to add 300 new bus shelters over the next two years. His administration has added new bus lanes across the city this year in a bid to make service more reliable.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery New Yorker deserves to know when their bus is coming,\u201d the mayor wrote in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s another step toward the fast, reliable, world-class bus service New Yorkers deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n Iris Velez, who caught a bus in SoHo earlier this week, said she normally avoids the service. But she said she might be enticed to ride the bus more often if the countdown clocks helped determine \u201cwhich way would be a better route.\u201d<\/p>\n NYC transportation news this week<\/p>\n Plants are sprouting out of a deteriorated MTA train yard roof. An MTA train yard in the Bronx where the 2 and 5 trains are serviced is in such a state of disrepair that vegetation is growing out of holes in the facility\u2019s roof, according to a recent audit by the MTA\u2019s Office of the Inspector General. Water drips down onto electrical equipment. A tarp has been laid out to collect water that flows into buckets. The audit also flags multiple \u2013 and in many cases, long-standing \u2013 issues that pose a threat to the workers on site and threaten to disrupt or slow down New York City\u2019s sprawling subway network<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Citi Bike empire is expanding. The bike-sharing network finished a push to add docks to seven more neighborhoods, including parts of the North Bronx and Eastern Brooklyn. Here\u2019s where they\u2019re adding more docks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lieber\u2019s still a no on free buses. After a Brooklyn public school dean said he was brutally assaulted<\/a> by MTA fare inspectors over a bus fare he said he paid, MTA Chair Janno Lieber reiterated his opposition to Mayor Mamdani’s push for free buses<\/a>.<\/p>\n Motorcycle crash closed upper lanes to NY on GWB. A fatal motorcycle crash closed the George Washington Bridge\u2019s upper lanes heading into New York City during Thursday morning rush hour<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ex-NYPD detective in custody after GWB shooting. A driver was shot and killed<\/a> while driving on the George Washington Bridge\u2019s upper level earlier this week. A retired NYPD detective is in custody for the road-rage killing, police said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Port Authority plans long-term fix to Manhattan roadway where falling debris smashed cars. The Port Authority’s board is set to approve a $117.5 million contract to fix the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, a 0.8-mile tunnel tucked beneath buildings in Upper Manhattan that connects to the George Washington Bridge\u2019s lower roadway, where a piece of metal and a chunk of concrete fell from the roadway\u2019s ceiling<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n Commuters worry about gun violence after fatal shooting at 53rd St. station. Several commuters who use the busy Midtown train station where a man was shot and killed<\/a> last weekend told Gothamist they worry about persistent gun violence as NYPD statistics show murders and felony assaults in the transit system have increased this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Curious Commuter<\/p>\n