A Bx36 Bus.
Photo credit: Ray Raimundi / MTA
amNewYork’s Sept. 21 editorial, “Falling flat on ‘fast and free’ buses,” is right that New York’s bus riders have waited too long for faster service. However, it misses the mark by suggesting that the Mamdani administration has been standing still on buses.
Within months of taking office, the Mayor and Governor launched Next Stop: Fast Buses, Better Service, a historic city-state partnership to improve bus service on 175 routes (70% of all NYC bus routes) and launch NYC’s first Bus Rapid Transit corridors. This plan will bring faster, more reliable trips for riders across all five boroughs and improve the entire bus experience from the moment someone gets to the bus stop to when they step off at their destination. City and State leaders are in close coordination on delivering promised results.
And the work is well underway. Last week, the Bronx’s first-ever busway was completed on Tremont Avenue, bringing dedicated bus priority to 39,000 daily riders. Several more projects, including Fordham Road in the Bronx, 116th Street, Madison Avenue, 9th Ave, 6th Ave and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, Broadway and Rockaway Beach Blvd. in Queens and Victory Blvd in Staten Island will all be completed this year, putting the city on track to significantly surpass prior years’ mileage. These projects each make up corridors where work has been stalled for years, or where bus riders face some of the slowest bus speeds in the city.
The editorial board points to the Mayor’s Management Report (MMR) to argue that we deserve a failing grade on our “yearly report card” when it comes to progress on bus lane miles, even though the MMR tracks progress by fiscal years, not calendar years. The Fiscal Year 2026 MMR covers just half of this Mayor’s first year in office, much of which fell outside DOT’s construction season (May-November), since DOT can’t do street work in cold winter weather.
Once construction season started, we immediately got to work, consistently announcing new bus projects. The task at hand is serious, and so is our commitment. Bus lane installation has increased to 12 miles this fiscal year, more than double the 5.5 miles the City added in FY 2025 – and yet is still a far cry from the level of service New Yorkers deserve.
Elizabeth Adams, is Senior Advisor for Fast and Free Buses at the Office of the Mayor.