Metro

Waiting (and waiting) for bus

The third time’s not the charm for aggravated bus riders along 42nd Street.

Manhattan’s crosstown M42 bus has earned a record third Pokey Award as the city’s slowest bus, transit advocates said yesterday.

The M42, which also won the Pokey in 2009 and 2010, tied with the M66 as the pokiest bus line of 2012.

Buses on the two lines crawl across town at an average 3.9 mph, just a half-mile per hour faster than the average walking speed of an adult under the age of 65. Manhattan has the slowest buses in the city, according to the annual study sponsored by the Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives.Those already running in the city — including the crosstown M34 line — are about 20 percent faster than other buses, transit advocates say.

“The M66 and M42 would lose a race to an amusement-park bumper car — and be a lot less fun,” said Straphangers Campaign lawyer Gene Russianoff, who noted that bumper cars zip along at about 4.3 mph.

The M42 crosses Manhattan along 42nd Street in Midtown, and the M66 links the Upper East and Upper West sides on 65th and 66th streets.

Crosstown buses have been consistent Pokey Award recipients. Russianoff called the M42 and M66 lines “excruciatingly slow.”

Another Manhattan bus line, the M4, earned transit advocates’ Schleppy Award as the bus most likely to run off schedule.

MTA data show the M4, which runs 10.25 miles from Fort Tryon Park to Penn Station, is off schedule on 28.5 percent of its runs.Traffic-clogged

Buses are quickest in Queens and Staten Island.

The MTA “is very aware that bus speeds in the city are low,” the agency said in a statement. MTA officials say construction projects along their routes have especially slowed the M42 and M66 buses this year.

The MTA could speed straphangers by adding more Select Bus Service lines, Russianoff said.