Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Good afternoon, everyone. And welcome to the Bronx's very own West Farms Bus Depot, where the Bx7 and 33 finally get to put up their wheels at the end of the day. It is a privilege to be here with so many friends and partners, dedicated advocates, and devoted community members who have never given up the fight for better public transit and safer streets. You have proven time and [time] again that a people united and organized can deliver the change that they know is necessary.
And because of your tireless efforts, I stand here alongside DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn; MTA Chair Janno Lieber; Tiffany-Ann Taylor from the Regional Plan Association; [and] Demetrius Crichlow, our president of New York City Transit Authority, to announce the restart of construction on four critical street redesign projects that will save New Yorkers both time and keep them safe.
The bus and bike lanes of our city are what connects so many of our fellow New Yorkers to one another. For the millions who live in neighborhoods without subway access, buses and bikes are how they get where they need to go. Yet for too long, the health of our bus and bike lanes has been neglected. As we would say on the day before Valentine's Day, they haven't gotten the love that they deserve. The consequences of this negligence, of this lack of love, have been measured in daily pain and inconveniences.
It is felt when after a long day of work, New Yorkers must stand for 25 minutes in the February chill only to board a bus that moves at five miles an hour and gets them home long after the sun has set. It is felt when cyclists must take long detours around the heart of Brooklyn to avoid the infamous crash land place because that stretch is simply too lethal to be worth the risk. It is felt when parents do not know how to get their child to school, when the bus is too slow, a car is too expensive, a bike is too dangerous.
In a city where time is money and where those who rely on our bus system are disproportionately the most working class of any transit ridership in our city, too many New Yorkers have seen their precious time treated with casual disdain as if it does not matter. Too many have called for change, only to see their interests ignored time and [time] again by those who have the power to deliver it. Too many New Yorkers have grown accustomed to walking faster to the bus stop than the bus that picks them up actually travels. For millions of New Yorkers who rely on our buses and our bikes, these failures limit their ability to live at the lives they want to live in the city that they love. I think of the woman I met riding the Bx33, who told me years ago: "I used to love New York, now it's just where I live."
The New Yorkers who have been waiting for years for the long-awaited promise of safe streets and fast buses to be fulfilled. For too long, our transit decisions in this city have been made off of well-placed phone calls rather than the needs of working people. That changes today, as we announce a series of sweeping reforms that will render our city more accessible, safer, and allow working New Yorkers to get where they're going, whether by bus or by bike. And in honor of Valentine's Day, we will show our buses and bikes the love that they deserve.
As we stand on this bus, not moving that much faster than it would otherwise, I am thrilled to announce that we are bringing the Streets Master Plan back to life with the recommencement of four projects previously halted by the Adams administration. Here in the Bronx, we're starting with the redesign of Fordham Road, the busiest bus corridor in the borough. A 130,000 New Yorkers rely on the buses that traverse this route, yet they find themselves regularly creeping along at four miles per hour.
To free our buses from gridlock, the DOT will construct bus lanes along Fordham Road. When curbside lanes were converted to offset lanes on Hillside Avenue in Queens, bus speeds increased by up to 28 percent. We expect to see a similar rate of success on Fordham Road, and my team is serious about achieving at least a 20 percent speed improvement on each of our bus priority projects. We are committed to delivering public excellence across all of our street improvement projects, and we will measure our progress and make changes as needed, to save riders precious time.
Down in Brooklyn, the DOT is transforming our network of protected bike lanes. I mentioned Crashland Place, a single block that, despite its short length, has long been a dangerous, harrowing stretch for cyclists. The block will be remade into what is known as a shared street with expanded pedestrian spaces and a two-way protected bike lane. It will be the final missing piece in what will soon be a continuous protected bike route from Sunset Park to Dumbo, with connections that reach all the way to Greenpoint and into Queens.
Beyond Crashland, there is a stretch of Central Brooklyn between Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues that has seen a shocking number of road-related injuries in the past five years. The stretch is also home to 10 different schools. To protect our children, we will add parking- protected bike lanes to both the Brooklyn and Kingston corridors, as well as a new protected bike loop around a nearby park. We will also add conventional bike lanes along adjacent streets.
The fourth project will see the DOT bring the overdue Midwood, Flatbush, and East Flatbush bike network plan to fruition. Once complete, it will form a comprehensive web of 16 protected and conventional bike corridors. These projects are just the beginning of our work to deliver safe streets to the people of New York. Let me be clear, none of these efforts would have been possible without those who are both standing alongside me, as well as those who are sitting behind me, as well as those who are beyond this bus, New Yorkers who continued to believe in the promise of a streetscape and a public transit system that could be the envy of the world.
Together, we are building a city that every person can navigate with ease, and we are ensuring that there is no part of this city that New Yorkers cannot access, no corner that is out of reach. So, thank you all so much, and I will now pass it over to our DOT commissioner. But before him, our MTA Chair, Janno Lieber.
Janno Lieber, CEO and Chair, MTA: Mayor Mamdani, thank you for your passionate commitment to better buses in the Bronx and for the whole city. There are 85,000 plus riders. You said 130,000 if you include everybody. That's who's using the Fordham Road for busing. There are 70 plus percent of the folks in this neighborhood [who] do not have access to alternatives and rely on public transportation, biking, and walking. That's who this is about, and we really are grateful for the aggressive steps that the city is taking under the mayor's leadership.
You know, when I came into this job, we made it a priority to bring the bus system into the 21st century, starting, as the mayor says, with the basic principle that riding a bus ought to be faster than walking. Folks may remember that back in 2022, we made the Bronx the first bus network redesigned borough. We came first to the Bronx, and we made the route simpler, and we made them more direct, and the goal is to provide faster, more frequent service.
It has been working well. There have been improvements, and we've done a great deal else to speed buses citywide, completing a route redesign for Queens, implementing ACE [Automated Camera Enforcement] cameras all over the city. We've now got 50-plus routes.
But the bottom line is this. The buses can only move as fast as the conditions at the street level allow. That's why today's announcement is so important. We need partners in government who are willing to make the streets friendlier to buses, who are going to follow through on these long-overdue commitments, and now we have them with this mayor and his team and with Governor Hochul.
I have said many times that we appreciate Mayor Mamdani's dedication to transit issues in general, and we are looking forward to making this the first of many initiatives that he has set out and has committed to deliver, not just this set of bus lanes, but all kinds of initiatives to speed service for the millions of New Yorkers who rely on our bus network. Thank you again, Mayor Mamdani and Commissioner Flynn, for this important announcement.
Commissioner Mike Flynn, Department of Transportation: Thank you, chair. Across our city, solutions to problems on some of New York's busiest streets have been sitting on a shelf collecting dust. Meanwhile, bus riders are stuck in traffic on Fordham Road, cyclists go out of their way to avoid Crashland, and some New Yorkers avoid riding a bike altogether because they feel like our streets are not safe enough to do so. We'll be acting with urgency to finish these projects that are supported by New Yorkers, backed by data, and are long overdue.
The safety of New Yorkers should not be a bargaining chip for backroom deals made by the last administration. 130,000 riders need faster buses on Fordham Road to get to work, to doctor's appointments, and to see their family every day. Ashland Place is the last missing link in a critical north-south cycling route across Brooklyn. In Midwood and Flatbush, more and more New Yorkers want to ride a bike, but the lack of safe cycling infrastructure has made travel more difficult for everyone.
And near Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues in central Brooklyn, where there's 10 schools nearby, we've seen too much reckless driving that is putting our school children at risk. So, it's time to take these projects off the shelf. We'll advance this work as soon as weather allows, and this is just the beginning. Let me be very clear. We'll closely monitor the results of these projects and will not hesitate to make additional upgrades as needed. Our teams are thinking big, and we'll deliver on this administration's bold promises.
I'd like to echo the mayor and the chair in thanking all the advocates for joining us today and for fighting so hard to keep these projects alive. We couldn't have done this without our friends at Riders Alliance, Transportation Alternatives, Families for Safe Streets, Regional Plan Association , and Tri-State Transportation Campaign. We also appreciate all the elected officials and community members who've come out and supported and advocated for these projects. And I want to thank, last but not least, everyone at my team at DOT who did the legwork to make these projects possible.
While there's too many to name, I want to give a special acknowledgement to our transportation planning and management team, our intergovernmental team, and Dustin Khuu, Shawn Macias, and Nolan Levenson, who are here with us today. There's much more to come. Thank you. Now I have the pleasure of welcoming Tiffany-Ann Taylor of the Regional Plan Association.
Tiffany-Ann Taylor, Vice President, Transportation at Regional Plan Association: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, mayor, commissioner, and chair for the invitation. My name is Tiffany-Ann Taylor, and I am the vice president for Transportation at Regional Plan Association, also known as RPA. RPA is a 100-year-old civic nonprofit group focused on quality-of-life issues in the Tri-State Area. Today's announcements are another important step in providing riders more options to get around faster and safer.
We hope these projects are just the start of New York City DOT implementing long-needed improvements that will result in real-time savings for bus riders and safety for cyclists. Prioritizing bus riders during the first 100 days of the Mamdani administration is an important step towards transportation equity across the city.
As these plans advance and new ideas are added, they will give New Yorkers and visitors alike more reliable ways to get around. We look forward to the city's evaluation of results and impact here, as well as continued collaboration citywide. Thank you.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: We're wondering though, there's a lot of great progress today on these delayed projects, but we're also wondering about the proposal to potentially do a pilot for free buses over the summer during the FIFA World Cup. Would you guys like to speak to that, either MTA or Mayor Mamdani's office?
Mayor Mamdani: I firmly believe in the importance of making our buses free. I've also always talked about the importance alongside that of making them fast. We talk about buses that for far too long have been trapped at speeds that, as MTA Chair said, "Have sometimes been slower than people can walk." And while so much of what-
[Crosstalk.]
While so much of what the MTA does is governed by Albany, the city runs its own streets. And for far too long, the city has not just not utilized its tools at its disposal to ensure that buses run fast, it has intentionally blocked the implementation of policies that would unlock these buses to put time back into the lives of working-class New Yorkers. And so, we will continue to advance the full vision that we have spoken about.
Today, what is so exciting is this is the announcement of projects that will quite literally have an impact on the amount of time New Yorkers have to spend getting to where they're going [and] giving them a little more time in the place that they're actually looking to get to.
Question: This is actually a question for Chair Lieber following up on Stefanos' question. Have you talked with the mayor about the free bus proposal? And, I mean, have your opinions on that changed at all? Is that something that you're considering or at all open to?
Chair Lieber: I just want to reemphasize what the mayor said. Today is about fast, and the city is really stepping up its game dramatically to make good on that. And we're thrilled, and we're gonna continue dialogue on a lot of other issues. And what I would generally say is what people want from government is [that] you don't have to agree on every single issue to look for opportunities to really move forward [on] where you do agree. And today is about something where we passionately agree, and we're gonna continue to talk about every other issue along the way.
Question: So, question about the community partners that you engaged besides the ones who are here on the bus today. Have you reached out to the business improvement districts, particularly the Belmont BID, the Fordham Road BID? I spoke with the Belmont BID this morning who says they haven't heard from your administration when it came to reviving this project, and their concern is when it comes to drivers, about 80 percent of people who come into Little Italy over there on Arthur Avenue are coming by car. So, their concerns [are]: buses are moving faster, but what about vehicle traffic and how it's gonna impact businesses?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I think the first thing I'll just say is we are restarting a project that went through many different iterations in the prior administration. And in our restarting of it, there will also be time for community engagement to refresh this vision with all of those whose lives it will transform by putting time back in the lives of working-class New Yorkers and safety back in the lives of those who are biking across our city as well. We did have conversations with business improvement districts.
We will continue to have conversations. And the other point that I'll just say before passing it over to my DOT commissioner is that our goal here is outcomes. The outcome that we are intending with this decision when it comes to our buses is a 20 percent increase in the bus speeds. We are going to utilize every single tool at our disposal to deliver that because what New Yorkers want is something they can live and breathe and feel. And for far too long, when you take the bus, speed is not something you can live, breathe, or feel.
Commissioner Flynn: So, every corridor is unique, and Fordham Road has some unique challenges. It's one of the few east-west corridors that goes across the Bronx. It carries a lot of traffic. And we have to balance all these considerations. But, as the mayor said, bus speeds is our north star. We did a lot of planning and a lot of analysis in the past. We can build on that. But I think we have a lot of good ideas on the table for how we can speed buses up.
I think in particular, none of them are gonna make it significantly more difficult to get to any particular area around here by car. Our engineers are some of the best in the country, if not the best, and they take that into account in all their analysis. We're thinking about all the different aspects, including how we can support businesses. And a lot of folks use GPS these days, and that will update, too.
Mayor Mamdani: Before we go to StreetsBlog, I'll ask for a little bit of help from the press corps on this one. Wasn't there a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie, New York Minute? Does anyone remember this? So just to quantify this for everyone, a 20 percent increase in bus speeds would mean a minute faster per mile for a New Yorker riding these buses. There's an entire movie of what you can do with a minute.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: I wanted to get a little into this 20 percent speed improvement that you're guaranteeing here - you and Mike are guaranteeing - and the thing that you're talking about where, if you don't make it up to this 20 percent speed increase, you're gonna come back, you're gonna look at it.
It sounds like you're dancing around the idea of coming back and installing a busway if bus speeds don't get up to the speeds that you like. And when SBS first started here, bus speeds went all the way up to nine miles an hour on Fordham Road. So, I just wanna hear the words. Is it a busway after this if it does not work out well enough for your liking?
Mayor Mamdani: I wanna go through a few things on your question. The first is the reason that we're focusing on the 20 percent increase is frankly [because] New Yorkers don't care what you call it or what you are actually implementing. What they care about is if you're actually delivering. And so, this 20 percent, it's going to be our north star through these next few months of planning, through the process of installation, through the process of implementation. We are always going to be coming back to what is the best way to actually get to that 20 percent, we don't even have to wait until we see failure. What we need to ensure is that we're using every tool to get there.
Question: This is a question for Mr. Mayor [or] Mr. Lieber. As you said, this is making good on the promise of fast buses. I wonder if the two of you can give an update though on what the conversations are like when you talk about the promise of free buses.
Mayor Mamdani: So, I can answer this for us, which is that, as the chair said, our focus is not just on places of agreement, but also on places of disagreement. And when we're talking about making buses free, the place of agreement that both MTA chair and myself have is that this is something that the MTA can only do when we ensure that we provide replacement revenue for what the MTA would make from the fare box. We do not want to continue with the kind of policies we saw years ago, where the MTA is asked to make something out of nothing. We want to ensure we're actually continuing to fund the critical operations of the lifeblood of this city.
And so that continues to be a budget conversation that is one with Albany around how we can deliver this. And what we want to make clear, is that all of this stems from the belief that buses should be the way that you get around the city, not just when you have no other way. They should be the way that you get around the city when you want to get somewhere fast. And today, we are unlocking the speed of [buses] and we'll continue to look to unlock the affordability of [buses].
Question: I'm just wondering, the Queen's district attorney is expected to bring charges against Jabez Chakraborty later today. I'm just wondering if you knew, if you talked to the Queen district attorney about that, if you talked to the family. I'm curious what you would say to them.
Mayor Mamdani: So, I can- I think I caught the bulk of your question. I have not directly spoken with the district attorney. I will say, however, that no family should have to endure this kind of pain. What they need right now is care, dignity, and support. Jabez should not be prosecuted by the Queen's district attorney. His handcuffs should be removed, and he should be receiving the care that he needs.
And moments like this, they lay bare what so many New Yorkers already know, which is that our city must build a mental health response that is rooted in prevention, in compassion, and in crisis care. And that is the focus of our administration. And these are my thoughts about what Jabez needs in this moment.
