one of my favorite routes is the m103 i like to take it from the upper east side but you can
start up in harlem this route will show you the upper east side midtown murray hill gramercy east
village noho nolita little italy chinatown and the civic center then from there if you still have
time you can take the ferry on wall street and travel up the river when it's not rush hour and
i'm not in a hurry i actually prefer riding a bus it's above ground so i get a chance to view the
city and observe the neighborhood if you are new to new york and want to get familiar with the city
i highly recommend taking some bus rides during off-peak times like early on a weekend morning
or if you can the middle of a weekday welcome to urban caffeine where we caffeinate ourselves on
urban knowledge my name is thea and today we are going to talk about a topic that some of
you have asked for new york city buses one thing to realize about new york is that it's massive
to give you some perspective the area of new york city is larger than singapore bahrain or st lucia
and mind you these are all countries having said that not all parts of new york are accessible by
the subway which is the most popular form of public transportation most of new york city's
subway system sits on manhattan and extends to parts of queens brooklyn and the bronx leaving
the rest of new york to be bridged by using the buses buses are not just useful for reaching the
extremities of nyc but also the in-betweens of the subway lines as well crosstown transportation
in manhattan is very limited with the subway so buses are very useful in traversing the east-west
directions of the island if you don't want to walk as a tip most crosstown buses are named after the
street they run on and we will soon talk about how these buses are labeled if you want to learn
more about manhattan street grid layout i made a video with the link in the description below
in this video we are going to cover the types of new york city buses that are available
the cost of fare and how to pay for these because some of them you pay when you get
on and others you pay beforehand then we are going to talk about bus stops and how to board
we will also go over how transfers work and to finish off we are going to talk a little bit
about accessing the bus map so let's get started there are four types of buses out in the wild
i wish i could say they are color coded or that one looks significantly different than the other
but unfortunately that's not the case although in general some buses are distinct enough to
really differentiate each bus you would have to look at the designators at the top and
pedestrian side of the bus which we will go over one by one starting with the local buses
this is your typical run-of-the-mill new york city bus they can be blue and white or dark blue
a bus typically runs a route within just one burrow or cross into a second one the
letter at the front of its sign signifies the primary burrow the bus is operating in
m signifies manhattan b for brooklyn q for queens bx for the bronx and s for staten island
limited buses are just like local buses but they make fewer stops they stop only at busier
stops or popular transfer points to identify the limited buses they will have the same designators
as the local buses but with the addition of something like ltd or limited or limited stops
before you get on you can always ask the driver if they are stopping at the stop that you want
select bus service buses are usually these blue and gold buses and their signs a little more
glitzy compared to the local buses you find these on routes with high commuter traffic
they cost just as much as the local bus but they operate a little differently in terms of how you
pay and how you board the bus that's because the select bus service are meant to be subway like in
nature where you just get on and get off without the hold up of having to pay right when you get on
it's supposed to make for a faster operation and we will talk about payment and boarding in the
following chapters of this video to identify these buses they will have the addition of
sbs plus or plus select bus or something similar under sign i say something similar because if you
have seen my subway videos you already know by now that inconsistent signage is a common thing
express buses have a completely different fare and i'd be careful not to get on one of these because
you might find yourself at the very outer bounds of queens or any of the other boroughs and it's
hard to simply turn around these buses are mainly to connect the outer portions of new york city to
midtown or lower manhattan to give you an idea for example a line that goes from queens to manhattan
will make stops on this portion of queens then will blaze through this portion and make several
stops in midtown manhattan as you can see there are no stops for a good stretch through queens so
it would not be fun to accidentally get stuck and have to travel back but it's pretty easy to know
you are on an express bus because they have coach seating the local bus interior will look like this
while coach seats look something like this so it's pretty unmistakable that you are on the wrong bus
if you are a tourist staying within manhattan or near manhattan you will most likely not
need to use an express bus as for their designators they can be marked with an m
in combination with the burrow they are serving or simply with an x
local limited and select bus service all cost 275 and the express bus costs 6.75 there are
senior and disability discounts available and you can find out more on the mta website
children under 44 inches are free there are three ways to pay on the bus with a metro
card with coins or tap and pay with a touch free reader so let's break these down starting with
the metro card or single ride ticket that you can get at a ticket machine at a subway station
i made an entire video on everything you need to know regarding the metrocard link
is in the description below a metrocard is either filled up with a cash amount or an unlimited ride
if you're riding a local limited or express bus you board through the front door and there
will be a machine next to the driver where you can insert your metro card
if you are riding a select bus service listen carefully
at the bus stop for select bus service you will see these machines one is if you have
a metro card and the other is if you have cash by cash i mean coins but no pennies
everybody who uses the select bus service whether they have an unlimited
ride or they are paying for a single ride still needs to use these machines press the start button
then you will be asked to insert your metro card if you have unlimited rides on your metro card
the machine will let you print out a paper ticket that will let you board the select bus service
if you don't have unlimited rides the machine will charge your metrocard 275 and print you
out a paper ticket according to the mta website if the machines at the bus stop you are at don't work
or out of service you can board the bus without paying and pay at the machines at the bus stop
that you're gonna get off of because we all know everybody abides by the honor system
unfortunately you can't reload a metrocard or buy a metrocard on these machines so if your
metrocard is empty or you don't have a metrocard i suggest going to the nearest subway station not
all entrances of the subway will have a metro card machine but all stations should have at least one
if the entrance of the subway station that you enter doesn't have a machine try another one
you can pay with cash using exact change but not with bills nor pennies just quarters dimes
and nickels and for non-americans these are 25 cents 10 cents and 5 cents and up to 25 coins
to pay with change on local limited and express buses
board through the front door and there should be a change box where you can drop your cash into
for select bus service look for the machines next to the bus stop that has coin slots in general
it's the smaller machine follow the instructions to print out your paper ticket for the bus
you can also pay directly with your smart device or credit card with nfc capabilities this method
is to pay for single rides only like i said in my metrocard video which is linked in the description
below if you want to have unlimited rides you will have to use a metrocard this might all change in
2023 when new york has revamped its whole payment system but until then metrocard omni is short for
one metro new york and this is the reader for local limited and express buses the omni reader
should be functional at the front of the bus so board the bus at the front to scan your payment
for select bus service you should be able to pay at any door to use the omni readers so you don't
have to use the machines next to the bus stops you can just board directly on the select bus service
and scan at the door bus stops are tricky for some areas you can easily spot the stops
they are sheltered highly visible and some are neatly labeled and then there are some that you
kind of have to look for because they're just a small blue lollipop looking sign
where the sign is planted is where the front of the bus will park and this is where you wait for
the local limited and express buses you have to board on the front because you pay as you enter
common etiquette is that you d board at the back door so as not to run into the people on boarding
at the front door but many people exit through the front and i have yet to see someone get tackled or
arrested for doing this for select bus service you can board and d board at any door as long as
you have your paper ticket or pay with the omni readers because this bus was meant to function
like a rapid rail system and speaking of getting off the bus the buses won't automatically stop at
every stop like the subway you have to notify the driver when the next stop is yours by pulling on
a string or pushing the request stop button if you happen to be on the bus late at night you
can ask the driver to drop you off on any location along the route so that you'd have a shorter walk
to your destination this goes the same for the express bus minus the express portion of the route
like i said in my metro card video if you have unlimited rides transfers don't really apply to
you but if you pay for a single ride you have one free transfer within a two hour time period
from when you paid the free transfer is good from bus to bus bus to subway or subway to bus if you
are coming from a subway or bus to an express bus you will have to pay the difference in fare to get
your free transfer just use the same metro card or same method of payment with the omni reader if you
pay with cash tell the driver you need a transfer and they will give you a printed transfer ticket
when riding the subway you will come across the subway map quite often because they are
posted in the stations and on the train so the subway map is pretty accessible
with the bus maps it's a little harder to come by because the mta publishes the bus maps according
to the boroughs so there'll be a bus map for manhattan a different one for queens and so forth
so you can't really get a bus map that overviews all the five boroughs the way you do with the
subway the better way to view bus routes is by using an app and this way you can see all the
inner barrel bus lines and since there are so many routes it's easily overwhelming when you
just look at a printed map but with an app you can isolate routes so that it's a little
more user-friendly google maps and apple maps can show you these bus routes but i actually prefer
using apps dedicated to just showing you the bus routes and with apps you can see a live view of
the bus so you can make a call whether you want to ride the bus because it's near or far from where
you are at and since you are above ground you can easily see if traffic is moving fast or slow and
you can make that call whether you want to use the bus or another form of public transportation for
the longest time i never took the bus the biggest blocker for me was the inaccessibility of the maps
i had no clue where i was going and i didn't know how to board or deboard the bus and that was quite
intimidating but after getting over this blocker i now actually prefer using the bus over the subway
as long as it's not rush hour and that's all i've got thank you so much for watching liking
commenting and or subscribing to my channel counts as engagement and it's engagement that keeps
youtube channels alive and thriving until next time thank you for watching and happy new yorking