Mayor Mamdani\u2019s charter revision commission will look into ways to change a 17-year-old provision added to the city charter by anti-bike politicians to slow down the installation of life-saving street redesigns, City Hall revealed on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s Vision Zero street safety upgrades have reduced pedestrian fatalities by as much as 34 percent in some neighborhoods, but requirements enacted by bike-skeptical City Council members in 2009<\/a> gum up the Department of Transportation\u2019s efforts to expand such life-saving benefits, officials from the Committee on Government Efficiency \u2014 which everyone calls COGE \u2014 said in a new report<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCrashes are preventable, and sensible safety-focused street redesigns can have an outsized impact on safety,\u201d the commissioners wrote. \u201cYet, some of these street redesign initiatives are subject to mandated delays that slow down the projects and, in so doing, risk lives and injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bloomberg-era law required extensive outreach and outside review for even the most simple bike and bus lane projects, despite reams of evidence that they reduce crash injuries and death. The commission plans to hold public hearings across the city this summer before putting its proposed changes to the city charter on the November ballot as a referendum.<\/p>\n COGE collected testimony from street safety advocates for its report and is exploring ways to \u201cstreamline\u201d public review while retaining community input, as well as whether inter-agency reviews should only apply when there are environmental impacts or \u201cother indicia of a substantial project,\u201d the report said. The panel will also consider \u201creviewing\u201d the definition of major transportation projects \u201cto avoid a one-size-fits-all approach that delays very minor projects,\u201d officials said.<\/p>\n Advocates praised the potential reforms, calling on the city to swiftly clear the way for Mamdani\u2019s agenda to make the streets of New York into the \u201cenvy of the world<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, too many New Yorkers are stuck navigating dangerous streets or sitting in crawling traffic while critical safety and transportation projects are delayed by redundant processes and red tape,\u201d said Ben Furnas, executive director of Transportation Alternatives. \u201cWe look forward to working with the commissioners to advance ambitious changes that can save lives and make New York City streets the envy of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n The initial 2009 law required DOT to consult with the Police Department, the Fire Department, the Department of Small Business Services and and the Mayor\u2019s Office for People with Disabilities for so-called \u201cmajor transportation projects\u201d<\/a> \u2014 defined as any street redesign, including bike and bus lanes, that exceeds 1,000 feet or three blocks. The law further required DOT to provide a certification for each of those consultations.<\/p>\n The City Council has added even more layers of reviews over the years, most recently with a provision<\/a> sponsored by Council Member Joann Ariola (R-Queens) to require DOT to not only get the sign-off from the Fire Department headquarters, but also written confirmation that officials solicited feedback from \u201cany affected firehouse\u201d in the area of a street revamp.<\/p>\n The consultation requirements have added mountains of unnecessary paperwork and provided a platform for bike lane opponents \u2014 most notoriously some FDNY brass<\/a> \u2014 to rail against DOT proposals, despite not being transportation engineers or urban planners, and often in defiance of their own agency\u2019s leadership<\/a>. The rules also gave easy fodder to a Queens judge<\/a> to stall a protected bike lane in Astoria last year after opponents sued the city.<\/p>\n \u201cIn practice, these requirements delay critical safety upgrades, leading to fewer street safety redesigns, significant staff time used, and legal challenges that can cause substantial delays to important safety upgrades,\u201d the COGE commissioners said. \u201cSo long as duplicative, burdensome rules are on the books, street safety projects that save lives will be delayed\u2014an inefficiency that falls most squarely on our roads\u2019 most vulnerable users.\u201d<\/p>\n One Council member who has long been critical of the city\u2019s bike lane bureaucracy praised the mayor for looking at ways to speed up projects \u2014 but urged City Hall to work with the Council on legislation rather than put the reforms to a vote from the general public.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m deeply committed to the Department of Transportation being able to expeditiously complete street safety projects and any and all reforms that ensure we are delivering bolder street safety projects more quickly for our communities is welcomed,\u201d said Council Member Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn). \u201cI would offer a note of caution that many of these fixes can be done through local law, which is to say many of these actions can be done through the work of the City Council.\u201d<\/p>\n Restler passed a law in 2023, repealing an infamous 2011<\/a> addition to the major transportation law by late Council Member Lew Fiddler<\/a>, that singled out bike lanes for a special 90-day advance notice requirement to community boards.<\/p>\n The legislator said that the Council could undo many of the reviews by passing bills like that, without a referendum to the City Charter, the city\u2019s constitution. <\/p>\n Charter review commissions can go further than legislation by making changes that alter the fundamental balance of power in city government, such as as getting rid of community board or Council input entirely \u2013 although COGE is proposing neither of those. <\/p>\n