In 2019, when then-City Council Speaker Corey Johnson unveiled his NYC Streets Plan law, he took the stage to Queen\u2019s anthem \u201cI Want To Break Free.\u201d At the time, other politicians picked up on his call to \u201cbreak car culture.\u201d But Freddy Mercury and his bandmates didn\u2019t want a break, from a past ridden with \u201clies,\u201d they wanted to be free.<\/p>\n
Last year, Mayor Mamdani won office on a promise to make New York\u2019s slow buses both fast and free. Mercury, who took his last name from a Roman god with winged shoes, knew the need for swift passage and the freedom it affords. As Mamdani prepares his own Streets Plan, due in December, fast and free on a grand scale should be his guiding lights.<\/p>\n
Last month, a dozen organizations from the Regional Plan Association to the NYC-DSA Transit Working Group, urged<\/a> NYC DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn to put the mayor\u2019s rapid bus plan, announced in July, and the affordability crisis front and center in the plan, with a focus on \u201cstreets we can afford.\u201d<\/p>\n Flynn has promised \u201ccapital light<\/a>\u201d street safety and transit improvements that speed the pace of transformation to deliver fast buses and pedestrian and bicycle protections sooner than before. Some of his urgency comes from the high cost of driving, which he pegged at $8,000 per year<\/a> over what car-free households spend.<\/p>\n It\u2019s that cost, in money for the drivers who shell it out, in time for the bus riders who suffer poor service, or worse for pedestrians and cyclists, and their families, who pay the ultimate price, that is helping drive growing organized labor support for the mayor\u2019s fast and free vision in the broadest sense.<\/p>\n PSC-CUNY, which signed the Streets Plan letter, has members who must commute to multiple campuses spread out across the city that can include difficult to reach Kingsborough and Queensborough Community Colleges and the College of Staten Island, and who know all too well the importance of saving time and money on their slow, unreliable commutes.<\/p>\n Beyond freeing grownups from an onerous fare policy and sluggish transit that robs people of time for work, family, friends and community, this comprehensive approach to freedom on our streets also captured the support of parent group Kids Over Cars, underlining the importance of safe routes to school that can foster kids\u2019 independence and save families valuable time.<\/p>\n