Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday announced plans to aggressively upend his predecessor\u2019s legacy for killing street redesign projects.<\/p>\n
The mayor joined MTA Chair Janno Lieber to unveil a plan to install an offset bus lane \u2014 painted in red on the street next to parked cars \u2014 along Fordham Road in the Bronx<\/a>. Ex-Mayor Eric Adams notoriously killed a plan<\/a> to bring more bus priority to the busy thoroughfare after facing pushback from local businesses and institutions.<\/p>\n Mamdani said he wants the redesign to speed up bus service on the street by 20%. The Bx12 select bus that runs along Fordham Road currently moves at an average pace of 9.2 miles per hour, according to data from the MTA. Under Mamdani\u2019s order, that pace must increase to at least 11 miles per hour.<\/p>\n Transportation Commissioner Michael Flynn said the city is open to a more ambitious redesign if buses on Fordham remain sluggish.<\/p>\n City data shows 130,000 bus riders use four bus routes that run on Fordham Road. Bus ridership in the Bronx fell 33% during Adams’ first three years in office.<\/p>\n The Bronx bus route was one of several redesigns announced by Mamdani, who declared last month that he wants to make the city\u2019s streets \u201cthe envy of the world.\u201d He also plans to extend a two-way protected bike lane on Ashland Place in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, which abruptly ends and sends cyclists into a two-lane road without a bike lane. Adams declined to add a bike lane there after also facing pushback from nearby businesses. That street is frequently blocked with trucks unloading goods for the local Whole Foods and for the Brooklyn Academy of Music.<\/p>\n He also announced plans to add more bike lanes in East Flatbush, Flatbush and Ditmas Park.<\/p>\n The whole package marks the Mamdani administration’s first major push to physically change the city\u2019s transportation network.<\/p>\n Mamdani made the announcement on a bus parked at a Bronx depot, which was outfitted with a podium in the rear.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aIn honor of Valentine’s Day, we will show our buses and bikes the love that they deserve as we stand on this bus, not moving that much faster than it would otherwise,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n The mayor noted that bus speeds on Hillside Avenue in Queens improved 28% after a conversion to an offset bus lane.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe expect to see a similar rate of success on Fordham Road,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Bronx bus riders welcomed Mamdani\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI think it’s very beneficial, especially during rush hour,\u201d said Desean Ming, 29, who rides buses on Fordham Road daily. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like a gridlock around the 3 to 5 p.m. hours. I think it’ll, I think it’ll really help.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicole Pankin, a 50-year-old Bronx resident and special education teacher, hoped Mamdani\u2019s move will speed up her commute. But she remained skeptical that would actually happen.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aIt’s been kind of crazy. I don’t know, weather-wise or what’s going on. But any way that it could be easier for commuters \u200aI’m all for it,\u201d Pankin said.<\/p>\n The bus lane isn\u2019t going in overnight. The Mamdani administration said it\u2019s working with the community and hopes to have a more specific plan in the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday announced plans to aggressively upend his predecessor\u2019s legacy for killing street redesign projects.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-132949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-the-bronx","13":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","14":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}