All aboard, baby.
Tykes who ride MTA buses will have designated stroller-only spaces across the entire fleet of nearly 6,000 carriages by the end of the year, officials announced Thursday.
The move marks more than just a baby step for a program that the transit authority began testing in 2022, when it created stroller-only sections on just seven routes without taking any space that is prioritized for wheelchair users at the front of each bus.
“We had parents and caregivers and disability advocates who were advocating that we preserve the integrity of those spots up front for people that have mobility disabilities, as the [Americans with Disabilities Act] calls for,” said Quemuel Arroyo, the MTA’s chief accessibility officer. “So we knew that we weren’t touching those spaces.”
Approximately 75% of all buses on more than 250 routes now have what is marked as a “Designated Stroller Area,” where seats can be flipped up to make room for tots and their stroller-pushing parents. All future bus orders will include spots for strollers, while others are presently being retrofitted at MTA bus depots.
“We often talk about how our buses are critical ways for people to get to school, to work, to health care,” said Demetrius Crichlow, president of New York City Transit. “But we can’t forget about those who have children and families that need to get to the playground, to get to visit grandparents, to get to their first play dates.”
The expansion is being funded by state legislators and it comes several years after parents began campaigning for the MTA to reconsider its earlier ban on open strollers aboard buses. Not even a year after the start of the pilot program in September 2022, the test drive expanded to more than 1,000 buses.
Danielle Avissar, a Manhattan mother of two, was among those who began pushing for the space when her son was a year old. He’s now five and about to enter first grade.
Over those years, Avissar said strollers have become more welcome on buses, overcoming initial “serious safety concerns” from the Transport Workers Union that unfolded strollers could tip over or lead to scraps over space.
“Parents feel more comfortable — it’s become more normal and socially accepted for strollers to be on buses,” she said. “Parents felt really shunned out prior to this.”
Unfolded strollers can enter via wheelchair ramps or lifts attached to every bus. According to MTA data, the devices have been used more than 111,000 times a month over the last year.
Avissar added that signs on buses marking the space for strollers have helped tamp down potential conflicts with other passengers.
“Once they see a designated spot, they get up, just like they do for a wheelchair patron,” she said.
Christine Serdjenian Yearwood, a mother of three who founded UP-STAND to advocate for parents-to-be who use mass transit, said the program’s systemwide expansion is a sign of how much effort parents, bus operators and advocates for people with disabilities put into making it work.
“It’s a dream come true for families in New York,” she said. “It really makes it so people can use the bus system and get to where they need to go.”
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