In a bold move to revitalize New York City’s streets, Mayor Mamdani announced on Friday the revival of several street improvement projects that had been put on hold during the tenure of his predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams. Speaking from a bus stationed at the MTA’s West Farms Depot, Mamdani outlined his plans to restart four key street redesign initiatives aimed at enhancing safety and efficiency for New Yorkers.
Among the projects set to resume are the offset bus lanes on Fordham Road in the Bronx, a two-way protected bike lane on the reimagined Ashland Place in Brooklyn, new bike lanes on Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues, and a comprehensive bike lane network spanning the neighborhoods of Flatbush and Midwood. These projects are expected to not only improve connectivity but also bolster the safety of pedestrians and cyclists across the city.
“The bus and bike lanes of our city are vital links that connect countless New Yorkers,” Mamdani stated, emphasizing the importance of these infrastructure improvements.
The Fordham Road initiative, which aimed to transform existing curb-side bus lanes into “offset” lanes to accommodate both public transit and private vehicle parking, was previously shelved in 2023. Opposition from local business improvement districts and institutions like Fordham University and the Bronx Zoo played a significant role in its suspension.
Another project, the Ashland Place bike lane in Brooklyn, had faced its own hurdles. The southernmost block was notably left without a bike lane last year, creating a gap in what could have been a seamless stretch of protected cycling infrastructure from Sunset Park to DUMBO. This interruption was a point of contention for many advocates of the city’s bike network.
The southernmost block of Ashland Place in Brooklyn was left without a bike lane last year, effectively disrupting an otherwise uninterrupted stretch of protected cycling infrastructure from Sunset Park to DUMBO.
Mamdani’s pledge to re-start the bus projects comes after Adams came under fire for approving, then cancelling, several street redesign projects.
Adams’ top advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, is currently facing charges she helped water down one such bike lane project in Greenpoint in exchange for taking bribes, including a bit role on Hulu show ‘Godfathers of Harlem’ from the owners of a local film production company. Both the production company owners and Lewis-Martin have pleaded not guilty.
Mamdani pledged on the campaign trail to finish other bike and bus lane projects that were either diluted or killed by the Adams administration, despite being greenlit by the city Department of Transportation.
“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,” Mamdani said Friday. “That ends today.”
Asked when work on the projects would begin, a DOT source told the Daily News that a formal schedule was still in the works, but that the department intended to finish all four projects by year’s end.
The mayor has made buses a center pillar of his campaign, and continued to emphasize improving bus service and making progress on his pledge to establish free buses across the city as mayor — despite the decision-making power largely resting in Albany.
The News previously reported that the Mamdani administration is pushing for a free bus pilot.
“We have continued to have conversations about the importance of making buses fast and free,” the mayor said on Wednesday. “The city has the ability to make the buses fast through the changes we can make through the streetscape. The conversations around free [buses] continue with the governor and with the legislature.”
