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Riding a New York City bus with a stroller in tow is an anxiety-ridden experience.
If you don’t fold the stroller before boarding, it’s difficult to navigate through a packed vehicle and feel steady on the ride. Finding a place to actually stand throughout the journey seems, at times, to be a hard task alone. With a carriage and a child? Nearly impossible.
But that’s all about to change as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) begins implementing phase two of its Open Stroller Pilot. New Yorkers can expect all local and select buses operating out of six depots to feature dedicated stroller spaces by the fall of 2023.
Each bus that's part of the program will boast a special decal on the outside. The same identifier will be found inside each vehicle as well, either by an open space near the rear of the bus or by two side-by-side seats that can be flipped up to create more room for the carriage.
To be clear: the new designated spaces will not interfere with priority seatings for those with disabilities. “A bus customer boarding with a wheelchair will still have the same number of designated spaces,” reads a press release.
"Today’s announcement is the culmination of months of intensive work at the MTA to make buses more inclusive and accessible for all of our customers," said MTA chief accessibility officer Quemuel Arroyo in an official statement. "By working together with our riders, advocates, and bus operators who power our system, we have identified a meaningful solution to ensure that buses are more welcoming to parents and caregivers while preserving accessible space for customers with disabilities, many of whom rely on buses every day to travel throughout the city."
According to the MTA, the new guidelines stem from customer feedback on phase one of the pilot program, which kicked off last fall. The agency reveals that four out of five survey respondents supported the expansion of the program to more buses and routes while customers and operators alike "have reported faster and easier boarding experiences, more comfortable bus rides and more positive interactions with fellow riders on the pilot routes."
Even better news: there have been no reports of safety incidents or conflicts connected with the over 4,000 stroller journeys that have been tallied since the beginning of the pilot.
The participating buses will run out of Eastchester and West Farms in the Bronx, Ulmer Park in Brooklyn, Tuskegee in Manhattan, Casey Stengel in Queens and Castleton in Staten Island.
The following routes will feature the open stroller program:
• Brooklyn: B1, B3, B6/6 LTD, B36, B64, B74
• The Bronx: Bx6, Bx6 SBS, Bx8, Bx11, Bx17, Bx19, Bx21, Bx23, Bx27, Bx31, Bx32, Bx33, Bx35, Bx36/36LTD, Bx46
• Manhattan: M15, M31, M101, M102, M103, M125
• Queens: Q12, Q13, Q15, Q15A, Q16, Q20A, Q20B, Q26, Q28, Q31, Q32, Q44 SBS, Q48, Q50LTD, Q76
• Staten Island: S40, S42, S46, S48, S51, S52, S53, S66, S76, S81 LTD, S86 LTD, S90 LTD, S93 LTD, S96 LTD, S98 LTD