1 min video · safe-or-risky quiz
Sound settings
Key rules
Do
Avoid
Day 43: SBS bus pre-payment. Learn the small habit that prevents the most common pedestrian incidents in NYC. Week 7 of the year-long curriculum. Here are the rules for this one. Think about your usual commute: a Harlem crosstown street in the rain. Here's what keeps you out of trouble. Select Bus Service uses curbside fare machines and all-door boarding. Pay before the bus arrives and keep your receipt for inspectors. Drill it once and you'll catch yourself doing it without thinking. Three things to do. Do 1: Pay at the curbside machine before the bus arrives. Do 2: Keep your paper receipt visible for inspectors. Do 3: Board through any door — front, middle, or rear. Three things to avoid. Avoid 1: Boarding without a receipt — the fine is $100. Avoid 2: Trying to pay on board — SBS buses don't accept it. Avoid 3: Standing in the lane while operating the machine. Why this matters: SBS speed comes from pre-payment. Boarding without paying delays the bus and risks a fare inspection fine. Safe move: Letting passengers exit the subway car before stepping on. Prevents the shoving that pushes people toward the platform edge. Risky move: Wearing both earbuds at full volume through a busy intersection. You lose horns, sirens, and bike bells. Pause audio at the curb. Safe move: Letting a right-turning truck complete its turn before stepping off. Removes you from the truck's huge right-side blind spot. Risky move: Stepping into a crosswalk while a driver is staring at their phone. If their eyes aren't up, treat the car as if it has no driver. Wait. Safe move: Holding kids' hands and keeping them on the inside of the sidewalk. Puts an adult between them and the curb — the simplest, strongest protection. Risky move: Stepping straight into a bike lane to look for cars. Treat the bike lane as its own crossing. Check it before you step in. Safe move: Stopping at the painted edge of a bike lane and looking left first. Exactly the routine that prevents the most common bike-lane collisions. Risky move: Crossing in front of a stopped school bus that still has its stop arm out. Kids are crossing or about to cross. Wait for the arm to retract. Safe move: Carrying or wearing something reflective on a dark walk home. Reflective gear can double or triple the distance at which drivers see you. Risky move: Walking out from behind a tall SUV without leaning to look first. Drivers in the next lane can't see you and you can't see them — a classic blind-pull collision. Safe move: Walking on the building side of the sidewalk on a rainy day. Puts more distance between you and splashing or sliding vehicles. Risky move: Crossing a one-way street while only looking the way cars come. Cyclists, scooters, and wrong-way drivers come from the other side too. Safe move: Stepping back from the platform edge as the train pulls in. Gives you margin against sway, wind, and accidental bumps. Risky move: Walking next to a truck that has its right turn signal on. Truck right turns are the deadliest interaction for pedestrians. Stop and let it pass. Safe move: Waiting a full beat after the light changes before stepping off. Late-runners and last-second turners clear the box in that beat. Safe move: Pausing before a turning SUV until the driver makes eye contact. Confirming the driver sees you is the single best habit at a corner. Safe move: Looking both ways on a one-way street every single time. Covers the wrong-way cyclist, scooter, or driver you did not plan for. Risky move: Crossing a wide avenue without checking the median for turning traffic. Medians hide left-turning cars accelerating across your second half of the crossing. Safe move: Pausing audio before stepping into the crosswalk. A second of silence is cheap insurance against the thing you did not see. Risky move: Walking behind a stopped bus to flag a cab. Buses pull out without warning and the next vehicle is often right behind. Watch the clip, then decide which of these reads is the safer call for sbs bus pre-payment.
Letting passengers exit the subway car before stepping on.
Is this safe or risky?