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Q58 wins Pokey Award as slowest bus in Queens

Transit group calls Q58 boro’s slowest bus
By Philip Newman

The 50th Street crosstown bus in Manhattan has won the doubtful distinction of being the slowest bus in town with the Q58 cited as the worst laggard in Queens.

The M50 averages 3.5 mph on its westward crawl across Manhattan.

The 10th annual Pokey Award from the transit activist agency Straphangers Campaign went to the M50.

“You can push a lawnmower faster cross town than it takes the M50 to go from First Avenue to Twelfth Avenue,” said Gene Russianoff, attorney for the Straphangers..

Russianoff said research revealed that a human powered push mower could reach 4 mph compared with the 3.5 mph averaged by the M50.

The Straphangers designated the Q58 as the slowest in Queens at 7.2 mph on its route from Ridgewood to Flushing/Main Street.

In the Schleppie award for least reliable bus, the winner was the M101-M102 and M103, which operate with big gaps in service or bunched together. The buses run on the same trunk rout in Manhattan, traveling on Third Avenue and Lexington Avenues between the East Village and Washington Heights, the East Village and Harlem.

Queens was the only borough with buses reliable enough not to get mentioned in the Schleppie awards.

Criteria for Schleppie recognition are heavily bunched up buses and/or large gaps in service.