"This city's bus and bike lanes connect millions of New Yorkers who live far from subway lines," Mamdani said, noting that years of neglect have left riders facing slow commutes, unsafe streets, and daily frustrations. "As we would say on the day before Valentine's Day, they haven't gotten the love that they deserve."
Mamdani is reversing course on two major transit decisions made by the Adams administration, including plans to move forward with offset bus lanes on Fordham Road in the Bronx.
Many riders have complained that buses move extremely slowly in this busy corridor.
Fordham Road, the busiest bus corridor in the borough, will receive new bus lanes to improve chronically slow speeds for the 130,000 riders who rely on it.
Buses there often "creep along at four miles per hour," Mamdani said. Based on similar projects in Queens, the city expects up to a 20-28% speed improvement once the redesign is complete
"The buses can only move as fast as the conditions at the street level allow. That's why today's announcement is so important," said MTA Chairman Janno Lieber.
The issue, transit officials say, is that drivers park in curbside lanes, blocking buses and causing significant delays.
The dedicated lanes, set away from the curb, are designed to speed up bus service and eliminate problems caused by illegally parked cars.
Some business owners have opposed the plan, arguing that hundreds of businesses would be affected.
The DOT approved the same plan two years ago, but it was canceled by the Adams Administration, after local merchants complained that losing car lanes would hurt business.
"What do you do when you go to a store and it becomes too difficult to get there? You find another store. So people are going to say, 'Gee, where else can we go if we can't get to Arthur Avenue?'" said David Rose of Fordham Road Business Improvement District.
Mamdani said working-class residents have endured unreliable and sluggish transit for far too long.
"In a city where time is money... too many New Yorkers have seen their precious time treated with casual disdain," he said, describing 25-minute winter waits followed by buses that "move at five miles an hour" and get riders home long after sunset.
For others, it doesn't go far enough. The Riders Alliance wanted Fordham Road to be closed to cars entirely-like the busway on 14th Street.
"It's really important to invest the time and energy and come back until we get it right, until the bus is much faster and riders are saving a lot of time," said Danny Pearlstein of Riders Alliance.
Mamdani also announced the installation of a two-way, protected bike lane on Ashland Place in Brooklyn - a project also shelved by the Adams administration.
The plan addresses a notoriously dangerous block known among cyclists as "Crashland."
The project will convert the southernmost block of Ashland Place from a two-way street to a one-way street and add a two-way protected bike lane.
Completing this final segment will create a shared street featuring expanded pedestrian space and a continuous protected bike route from Sunset Park to DUMBO, with connections extending to Greenpoint and Queens.
In central Brooklyn, where ten schools sit along a high-injury stretch, the city will install parking-protected bike lanes on Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues, along with a new protected loop around a neighborhood park. Over the five-year period from 2021 to 2025, the corridors recorded 65 injuries, with pedestrians and cyclists accounting for 60% of serious injuries.
Standard bike lanes will also be added to 14 additional streets in Flatbush, East Flatbush and Midwood, along with intersection upgrades to improve visibility and safety.
Protected bike lanes have been shown to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries by 18% for all street users.
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