Bus countdown clocks are coming to about 1,400 more NYC stops, starting this year
The city will add real-time arrival screens to JCDecaux bus shelters in all five boroughs, roughly doubling the 700 stops that have them now, and aims for 2,900 stops by 2030.
Photo: Tdorante10 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- NYC DOT says it will add about 1,452 real-time arrival screens to bus shelters, taking stops with countdown information from about 700 to about 1,400; installation starts this year in all five boroughs.
- The shelter screens include a text-to-speech button for riders who are blind or have low vision, Gothamist reported, citing city documents.
- A separate contract, to be put out for bids, will add displays on bus stop poles where there is no shelter. The goal is 2,900 stops by 2030, out of roughly 15,000.
- Gothamist reported the city plans to spend $17 million to install the clocks, not counting maintenance.
- The MTA says the screens will pull from the same bus-location data as Bus Time and the MTA app.
More New York City bus riders will soon be able to see when the next bus is coming without pulling out a phone. The city Department of Transportation says it will roughly double the number of bus stops with countdown clocks, from about 700 to about 1,400, with installation starting this year in all five boroughs, according to a DOT announcement on Thursday and Gothamist.
What is changing
- Shelter screens: DOT will add about 1,452 digital arrival screens to bus shelters run by JCDecaux, the company that builds and maintains the city's shelters in exchange for advertising rights. Stops will be chosen by route ridership, with what the city calls an equitable approach across neighborhoods.
- Audio: the panels on the side of the shelter come with a text-to-speech button for riders with visual impairments, Gothamist reported, citing city documents.
- Pole-mounted displays: for stops without a shelter, DOT will soon seek bids from contractors to install units on bus stop poles.
- 2030 goal: 2,900 stops with real-time information, part of the city-state Next Stop bus plan. The city has roughly 15,000 bus stops.
Gothamist reported the city expects to spend $17 million on installation, a figure that does not include upkeep.
Will they be accurate?
Riders have complained that some existing clocks are unreliable. Gothamist spoke with a rider at a Downtown Brooklyn stop whose clock showed two buses arriving in zero minutes while neither appeared for several more minutes. The MTA says the new screens will sync with its bus-location system and show the same estimates riders see in Bus Time, the MTA app and subway platform screens. The Next Stop plan also commits the MTA to modernizing the real-time bus data behind those predictions.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in the DOT release that "every New Yorker deserves to know when their bus is coming." Next Stop, a joint plan of the mayor, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the MTA, also promises 300 new bus shelters by 2028, more transit signal priority and faster trips on 175 routes.
Until a screen reaches your stop, real-time arrivals are available through Bus Time and the MTA app.
- NYC Department of TransportationMamdani Administration to Dramatically Expand Real-Time Bus Information at Stops Across Five Boroughs
- GothamistCountdown clocks are coming to an NYC bus stop near you
- NYC DOT / MTANext Stop: Fast Buses, Better Service
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