Bus Running Through 18th Ave. Selected for Improvement

The B8 city bus, the much-criticized route which runs along 18th Avenue, has been selected by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for improvements.

The MTA is focusing on improving its 29 worst-performing routes which have high ridership. The B8 is notorious for its late arrivals and unpredictable schedules, which has frustrated riders. Along with the other 28 routes, the B8 has a high ridership base which makes up just 10 percent of routes across the city but account for a fifth of all bus riders.

Zafira Lateef, the MTA’s chief officer for business strategies, made the announcement during a board meeting on Monday. He said that focusing on these 29 routes “will benefit not only the 20 percent of our customers who ride them, but thousands of other daily customers who ride other routes that travel through the same corridors.”

Lateef reiterated the MTA’s preference for the city Department of Transportation to install more dedicated bus lanes, but said that in the meantime it is working with the NYPD to enforce the law against drivers blocking bus routes. In the two months since the enforcement initiative began, he said, law enforcement agencies have slapped drivers with about 2,000 tickets along these routes.