Mamdani, MTA to Revive Street Projects, But Free Buses Prove Elusive

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) have agreed to a slate of street safety and bus speed improvements, but the promise of free buses for all New Yorkers is still out of reach.

Four projects for dedicated bus and bike lanes overlooked by former Mayor Eric Adams over his four years in office will begin under a revived Streets Master Plan, starting with the redesign of Fordham Road in the Bronx, Mamdani and the MTA announced in a Friday press conference.

The Streets Master Plan was a five-year mission adopted in 2019 that required the mayoral administration to install 30 miles of bus lanes every year, but some projects along Fordham Road and Tremont Avenue in the Bronx were inexplicably halted by the previous administration.

Fordham Road’s redesigned bus lane could get the 130,000 daily bus riders along the corridor moving 20 percent faster than the current average of 4 miles per hour, according to the mayor.

The Mamdani administration will also address stretches of bike lanes in Brooklyn, including Brooklyn’s Ashland Place, known to cycling locals as “Crashland Place.”

However, Mamdani and MTA Chairman Janno Lieber — a former Silverstein Properties executive — have not come to an agreement on how to make buses citywide free to all riders while they discuss possibilities for a replacement revenue stream for the state-controlled agency.

“Our focus is not just on places of agreement, but on places of disagreement, and when we’re talking about making buses free, the place of agreement that the MTA chair and myself have is that this is something that the MTA can only do when we ensure that we can provide replacement revenue for what the MTA would make from the fare box,” Mamdani said during the Friday press conference in the Bronx.

While the mayor did not specify potential revenue streams, his administration this week proposed a 2 percent tax increase for New Yorkers making over $1 million a year. Such a tax increase would need approval from state lawmakers in Albany.

But any new revenue from higher income taxes may have to go toward reducing the city’s projected $12 billion budget deficit down to $7 billion, according to Reuters.

“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 that we’re continuing to fund the critical operations of the lifeblood of this city,” Mamdani added.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.