Council Members Form ‘DRIVE Caucus’ To Advocate for Cheaper and Easier Driving

APRIL 1 — More than a dozen City Council members will announce on April 1 the formation of a new, bipartisan caucus devoted to defending the interests of car drivers in the five boroughs. The group chose the acronym DRIVE, which stands for Develop Roadways In Virtually Everyplace.

“We may not share the same party or politics, but we are united in protecting car drivers from lunatic cyclists and head-in-the-cloud pedestrians,” DRIVE said in a statement. “Enough is enough. We are done being exploited by powerful interests who deny that drivers are the most vulnerable road users.”

DRIVE is the brainchild of Vickie Paladino (R-Queens) and Phil Wong (D-Queens), both of whom represent neighborhoods where the majority of households own a car. Despite belonging to different parties, DRIVE members believe motorists are suffering and their constituents have reached a boiling point.

“Driving a car anywhere in New York City should not cost a single dime,” Council Member Joann Ariola (R-Queens), another DRIVE member, told Streetsblog on April 1.

Wong said he was inspired to establish DRIVE by witnessing the small acts of civil resistance that drivers undertake just to be able to use their own cars.

“Walking down Metropolitan in Middle Village, I see a lot of obscured and bent and even missing license plates,” he explained. “I think, ‘Wow, that’s genuinely heroic.’ Nobody can pay all of the tickets you get when you speed through a school zone or double-park to jump into a deli for coffee. We cannot have a city where drivers are expected to follow these unjust rules.”

According to an internal agenda obtained by Streetsblog, the caucus will first target the city’s school-zone speed cameras and red-light cameras. Longer-term goals include bills requiring the city to remove every bike lane, bus lane and traffic-calming redesign.

Paladino said the caucus’s political wish-list is widely popular among “real” New Yorkers.

“Real New Yorkers — who were born and raised here, went to high school here, took the subway and then got disgusted by all the people on the subway so now they drive here — overwhelmingly oppose the dangerous and criminal highways that DOT calls bike lanes,” she said. “Midwestern transplants cannot just come here and make changes by claiming New York has the best transit system in the world. Native New Yorkers want to drive around our own city just like they do in St. Louis!”

But other members said the caucus was less about pushing for specific laws and more about correcting anti-car and anti-driver narratives. “We’re trying to reset a very acrimonious conversation,” said caucus member Frank Morano (R-Staten Island). “Cars are not dangerous. Drivers are not speeding. Children are not dying. There were not 83,000 crashes caused by car drivers in 2025.”

Council Member Farah Louis (D-Brooklyn) said she thinks non-drivers wrongly believe they understand their neighborhoods better than people who merely drive through them on the way to someplace else.

“I am sick and tired of hearing bad things about car drivers,” she said. “Drivers are your neighbors. Drivers are your friends. They may not walk around like other people do, but they still belong to our community — or whichever community they’re driving to. I’m very happy drivers will finally have a voice in the City Council.”

Every member interviewed by Streetsblog mentioned the election of Zohran Mamdani last year as a catalyst to unite in the interest of drivers.

“The mayor thinks driving is the wrong way to get from one place to another,” said caucus member David Carr (D-Staten Island). “But he’s attacking our way of life. I mean, driving is more akin to a cultural practice or ritual, something that defines who you are and the community to which you belong. I wouldn’t call it a religion but it almost feels like that.”

By the way, APRIL FOOLS.