ICYMI: Countdown Clocks Installed At 15 Upper East Side Bus Stops

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Fifteen bus stations on the Upper East Side have brand-new countdown clocks thanks to neighborhood residents, City Councilman Ben Kallos announced Thursday morning. The clocks — located at stops long the M15, M31, M57, M66 and M72 lines — were a top vote getter in the district's participatory budgeting election years ago.

"I hope that new bus countdown clocks will bring more riders back to our buses, as they walk by and see a bus on the way to help get them where they are going faster,” Kallos said during a Thursday press conference. "Riders will finally know when the next bus is coming or if it isn’t coming at all, so they can make that crucial decision of whether it is faster to ride or walk."

Editor's note: In case you missed it, here's one of the Upper East Side's best stories from last week.

After a proposal to install countdown clocks at neighborhood crosstown bus stops won $300,000 in participatory budgeting, Kallos pledged an additional $340,000 for more clocks at M31 downtown and crosstown stations.

"The bus should be a modern, convenient, accessible transportation option for the two million New Yorkers who rely on bus service every day, and countdown clocks get us a step closer to that goal," John Raskin, founder and executive director of the Riders Alliance, said in a statement. "These countdown clocks will help bus riders plan their travel and will prompt New Yorkers who have given up on slow and unreliable bus service to give the bus another try."

The new clocks are located at these stops:

• M15 (Northbound) on First Avenue: 70th, 72nd, and 75th
• M15 (Southbound) on Second Avenue: 94th
• M31 (Northbound) on York Avenue: 72nd and 76th
• M31 (Southbound) on York Avenue: 74th, 77th, 79th, 84th, 86th, and 88th
• M57/M31 (Westbound) on 57th Street: First Avenue
• M66 (Westbound) on 67th Street: First Avenue
• M72 (Westbound) on 72nd Street: First Avenue

Photo courtesy City Councilman Ben Kallos