Queens Civic Groups Praise Mamdani Transit Overhaul, Demand Faster Rollout

Advocates applauded the administration’s bus priority initiative but warn Queens remains underserved, with new lanes and signal upgrades arriving quarter-by-quarter through 2026

Queens civic organizations have welcomed Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s commitment to expanding bus priority infrastructure but are demanding accelerated implementation timelines to address what they describe as decades of transit underinvestment in the borough. The response follows recent completions of major bus lane projects and renewed commitments to comprehensive transit improvements across New York City’s largest and most car-dependent borough.

The NYC Department of Transportation recently completed nearly eight miles of bus lanes on Hillside Avenue in Queens, one of the city’s longest bus priority projects serving more than 215,000 daily riders across 22 bus routes. The project represents the first major upgrade to the corridor since 1969, when initial curbside bus lanes were installed.

Transportation advocates have praised the Hillside Avenue project as a model for future improvements, with preliminary data showing significant speed increases for buses that previously crawled at just four miles per hour in some sections. The offset bus lane design preserves curbside parking and loading zones while giving buses dedicated right-of-way protected by automated camera enforcement.

However, civic groups argue that Queens continues to receive inadequate attention compared to Manhattan and Brooklyn in transit planning. The Riders Alliance and Transportation Alternatives have documented persistent disparities in bus speeds and reliability across different boroughs, with Queens routes consistently ranking among the city’s slowest according to recent transit performance reports.

Donovan Richards, Queens Borough President, has emphasized that the borough’s 215,000 daily Hillside Avenue riders represent more people than entire transit systems like PATH or NJ Transit Rail serve daily. He argues that this scale of ridership demands proportional investment in infrastructure and service quality, noting that approximately 60 percent of Hillside Avenue corridor residents rely on transit for work commutes.

The DOT’s stated goal of building 150 miles of dedicated bus lanes by 2026 has raised expectations across Queens, where several major corridors await improvements. Projects on Northern Boulevard, completed in 2023, demonstrated how bus priority treatments can transform service for 17,000 daily riders.

Community advocates are now pushing for similar interventions on crosstown routes in eastern Queens and southern sections that lack convenient subway access. Regional Plan Association has called the Hillside Avenue expansion “an important milestone” but emphasized that offsetting bus lanes from through traffic also provides better curbside access for local businesses.

This dual benefit addresses a common concern among merchants who initially opposed bus lanes, fearing negative impacts on customer access and deliveries. Mamdani’s transition team has indicated that quarter-by-quarter rollouts through 2026 will prioritize corridors with the highest ridership and most severe delays, using data-driven metrics to allocate resources.

However, some community boards have expressed frustration with the phased approach, arguing that simultaneous deployment across multiple corridors would more effectively address Queens’ transit equity gaps. The MTA’s role in bus service delivery adds complexity to implementation timelines. While DOT controls infrastructure including bus lanes, signals, and enforcement cameras, the MTA operates actual bus service.

Effective improvements require close coordination between the city and state-controlled transit authority, a relationship that has sometimes proven contentious according to transit policy experts. Bus rapid transit advocates note that New York City’s Select Bus Service program, while faster than local buses, falls short of international BRT standards.

Cities like Bogotá, Buenos Aires, and Johannesburg operate true BRT systems with center-running lanes, platform-level boarding, and architecturally distinct stations. Queens advocates are calling for Mamdani to pursue more ambitious BRT-style improvements rather than incremental bus lane additions. The administration has signaled openness to such proposals but notes that true BRT requires significant capital investment and extended construction timelines that may not deliver immediate relief to daily commuters struggling with current service inadequacies.