The MTA is currently testing out new sensory technology that it hopes will prevent bus crashes—by warning pedestrians about buses in their vicinity, and vice-versa.
One system issues an "audio warning" when a bus is taking a right or left turn; the other uses sensors to alert bus drivers to vehicles and pedestrians in their immediate vicinity.
TWU Local 100, which represents city bus drivers, has been pushing for sensory crash-prevention technology for some time now, while campaigning against what it deems unfair treatment under the City's Right of Way Law.
Instated in August 2014, the Vision Zero legislation gives NYPD officers the power to arrest drivers who injure or kill pedestrians. As of May, bus drivers had accounted for 6 of 23 total Right of Way arrests.
"The law has created a situation where bus operators that were not acting recklessly or negligently were arrested and treated like common thugs," said TWU Local 100 President Samuelson this summer, in a statement.
An MTA bus driver fatally struck a pedestrian in the Bronx last October, while turning left form Willis Avenue to 147th Street. The driver was the first MTA employee arrested under the Right of Way Law, and was subsequently freed without bail. According to the MTA's report on the crash, "the most probable cause of the accident was the actions of the [bus operator]."
According to a press release from the MTA, four buses have already been rigged up with external speakers—one in Fresh Kill, Queens, one in Flatbush, and two in Midtown. The MTA has stressed that the speakers don't block the driver's view of the road, and that the volume of the alert "takes into consideration the ambient sound level in the vicinity of the bus."
Two buses in Flatbush are currently testing the driver-alerting sensor system, which monitors vehicle and pedestrian activity in front of, and on both sides, of the buses. It takes both speed and distance into account in order to, according to the MTA, warn bus drivers "in sufficient time to avoid a collision."
Both technologies will be tested for two months. If successful, one or both will be piloted next year on as many as 200 buses. It would cost an estimated $77 million to roll out both technologies across the city's entire bus fleet.
"Our bus operators have an extremely difficult and stressful job, driving 40 and 60-foot-long buses through streets that are congested with cars, trucks, pedestrians and bicyclists," said Samuelsen in a statement. "They do their best to avoid accidents every single day, and they have a great record, but we absolutely welcome any technology that can improve street safety."
In June, the State Senate passed a bill that would prevent the NYPD from arresting or detaining MTA bus drivers if they are exercising "due care" and fatally strike or otherwise injure a pedestrian with the right of way.
