The DOT vows to reverse Adams-era neglect of bus and bike lane mandates, but specifics remain elusive
Legally Mandated Transit Goals Were Ignored for Years
New York City passed the Streets Master Plan law in 2019 under Mayor Bill de Blasio, codifying requirements for the city to build 30 miles of new bus lanes and 50 miles of new protected bike lanes per year between 2022 and 2026. Under former Mayor Eric Adams, the city missed those targets repeatedly. A City Council hearing on March 3, 2026 gave the DOT an explicit failing grade and examined what Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration plans to do differently.
The Numbers That Earned the Failing Grade
Department of Transportation data presented at the hearing showed the agency fell short of its mandated targets across multiple consecutive years under Adams. A 2025 Independent Budget Office report found that DOT had lost dozens of employees in key bus-planning units between 2019 and 2024, partly due to a hiring freeze Adams imposed, leaving the agency without the staff to implement planned projects. Bus speeds on the city’s system average 8.1 miles per hour, among the slowest of any major city in the United States. On the Fordham Road corridor in the Bronx, the city’s most heavily traveled bus route serving more than 130,000 riders per day, average speeds fall to 4 to 5 miles per hour despite a painted dedicated bus lane. City Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu, the committee chair, told DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn the numbers for protected bus lanes and bus stop upgrades are almost too low to believe.
What Mamdani Has Done So Far
On his first day in office, Mamdani appointed Flynn as DOT commissioner, a hire that advocates interpreted as a signal of commitment to his fast and free buses platform. In February 2026, the mayor announced the restart of four shelved street redesign projects: offset bus lanes on Fordham Road, parking-protected bike lanes on McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint, extended double bus lanes on Madison Avenue from 42nd to 23rd streets in Manhattan, and a redesigned 31st Street corridor in Astoria, Queens. The mayor also committed to achieving at least a 20 percent speed improvement on each bus priority project. His budget adds $5 million annually for bus and bike infrastructure and plans to grow DOT staffing by 20 positions focused on these projects by mid-2027.
But the DOT’s Testimony Left Council Members Unsatisfied
Under questioning from the Council, Commissioner Flynn declined to commit to specific mileage targets for 2026. He told the Council the department would focus on outcomes rather than miles, measuring whether buses move faster and whether fewer people are being seriously injured. Councilmember Restler pushed back directly, saying he wanted specific numbers and plans to avoid coming back in a year to face the same failures.
Advocacy Groups and the National Standard
Transportation Alternatives testified that New York City lags far behind peer world cities in dedicating street space to buses, cyclists, and pedestrians. The group’s Manhattan director said the city is competing not with other American cities but with the world, and needs to bring its streets up to a much higher standard. Riders Alliance characterized bus riders as having endured four years of disrespect under Adams and expressed hope that the Mamdani administration would deliver. Federal transportation policy has increasingly emphasized active transportation and public transit investment as both climate and equity priorities, suggesting that federal partnership on transit improvements may be more available under some political conditions than others. The National Association of City Transportation Officials has published extensive guidance on how cities can redesign streets to prioritize buses, pedestrians, and cyclists while maintaining vehicle access for businesses and residents. The hearing made clear that Mamdani has inherited a significant backlog of unbuilt mandated infrastructure, that his early moves have been encouraging to advocates, and that the gap between bold intent and measurable delivery remains to be closed.
