New York MTA Committed to Improving Bus Bunching

"With a new command center, more bus dispatchers, and high-tech displays in every bus that will empower drivers to even out gaps between buses, the MTA is putting serious resources (about $300 million) into combatting uneven service," according to an article by David Meyer.

Meyer explains how bus bunching ripples through the system, meaning delays and unreliable arrival times for riders—and often where it hurts the most. "The worst bunching tends to happen on important bus routes with lots of riders. The 20 bus routes with the highest rates of bunching carry an average of 20,000 daily trips," according to Meyer.

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority's plan to mitigate bus bunching includes a new bus command center, already under construction and expected to open in 2020. "With an increase in supervisors from 20 to 59, the MTA’s bus command center will be able to pay much more attention to keeping buses evenly spaced," report Meyers. "Supervisors, who today track as many as 180 individual buses at once, will handle no more than 100 buses at any given time."

Meyers also provides details of technology upgrades and the new powers of bus drivers to take control of a bunching situation.