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Under oath, Mayor Mamdani's DOT chief declines to commit to bus and bike lane mandates
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Mar 3, 2026
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Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Mar 3, 2026
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New York City Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn waffled on Tuesday when asked whether he’d make good on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promise to aggressively add more bike and bus lanes across the five boroughs.
During a City Council hearing, Transportation Chair Shaun Abreu pressed Flynn on his commitment to the “streets master plan,” a law passed in 2019 that mandates the DOT install 30 miles of new bus lanes and 50 miles of new protected bike lanes each year.
The DOT under previous Mayor Eric Adams ignored the law. Mamdani vowed to follow the measure during his campaign, and last month even declared he would bring “the streets master plan back to life.”
But under oath before the Council, Flynn wasn’t so sure.
“The mayor's been clear that we can and must do better, and that safe and livable streets are a priority for this administration,” Flynn said after Abreu asked him about whether he’d meet the requirements laid out in the streets master plan.
“We're committed to delivering more transformative and ambitious street redesign projects going forward,” he continued. “We are doing everything to make 2026 a great year and expect to significantly outperform the last couple of years while also building significant internal capacity to aim much higher and be bigger and bolder in the years ahead.”
Councilmember Lincoln Restler, not satisfied, told him he wanted specific numbers and plans.
“We don't want to be coming back to you in six or nine or 12 months with failures again, on not building enough bike lanes, not building enough bus lanes, not building the pedestrian space,” Restler said.
Flynn still did not provide those specifics.
Speaking with reporters after the hearing, Flynn admitted the DOT is still working on a plan to build more bus and bike lanes, as well as pedestrian plazas. He said he’d release the plan later this year — but again declined to commit to hitting the goals laid out in the law.
“ We're still developing the plan and we're going to pull out all the stops to, increase our output both in terms of quantitative things or the the actual lane miles or square footage, but also in terms of the quality, we want to look at both,” Flynn said.
Adding dozens of miles of new bus lanes each year would be a key way for Mamdani to make good on his signature campaign promise to make the city's buses both “fast and free.” Eliminating fares from buses would require funding and approval from Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state-run MTA, who have both criticized the idea.
Advocates like Sarah Lind with the advocacy group Open Plans want the city to take even further steps to redesign the city’s streets. Lind called for the removal of cars from more intersections and the creation of “low traffic neighborhoods,” where streets in residential areas are redesigned to prevent drivers from using them as bypass routes.
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Politics
new york city
transportation
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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