M66 Wins Pokey Award For City's Slowest Bus
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- And the winner for the slowest bus in the city goes to ... the M66.
The bus line, which runs along 66th Street in Manhattan, on Tuesday received the annual Pokey Award, given by the Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives advocacy groups.
Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said the M66 averages just 3.1 mph.
"It's slower than many turtles," he told reporters, including WCBS 880's Peter Haskell.
Russianoff admits the big problem is traffic. But there are things the MTA could do to help, he said.
FULL RESULTS: Pokey | Schleppie
"If you have multiple doors on buses for people to board, that speeds things up. Paying your fare before you get on, low-floor buses," he said.
It's the second time the M66 has won the dubious award. It shared a Pokey with the M42 in 2012.
The Schleppie Award for the least reliable service was a tie between the M1 and the combined M101/102/103.
In all, 32 bus lines met the criteria for winning a Schleppie this year, up from 19 in 2014.
"It was real deterioration in the performance here," Russianoff told 1010 WINS. "The number of routes that were awarded Schleppies increased tremendously, which means that they're having problems running the buses and giving riders a decent level of service."