Mayor Zohran Mamdani will stand up to city bureaucrats and political power players who oppose his plans to make streets safer and buses faster, the frontrunner in next month's mayoral election pledged on Wednesday.
"If there is opposition to initiatives that would create that safety from within DOT, we have to get to that safety, and that's opposition that has to be pushed back against," Mamdani told reporters during a photo op ride on the M57, the city's slowest bus.
Mamdani's comments came in the context of an ongoing spat between the Department of Transportation and livable streets advocates over the latter's effort to ban parking at every corner in the city so drivers see crossing pedestrians and cyclists, a street design tool known as "daylighting."
The Queens Assembly member has talked up his support for universal daylighting since he launched his campaign for mayor, but the proposal faces heavy opposition within the DOT. The agency published a study earlier this year that claimed that universal daylighting would lead to more crashes and pedestrian injuries — even as the report's authors admitted to flawed methodology.
Asked during Wednesday's bus ride if he remained committed to universal daylighting even at the cost of thousands of parking spaces, Mamdani stressed the city must be proactive about the practice before another person gets killed like 7-year-old Dolma Naadhun, a constituent of his who was run down by a driver at an intersection that lacked daylighting.
"Oftentimes, where I've met all of you has been at press conferences where the DOT finally implements the street safety that's required only after someone has lost their life, in large part due to the absence of those things," he told a gaggle of reporters.
Mamdani rode the M57 — average speed 4.8 mph — to highlight his plan for free and fast buses. The Democratic nominee for mayor took questions by reporters and one influencer in between conversations with commuters.
As the bus crawled across the Midtown strip, Mamdani pledged to be laser-focused on safety in road design, even if it meant taking on elements of the DOT deep state.
"It is time to make clear what the directives are from City Hall and that they have to do with safety," he said. "Because oftentimes when it comes to DOT, safety has been one of the last concerns and the questions of whether or not we actually implement a lot of the proposals, whether it's the opening of the South Outer Roadway on the Queensboro Bridge or the McGuinness Boulevard road diet, safety is often a footnote."
During the bus ride, Streetsblog reminded Mamdani that if he's sitting in the big seat in City Hall, he'll face intransigence from more than just his own agencies: He's been endorsed by big shot Democratic Party bosses including Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-Washington Heights) and Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, both of whom have opposed bus and bike priority projects.
Assembly Member Hermelyn has opposed painted bike lanes in her own district and protected bike lanes well outside of her district, while Espaillat was a notorious behind-the-scenes power player who got Mayor Adams to scrap an offset bus lane on Fordham Road and successfully pushed to scale down a protected bike lane on Dyckman Street during the de Blasio administration.
Yes, they supported his campaign, but Mamdani said that officials who have opposed better buses and safer streets won't get their way when he's in charge.
"Our campaign has been very clear about the importance of public transit to the heart of our agenda, and the endorsements that we've received are endorsements of this agenda. I've been very clear that what I'm running on is exactly what I plan to deliver," Mamdani said. "The days of a mayor allowing the politics — and the corruption that has been endemic within this current administration to determine the safety or lack thereof for New Yorkers — [are] going to come to an end when I'm leading the city."
Mamdani's push for free buses has won him attention and goodwill from voters, but his pledge to be the mayor who improves bus speeds will require him to ramp up the pace at which the city installs bus lanes.
With that in mind, Mamdani further pledged to revisit the litany of stalled, canceled or incomplete projects that Adams will leave in his wake when his term is up — including his backer Espaillat's Fordham Road turf.
"As a first order of business, I'll be restarting so much of what this current administration has put on pause or indefinite hold," he said. "I'm excited by the fact that a lot of these proposals are ones that actually also have an immense amount of broad support, whether we're speaking about the Fordham Road busway [or] across the city, it's time for New Yorkers to not have to beg for the bare minimum from their administration to deliver on these kinds of improvements. They are key and the crux of the fulfillment of this vision."
For his part, Espaillat seems to have had a change of heart from the recent days when he was helping to block the DOT's plan to speed up buses on Fordham Road. Told of Mamdani's promise to revisit the canceled project, the Congressman said he was ready to help.
"As a proud supporter and proponent of the first-ever piloted express lane on Fordham Road during the Bloomberg administration, I will continue to support improved bus services for my constituents and all New Yorkers, including free and reliable service proposed by future mayor Zohran Mamdani," said Espaillat.
