Bus Stop-A long "New York Minute"

"In a New York minute", has long been recognized as a description for accomplishing a task in record time—a reflection of the hectic activity witnessed on the streets of New York and in a New York deli. Bus Stop challenges those "truths" by capturing the pace of a West Side bus shelter on a single Sunday night.

Night Strangers
Strangers who came to share a Sunday night at the opera—leave as strangers.
Buses from different routes numbered M5, M7, M10, M11, M66 and M104 all stop within one block of Lincoln Center.  
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Captured by the Light
Although Times Square is known as the Great White Way because brightly lit advertising signs cover every building and open space, the advertising does not stop there.

Most buses in New York City are covered outside and inside with advertisements. Even the bus shelters are equipped with large bright electronic billboards, which cost advertisers from $1,300 - $6,500.
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M104
The Broadway Line is known as the M104, which follows a route mostly along 42nd Street and Broadway from Murray Hill to Harlem. The M104 route was originally served by a trolley, but the M104 no longer runs along the entire route of the former streetcar.
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Alone Together
The largest fleet of city buses in the world is found in New York City—5,927. Generally, a bus stops every two blocks making a bus trip tedious.

The bus system serves routes not covered by the subway system: crosstown and outlying areas. There are 327 bus routes in the five boroughs of New York City. The longest local bus route is Staten Island's S78 which travels 19.7 miles across Staten Island with 117 stops.

New York City buses also provide the main form of transportation for students, K-12, going to and from school.
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Ghost Rider
The New York City bus system operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. During the 2020 pandemic three new overnight routes were added because the subway shut down so cars could be sanitized.
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Not All There
56% of New York City’s population uses the public transportation system regularly.

The Manhattan Transportation Authority (MTA) operates a fleet of 5,927 buses to cover 327 routes in New York City. Originally, bus service was owned and operated by a private company founded in the mid 1940s to provide express service between Manhattan and eastern parts of the Bronx.

In fact, the last private bus companies were bought out by the city in March, 2005.  
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Into The Night
New York City was the first bus fleet in the world to be 100% accessible to wheelchair customers.

During 2022, the city added 60 electric buses to its fleet resulting in a total of 75 electric buses.

However, the growth of electric buses in the system brings its own set of new problems. Because New York City pays some of the highest electrical rates in the nation, the MTA was paying more per bus mile for electricity than it did for fossil fuels.
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Public and Private
During the 2020 pandemic, bus and subway ridership fell dramatically as workers took to the automobile and bicycles to avoid crowds and feel safer.

Bicycle traffic increased 33% over the previous year. An increase of 33% does not seem like much, but the New York City DOT reports that 33% is an additional 1.8 million trips. In fact, the pandemic resulted in 793,000 adult New Yorkers regularly riding a bicycle resulting in 490,000 trips per day.

It is estimated 55,000 New York City workers commute between home and work.
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Fleeting
Every bus in New York City is a roving billboard. Advertisements are inside the bus, on the tail of the bus and the entire exterior of the bus.

Full bus ads (wraps) cover the entire bus by applying pressure-sensitive vinyl on which the advertisement is printed. Starting at the top of the bus, two or three workers drop a wide vinyl roll down the side and press it into place with a plastic tool. Applying pressure to the vinyl releases tiny balls of glue that adhere to the bus. When the promotion ends, the vinyl is easily peeled off.

Advertising costs range from $5,000 to over $60,000 for system-wide buys.
Fleeting Gary Ricketts gricketts gricketts.com Photography by Gary Ricketts Manhattan New York New York City Lincoln Center Night Bus Capturing History Through Photography Fine Art Photography Bus Stop Smugmug Street Scene Street Photography black and white

Bus Stop-A long "New York Minute"

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