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M79 Deemed Slowest Bus In NYC; M15 Named Least Reliable

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives have given the 2014 Pokey Award for the city's slowest bus route to the crosstown M79.

"The M79 is the slowest bus in New York City, which is saying something because New York City has the slowest buses in America," said Gene Russianoff, attorney for the Straphangers Campaign.

M79 Deemed Slowest Bus In NYC, M15 Named Least Reliable

The groups found the M79, which runs crosstown on 79th and 81st streets between East End Avenue and the 79th Street Boat Basin, pokes along at an average speed of 3.2 miles per hour.

To offer some perspective, the Straphangers Campaign said in a press release that the fastest recorded Hawaiian lava flow moved at 6 mph.

"I'd think twice before trying to evacuate from an erupting volcano in an M79 bus," Russianoff said. "Fleeing on foot would be faster."

Some riders came to the bus' defense.

"There's too many cars. The bus can't go any faster," one woman said. "If they don't like to take the bus, tell them to walk."

"It depends on traffic really to me, anyway," another woman said.

The slowest bus routes in each borough are the B41 in Brooklyn at 5.7 mph, Bx19 in the Bronx at 4.8 mph, Q58 in Queens at 7.7 mph and S48/98 in Staten Island at 8.3 mph, the study found.

Meanwhile, the M15 along First Avenue was given the Schleppie Award for the city's least reliable bus service.

"In terms of big gaps in service and when the bus finally does come, it's bunched; it's a bunch of buses," Russianoff said.

But one rider didn't seem to have a problem with that.

"You let them all pack them in in the first one or two buses and I get the next one. It's nice and empty," the man said.

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