Speedier rides are on the way for the nearly 25,000 people who use one of the MTA'a busiest bus lines every day. NY1's Jose Martinez filed this report.
Pick a door, any door. No dipping a MetroCard at the front of this bus.
"The dip takes time," said Andrew Albert, Manhattan Community Board 7. "It's an archaic system."
But you have to use a MetroCard or coins to get a receipt first from one of the sidewalk machines -- unless you're ready to get slapped with a $100 summons for farebeating.
Those are the new rules to speed up the pokey crosstown M86, which on Monday became the latest line to get Select Bus Service.
"I do not like the new system," said one woman NY1 spoke with. "But I'm sure they did it for a reason. So after I think it through, maybe it will make sense. But right now, this second, I'm not happy."
It was day one, so you could count on confusion among those who've never been on any of the city's seven other SBS lines.
Normally, the M86 is two and a quarter miles of misery on 86th Street, from Broadway on the West Side to York Avenue on the East Side.
It's often delayed because of heavy ridership and all those people trying to board through one door.
"It's not easy at all, sometimes you're waiting like a minute or two just to get on the bus," said one man NY1 spoke with.
Transit officials say the introduction of Select Bus Service on other routes has cut travel times up to 20% and they are expecting the same improvement here.
"86th Street is the second-busiest bus corridor in Manhattan, with over 24,000 daily riders," said Polly Trottenberg, Transportation Commissioner. "It has the most riders per mile of any bus route."
Though the SBS lines rely on an honor system for fare payment, that doesn't mean passengers can expect a free ride.
The MTA has special agents watching for fare cheats and has issued more than 170,000 summonses for fare beating since Select Bus Service began seven years ago.
There are plans to keep the rollout going -- Mayor de Blasio has called for 20 SBS lines by the end of his first term.
Two more local bus lines are set to get Select Bus Select by the end of the year. Those are the Q44, linking Flushing, Queens, to the Bronx and the B46, which runs along Utica Avenue.