Select Bus Service (SBS; stylized on the buses as +selectbusservice) is a brand used by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's MTA Regional Bus Operations for bus rapid transit service in New York City. SBS began service in 2008 in order to improve speed and reliability on long, busy corridors.
SBS routes use vehicle-segregated, camera-enforced bus lanes; sidewalk extensions for bus stops; relatively large distances between stops; vehicular turn restrictions along corridors; and next-bus travel information screens. The first route was the Bx12 along Fordham Road and the Pelham Parkway; as of November 2017[update], seventeen SBS routes run along fifteen corridors. Several more corridors are proposed for Select Bus Service, with one route planned for implementation in July 2018, and twenty-one more routes proposed through 2027.
In 2002, Schaller Consulting conducted a study on potential bus rapid transit services in New York City. In 2004, the MTA in conjunction with the New York City Department of Transportation and New York State Department of Transportation, performed an initial study on bus rapid transit, with 80 corridors studied citywide. In late 2004, the MTA identified five corridors for implementation of bus rapid transit, one in each of the five boroughs: the Fordham Road/Pelham Parkway corridor in the Bronx, First Avenue and Second Avenue in Manhattan, Merrick Boulevard in Queens, Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, and Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island. Four bus priority corridors were also identified for implementation or expansion (three in Manhattan, one in the Bronx): Madison Avenue (expansion), Fifth Avenue, 34th Street, and Webster Avenue. The Merrick Boulevard corridor was eventually scrapped because of community opposition related to loss of parking. However, the corridor is being considered again as part of the Bus Forward study in 2017.