Observation: The Back Doors on the MTA Buses

If you’ve ever ridden in the rear of an MTA bus in NYC, you know that exiting from the rear doors is not as easy as it looks. For starters, the doors do not open automatically as do to doors at the front of the bus. This causes a first time rider a bit of panic as they hurriedly try to figure out whether they should run to the front of the bus to ensure they get off at their stop or if they should continue to stare at the doors in hopes that their opening has just somehow been mysteriously delayed. A nervous first time rider will usually give up after a few seconds of waiting so as not to miss his/her stop; opting instead to exit from the front of the bus. The situation is only made worse if seasoned bus passengers are lined up behind the first time rider as he/she prays that the doors will magically open. Of course, they won’t and a button on the handle must be pushed or the door itself must be manually forced open with a shove. I’m not quite sure why the rear doors were designed this way. One would expect them to open much in the same way that the forward doors do. I can only imagine the manual opening mechanism is enforced to conserve heating/cooling energy on the bus at the expense of user experience.