‘You Keep Me Waitin’ Till It’s Gettin’ Aggravatin’, You’re a Slowpoke…’

By Yvonne Juris

If you want to go crosstown on two Midtown streets, you might reach your destination more quickly  by riding in a bumper car.

At least that was the opinion of Gene Russianoff of the New York Public Interest Research Group Straphangers Campaign as he announced on Tuesday the joint winners of the annual Pokey Award for the slowest city bus routes — the M42 traversing 42nd Street and the M66 traversing 66th and 65th streets. Both routes clocked in at an all time slow speed of 3.9 mph, resulting in a tie for the Golden Snail statuette.

“The M66 and M42 would lose a race to an amusement park bumper car”, which clocks in at 4.3 m.p.h., said Russianoff. “And it would be a lot less fun.”

The other dubious distinction, for unreliability, went to the M4, which run from Penn Station to Fort Tyron Park. This bus got the Schleppie Award after NYPIRG members recorded many instances of buses clustering together on the route. The researchers found that nearly 30 percent of M4’s arrived bunched together.

The Schleppie statuette shows two elephants lumbering on a golden pedestal.

“New Yorkers are sick of slow lines,” said Russianoff. “There is not enough service.”

The MTA “is very aware that bus speeds in the city are low,” a spokesperson reported  in a statement. Officials point out construction projects such as the Second Avenue subway line have slowed the M42 and M66 buses.

Russianoff cited the installment of the Select Bus Service, which requires riders to pay their fare before they enter the bus, as a sign that the city is being responsive to the complaints made by straphangers about slow service

In the outer boroughs the B35 ltd, Bx19, Q58 and S48 were listed as some of the slowest buses and the B15, Bx41 and S78 were named the most unreliable.