Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s transportation boss all but declared war on drivers during an event Thursday \u2014 claiming most car owners are \u201cwealthy\u201d and calling parking a public land \u201cgiveaway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn told an audience at a New York Law School breakfast that the administration is prioritizing walking, public transit, cycling and e-bikes while making driving and parking so burdensome that it forces motorists to ditch their cars.<\/p>\n
He framed the push as a way to save working New Yorkers money.<\/p>\n
\u201cCar owners in our city are more than twice as wealthy as non-car owners,\u201d he said, calling car-owning a \u201cburden\u201d for lower income New Yorkers \u2014 then ripped parking as a \u201cgiveaway.\u201d<\/p>\n
NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn acknowledged that some lower-income New Yorkers \u201chave a car, need a car,\u201d but still argued that improving transportation for residents without vehicles would \u201csupport our transportation equity goals.\u201d Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n
The claims riled the members Brooklyn4All, a grassroots group of Brooklyn neighbors made up of bus riders, cyclists, subway riders and drivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTransportation is not one-size-fits-all, and people must have the freedom to choose what works for their lives. Aren\u2019t we a democracy?\u201d a spokesperson told The Post.<\/p>\n
The group formed about five months ago because residents felt the DOT wasn\u2019t listening to them.<\/p>\n
DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn told an audience at a New York Law School breakfast that the administration is prioritizing walking, public transit, cycling and e-bikes hoping New Yorkers will drive less. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post<\/p>\n
A 2024 Hunter College report cited by Flynn during his speech even warned that \u201clow income residents need cars more than middle to high income residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report said a car can help someone improve their \u201ceconomic mobility\u201d and the data showed housing type and neighborhood are better indicators of car ownership than income, race or age.<\/p>\n
The data showed about 85% of Staten Island households have a vehicle, compared with 63% in Queens, 45% in Brooklyn, 40% in the Bronx and just 23% in Manhattan \u2014 despite Manhattan having the highest median income.<\/p>\n
About 87% of residents in single-family homes live in a household with a vehicle, compared with 33% of people in apartment buildings with five or more units, according to the study.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn4All said drivers include seniors, people with disabilities and workers with odd hours.<\/p>\n
Brookyln4All is a group of Brooklyn neighbors who have banded together because they felt DOT was not listening to them as it pursues street redesigns around the city. UCG\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cFor people in our community, a car isn\u2019t a luxury; it is a necessity to get to work, take our kids to school, and buy groceries. Can we go to Costco on a bike?\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Flynn acknowledged that some lower-income New Yorkers \u201chave a car, need a car,\u201d but still argued that improving transportation for residents without vehicles would \u201csupport our transportation equity goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hunter report, despite its warning about lower-income residents\u2019 need for cars, recommended making vehicle ownership more expensive and parking more difficult to encourage New Yorkers to ditch their vehicles.<\/p>\n
Their proposals included paid street parking, which Flynn said the administration is reviewing.<\/p>\n
The study also suggested a recurring registration charge based on a vehicle\u2019s value and a three-cent-per-mile driving fee.<\/p>\n
Drivers need cars to get to work and run errands, a spokesperson for Brooklyn4All told The Post. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cPunishing drivers by making commuting harder doesn\u2019t force people onto bikes and public transit\u2014it just places a heavy, unfair tax on working-class families who are already struggling to get by,\u201d the Brooklyn4All spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The authors said their target was occasional, recreational car use \u2014 not residents who rely on vehicles for work and everyday tasks.<\/p>\n
Hunter\u2019s project page lists DOT as a client, and the report thanks the agency and \u201cother community advocates\u201d for participating, which \u201chelped form the contents of this report.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan Russo, the faculty guiding the report, no longer works at Hunter College and did not immediately return The Post\u2019s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s transportation boss all but declared war on drivers during an event Thursday \u2014 claiming most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10483,2700,8141,5459,57,9,56,63,65,64,23948,608,58,82],"class_list":["post-368644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bikes","tag-car","tag-cars","tag-department-of-transportation","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-public-transportation","tag-transportation","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368644","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=368644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}