Mamdani ‘Fully Confident’ in DOT Commissioner Despite Daylighting U-Turn

Mayor Mamdani on Friday expressed “full confidence” in his Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn after Flynn publicly sided with DOT insiders who oppose the mayor’s campaign pledge to ban parking at every intersection in the city, a street design tool known as daylighting.

“We’re going to see the kind of development of protected bike lanes and protected bus lanes across the city that we haven’t seen in many years,” Mamdani said at an unrelated appearance in the Bronx, after Streetsblog asked him if his position had shifted on universal daylighting. “I’m fully confident in my DOT commissioner in ensuring that that is not only a vision, but that is also something that we pursue and that we deliver.”

Flynn on Tuesday seconded a controversial DOT study released under former Mayor Eric Adams that argued that universal daylighting without “hardened” objects such as bike racks in the newly cleared area made pedestrians less safe — contradicting piles of research from across the county.

DOT admitted that its study had “limitations” that made its findings less-than-unimpeachable, even as it bandied the results about to fight a years-long campaign by advocates and the City Council to bring the city in line with state law that makes daylighting the default at every intersection.

On the campaign trail in October, Mamdani pledged to “push back” against DOT’s position. As mayor on Friday, however, he sang a different tune. Pressed on whether he’d shifted his position, Mamdani demurred — while promising “results” for New Yorkers who want safer streets.

“You know, earlier I was asked, ‘What’s the difference in the previous administration’s commitment to sidewalk sheds, this administration’s commitment to sidewalk sheds?’ I think you will find the difference in politics comes down to the results, comes down to whether you can deliver on this vision,” Hizzoner said. “I know that we are early in the administration — 65 days — however, every single day is an opportunity for us to prove that, and we will continue to do so to New Yorkers, both in terms of our policy for our streets, but also in terms of our policy for keeping New Yorkers safe.”

The comments marked yet another instance of the mayor declining to criticize his hand-picked agency heads when they contradict his campaign agenda.

For example, reporters have repeatedly asked Mamdani why the NYPD under Commissioner Jessica Tisch continues to issue criminal summonses to cyclists for simple moving violations, a policy Mamdani claims to oppose. In response, Mamdani has said the policy “is the subject of internal communications.”

City Hall also found itself at loggerheads with the Fire Department last week when FDNY Chief of Operations Kevin Woods testified to the City Council that his agency is “against protected bike lanes.”

Woods repeatedly cast aspersions on protected bike lanes, which DOT has employed for two decades, even as he attempted to walk back the comments. In response, City Hall called protected bike lanes a “key tool” in the mayor’s agenda, but declined to challenge Woods’s statements.

Asked earlier this week about the civil summons policy, meanwhile, Mamdani spokesman Sam Raskin said the administration is working on an “improved policy for addressing cyclist traffic violations that is fair and keeps New Yorkers safe.”

Streetsblog cited the disagreements with NYPD and FDNY in its question to Mamdani on Friday, but the mayor did not address them in his response.

“I want to be very clear that we are going to pursue an agenda that make our streets safe for every New Yorker,” he said. “And that means it doesn’t matter the mode of transit that you are using, whether you’re a pedestrian, you’re a cyclist, you’re a driver, or you’re getting on a bus or riding a train.”