Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced he\u2019s picking up multiple transportation projects that the prior administration axed, including on Fordham Road, where bus speeds average 5 mph despite a painted dedicated lane.<\/p>\n
The mayor said Friday that will change for the 130,000 New Yorkers who ride buses along the corridor.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced he\u2019s picking up multiple transportation projects that the prior administration axed
\n
The projects include a bus lane offset from the curb on Fordham Road to allow for deliveries, pickups and drop-offs that currently block the bus from moving
\n
Bus speeds on the Fordham Road route average 5 mph despite a painted dedicated lane
\n
Mamdani also announced a bike network of protected and unprotected bike lanes in Brooklyn<\/p>\n
\u201cIn honor of Valentine\u2019s Day, we will show our buses and bikes the love that they deserve,\u201d Mamdani said, also announcing bike lane improvements coming to Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
The projects include a bus lane offset from the curb to allow for deliveries, pickups and drop-offs that currently block the bus from moving.<\/p>\n
Some riders seemed skeptical, and advocates, like Danny Pearlstein of Riders Alliance, have wanted a car-free busway. He says this is a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen mixed results from offset lanes around the city. I think the most important thing is the commitment from City Hall to come back to this project over and over until we get it right,\u201d Pearlstein, the policy and communications director for Riders Alliance, said.<\/p>\n
Peter Madonia of the Belmont Business Improvement District, however, was one of the people who opposed a busway, and had the ear of former Mayor Eric Adams. He believes it will create more traffic and hurt the Bronx\u2019s Little Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s already challenging at certain times of the day. This will make it infinitely worse, but will it scare people away? That\u2019s my fear. Yes. So 85% of the people that come to us come from 10 to 40 miles away. You know, the zoo. It\u2019s probably close to that number, maybe 70, 75,\u201d Madonia said.<\/p>\n
Mamdani said they would continue community outreach. Meanwhile, he also announced a bike network of protected and unprotected bike lanes in Midwood and Flatbush \u2014 as well as around Kingston and Brooklyn Avenues \u2014 in Brooklyn that will be designed to help protect pedestrians.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s the one-block stretch of Ashland Place that many are celebrating.<\/p>\n
\u201cCyclists go out of their way to avoid crash land, and some New Yorkers avoid riding a bike altogether because they feel like our streets are not safe enough to do so,\u201d Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn said.<\/p>\n
The short stretch between Lafayette Avenue and Atlantic will turn into a one-way street with a two-way protected bike lane connecting the current one that ends at Lafayette to Fourth Avenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose two blocks having to be completed and being part of the bike network means now that you can bike all the way from Bay Ridge to Greenpoint and into Queens, Ben Furnas, executive director at Transportation Alternatives, said.<\/p>\n
As for buses, no word on the free part just yet, as Mamdani put the focus back on improvements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is so exciting is this is the announcement of projects that will quite literally have an impact on the amount of time New Yorkers have to spend getting to where they\u2019re going, giving them a little more time in the place that they\u2019re actually looking to get to,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n
These projects won\u2019t get off the ground right away, but should start by spring when the weather is warmer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced he\u2019s picking up multiple transportation projects that the prior administration axed, including on Fordham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[109,25,1084,297,9,24,55,54,12,56,87,298,27,296,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-132992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-app-traffic-transit","11":"tag-app-traffic-and-transit","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-city-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-samantha-liebman","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-traffic-and-transit","22":"tag-transit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132992","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=132992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}