If you're on a bus and it feels as though you can get where you're going faster on foot, well you might be right.The "Pokey Awards" for the slowest bus routes came out today.

The slowest of the slow, the M14A, which crawls across town along 14th street. According to MTA, any bus that moves slower has the city to thank.

Eyewitness News reporter Sandra Bookman has the details from Union Square.

The annual "Pokey Awards" are sort of a tongue-in-cheek way to call attention to the problem of too slow city buses. But for the 2.5 million bus riders, it's no laughing matter.

If the M14A is the big winner in the 2006 "Pokey Awards," that means its riders are the big losers.

MTA released a statement today, saying they're not the blame.

"The bus routes cited by the Straphangers' report as the slowest in the city, along with many others, operate in conditions of severe traffic congestion. Slow and unreliable bus service is very much a product of the city's vibrancy."

According to the Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives, the 14th Street cross-town bus is the slowest in New York City.

"The average speed of the M14A was found to be a glacial 3.9 miles per hour," said Paul White, of Transportation Alternatives. "which is, as you know, barely faster than the average pedestrian."

And there were slowpokes in all five city boroughs.

• Brooklyn - B35
• Bronx - BX19
• Queens - Q56
• Staten Island - S42

For the first time, the Straphangers also made note of the most unreliable buses, based on the Transit Authority's own numbers.

"I think most bus riders would agree that 20 percent unreliability is a very poor level of service," said Gene Russianoff, of the Straphangers Campaign.

The groups point to traffic congestion and the failure of the city to make buses and and service a priority as the source of the problem.

The M1, which travels from Harlem to the East Village along 5th Avenue, topped that list, with more than one out of five buses on the route arriving in bunches or significantly off schedule.

MTA says that the buses are late because the streets are narrow and congested, which causes the buses to run slower, especially near bridges and tunnel entrances.

However, $22 million is earmarked for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) initiatives in the MTA's 2005-2009 Capital Program. With the use of prioritized traffic signals and the enforcement of dedicated bus lanes, BRT is designed to improve the efficiency and dependability of the city's buses.