Riders Alliance, a major transit advocacy group that backed Mayor Mamdani in last year's election, skipped the Friday press conference where he announced bus lane improvements on Fordham Road — and criticized Hizzoner for setting aside the city's "original" busway plan that he pledged as a candidate to implement.
"We chose not to stand with the mayor today as he made his Fordham announcement because we are concerned that the plan does not go far enough to deliver faster, more reliable buses riders can depend on," said Betsy Plum, the group's executive director, in an email blast on Friday. The subject of her email was: "Why we're not standing with the mayor today."
During the press conference, Mamdani revealed his administration's plans to upgrade Fordham Road's curbside bus lanes to "offset" bus lanes that run down middle of the street. The advocates acknowledged this change will boost bus service, but said it fell short of a mostly car-free busway floated by the Department of Transportation under former mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams.
"The data are clear: offset bus lanes on their own are not a gold-standard approach for delivering much faster buses on Fordham or anywhere else," Plum said in her email. The group took credit for Mamdani's pledge on Friday to re-evaluate the redesign if it fails to improve bus speeds by at least 20 percent.
"We believe in this mayor and his vision for public excellence, and we’re encouraged by the new DOT commissioner’s commitment to think bigger about what our streets can offer," she said. "It’s precisely because we know this administration can do more that we are demanding more, especially for bus riders who have waited far too long for real change."
Mamdani specifically cited "a Fordham Road busway" on the campaign trail last year as he criticized his predecessor Eric Adams for scaling back or canceling street redesigns at the behest of business interests there and elsewhere.
On Friday, however, the mayor sang a different tune.
"The reason that we're focusing on the 20 percent increase is, frankly, New Yorkers don't care what you call it or what you are actually implementing," Mamdani said, "because what they care about is if you've actually delivered."
Representatives for the city declined to respond directly to Riders Alliance's criticism. Officials referred Streetsblog to a City Hall statement on Friday that claimed "DOT traffic analysis shows offset bus lanes will provide the greatest speed and reliability benefits."
An analysis DOT presented to community boards in June 2023 forecasted that a two-way busway would cause "severe" impacts on side streets, which would "have implications for buses on those roadways." A one-way eastbound bus lane would also cause delays on nearby streets, officials said at the time.
DOT has yet to reveal its block-by-block designs for the project. To achieve Mamdani's 20 percent goal, the agency will need a design that actually frees buses on the corridor from the shackles of traffic — which one expert warned would be more difficult without a busway.
"On Fordham Road, unlike many of the other corridors, the main cause of delay truly is traffic congestion, which includes double parking," said international bus planning expert Annie Weinstock. Riders Alliance cited her research in its statement criticizing Mamdani. "So getting the bus lane configuration right so that buses can be free of other traffic is particularly important on Fordham."
To wring the most out of the less-effective offset design, Weinstock said that DOT could build out bus bulbs at some stops and make the curb itself a full-time loading zone to discourage people from double parking cars and trucks in the offset lane.
Despite Riders Alliance's criticism and its decision not to attend the event, a spokesman for the group called the offset bus lanes a "win" and praised the mayor for his focus on improving service for working class bus riders.
"The mayor talked more today about the value of people's time than I've ever heard from him or any other mayor," said Riders Alliance Communications and Policy Director Danny Pearlstein. "That's a victory for bus riders in the Bronx."
But Pearlstein said the solution to any potential spillover effects on buses that serve adjacent roadways should be to improve bus speeds on those roadways — not saddle Fordham Road's 130,000 daily riders with worse service.
"The Bronx deserves the best the city can provide. If there are implications for other roadways, there should be considerations for how to mitigate those impacts," he said. "Our priority should be significantly improving speeds on the most important bus route in the Bronx."
