Mamdani Vows To Appeal Ruling that Killed DOT’s Astoria Bike Lane

Incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani will appeal a Queens judge’s ruling ordering the city to rip out the new protected bike lane on 31st Street in Astoria, he told Streetsblog on Wednesday.

The mayor-elect — who is also an Astoria resident until Jan. 1 — added that he was “very disappointed” by Supreme Court Justice Cheree Buggs’s decision to order the Department of Transportation to erase the protection on a corridor Mamdani said he actively avoids as a cyclist due to its dangerous design.

“Whenever I had a choice, I would not bike on 31st Street because of a fear for my own safety, and it’s not because of a lack of space, but it’s because of a lack of protection for cyclists,” Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference in Greenpoint.

The Adams administration has yet to contest the Dec. 5 ruling, even as residents and experts — including a former FDNY commissioner — have called the ruling an overreach.

Officials have until Jan. 7 to appeal Buggs’s decision, which means that defending cyclists will be among Mamdani’s first moves as mayor.

Advocates also staged a “die-in” on the street last Friday night to protest the judge’s ruling against a proven street safety redesign.

Buggs’s verdict told DOT to “restore” the old markings of 31st Street, between 31st Avenue and Newtown Avenue, claiming that DOT did not prove that it had properly certified its consultations with the Fire Department on the redesign – a rare, if not unprecedented, rejection of the city’s long-established right to design the city’s streets.

The legal eagle rested her decision on an obscure 2009 law regulating so-called “major transportation projects,” which requires extensive outside reviews and paperwork for any bus or bike lane that’s longer than three blocks.

The lawsuit was filed by local bike lane opponents, including popular Astoria businesses like Parisi Bakery, Sotto la Luna and King Souvlaki when DOT had only partially-restriped the corridor with new markings.

Mamdani committed to boosting his transportation planners by ensuring they can add safety infrastructure for all New Yorkers.

“We all know in this city that paint is not, in fact, protection, and it is critically important to ensure that whatever method of travel a New Yorker uses, whether they are walking, biking, using public transit or driving, that they be safe doing so, and my DOT is going to be one that looks to deliver on that direction,” the soon-to-be mayor said.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Hartley Bernstein, told Streetsblog that his clients “respect the right” of appeal and will respond if one is filed.

A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said its lawyers are “evaluating all options.”

“We were disappointed that the court halted the 31st Street Safety Project. The Law Department is carefully reviewing the issues raised in the ruling and evaluating all options, including an appeal,” Nicholas Paolucci said in a statement.