I thought so too (sane people avoid MTA buses) and have never actually ridden one but it turns that the people who do ride them generally like them a lot. The

I thought so too (sane people avoid MTA buses) and have never actually ridden one but it turns that the people who do ride them generally like them a lot. The advantages I've heard repeatedly (compared to taking a subway) are: 1) Convenient locations for pickup/dropoff ("it's right by my [office|apartment]") 2) Easy to get cross town 3) Cell phone works (as it's above ground and most of the subway doesn't have femtocells installs)