NEW YORK CITY — The MTA is making its look a little less flashy.
The city's Select Bus Service, which provides express service along a number of routes around the city, will no longer have flashing blue lights after complaints about drivers mistaking the buses for emergency vehicles.
Nearly 140 SBS buses were rolled out in 2008 to run express service and used the lights to distinguish them from regular bus service.
"This measure is being taken to eliminate the possibility of confusing the vehicles with volunteer emergency vehicles, which are entitled by law to use the blue lights," read a MTA statement sent out Friday. "We are currently in the process of developing an alternate means of identifying SBS buses."
The agency said last December they are looking at "different light color alternatives," to retrofit the SBS buses.
The MTA started the removal this week with buses in The Bronx and some in Staten Island were already running without the lights, according to a MTA spokeswoman.
The city currently has four select bus routes: S79 in Staten Island, the M34 and M15 in Manhattan, and the Bx12 in the Bronx.
