Mayor Mamdani Holds Press Conference to Make Transportation Announcement
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office.
Passages
Transportation Alternatives Director of Advocacy, Sean Garcia. Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice. Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion Coalition, Nilka Martel. We have Renee Reynolds from the Tri-State Transportation Coalition, the Executive Director of that coalition to be specific. And we have our MTA board member, Blanca Lopez, who is here with us. Now, we know that for too many Bronxites, riding a bus in our city doesn't get you where you need to go. It gets you frustrated, delayed, oftentimes inconvenienced. The BX36 that is supposed to take you to work on time arrives 15 minutes behind schedule. The bus that crawls along at a pace slower than you can walk. The school drop-off you are late to. The recital that you miss. In a city where time is money, the working people who rely on our bus system have repeatedly seen their precious time treated as if it does not matter. We are standing at the fifth busiest bus route in the Bronx that serves nearly 40,000 New Yorkers each day in an area where 72% of households do not own a car. And it is one of the few corridors that residents can rely on to traverse the borough from east to west. And yet while the wheels on the bus may go round and round in the nursery rhyme, the wheels of the BX36 rotate slower than nearly anywhere else in New York City at a less than five mile per hour pace. This avenue, however, isn't just known for its slow buses. It is also one that is known to be notoriously dangerous. 630 people were injured in crashes on this corridor between 2020 and 2024, including four New Yorkers who tragically lost their lives. For years, riders of the BX36 have called for faster service and safer streets. And for a brief moment last year, it seemed like their calls might have finally been heard. In February of 2025, the DOT's plan for a Tremont Avenue busway was fully designed and ready to go. Installation was slated to begin that spring. Yet before the project could get underway, it was abruptly canceled by the previous administration. Thanks to our historic bus action plan, City Hall is bringing the Tremont Avenue busway back to life. New Yorkers will feel this change almost immediately. Come September 19th, between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. every day, only buses, trucks with more than six wheels, accessorized vans, emergency vehicles, and bicycles will be allowed to travel the length of this corridor. Buses will not only run faster on Tremont Avenue, they will run safer, too. We will add painted sidewalk extensions to shorten crossing distances for pedestrians and force vehicles to slow down as they turn corners. And we will reinforce these extensions with granite blocks and bicycle racks to discourage illegal vehicle parking along the route. Other busways like this one have already achieved success across our city. We anticipate that these changes will improve bus speeds by up to 60%, saving riders up to six minutes per trip. and decreased pedestrian and cyclist injuries by up to 45%. These numbers are not abstract. They will reflect a real, measurable difference for the New Yorkers who commute on the BX36. After all, it doesn't take a magic school bus to take you where you need to go. It just takes a busway. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_03You know, we are going to continue to engage with New Yorkers to hear from them of how best we can speed up their commutes. I'm going to pass it over to our Deputy Mayor, Julia Kirsten, to speak more about the additional details on this.
SPEAKER_03I think, as you said, enforcement is critical to ensuring that our buses can actually travel at the speed that we are building the streetscape for them. In addition to NYPD enforcement, though, one critical part of this is also ACE and ABLE and ensuring that we are expanding the number of miles across the city where we are able to hold those accountable who are deliberately trying to slow down our buses by being in those very lanes, oftentimes seen by consecutive buses. So we will follow up on whatever enforcement that we can enhance. However, the importance of enforcement is not lost on us at all.
SPEAKER_03You know, I think every day is an opportunity to do better for the city. The first thing we want to do is improve from where we are. As you've said, we're talking about a bus that at times is crawling at slower than five miles an hour. So, yes, we have to make it faster. Our goal is to make it fast. And what that is going to come from is not only the busways that we're speaking about, like the one on Tremont today, but it's also going to come at its peak from bus rapid transit. And that is an example of how we're going to utilize every tool that we have to make it such that these are not only achievements relative to where we were prior to this administration, but they are achievements in and of themselves. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Look, I think that... Each person has a responsibility to tell New Yorkers, to tell Americans when they're running for office what they believe. And sometimes what you believe can change, it can develop, it can grow. And I know that there are some for whom they still believe in that. I've made very clear that I do not believe in defunding the police, that I will not be defunding the police. And that to me, Delivering critical public safety also looks like working with our police department alongside many other partners. And we've seen over the first seven months of this administration what that can look like when we're talking about the fewest murders on record in New York City, the fewest shooting incidents on record in New York City. And that, to me, is how we measure a lot of our public safety.
SPEAKER_03I don't know what the City Council's plans are. They're an independent body, and I'll leave it to the Speaker to answer that question. I can follow up with the NYPD to find out about those plans. I'll tell you, most of my focus today is Tremont Avenue busway, but I will follow up on that and we'll let you know.
SPEAKER_03I look forward to the release of their findings, and I think that if I'm understanding your question correctly, if they're engaging in court watch and they're going to observe these kinds of proceedings, that's an important part of our criminal legal system. And I've made very clear that I don't believe New Yorkers should have to choose between safety and justice. We have to be able to deliver both of these things. And I was sharing earlier about some of the achievements that our administration is proud of when it comes to the fewest murders on record and comes to the fewest shooting incidents on record. And also, we know that every single day is an opportunity to do better. So I look forward to the findings and we'll review those. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Well, I mean, somewhat. I just saw your wedding ring, and I've never seen it before.
SPEAKER_03I just wanted to wish you congratulations. Anyways, wanted to ask you two very different things, having nothing to do with what you just talked about.
SPEAKER_03To be direct, yes. I think there needs to be more regulation. I think it's an open conversation as to what each level of government should do. However, I don't think that we have seen the limits of that regulation as yet. And I appreciate especially the Attorney General for having taken action on this. I think it was a couple of weeks ago. And on your first question, you know, It was in the campaign itself before the general election that I shared with New Yorkers that the actions of former First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro made it nearly impossible for any future administration to be able to fulfill a vision of building housing on the Elizabeth Street Garden site. So while we are working to resolve the lawsuit with the developers who were set to build upon that site, we continue to believe in the importance of building more affordable housing. And that is why we are going to be building more than 180 homes at 22 Suffolk Street and more at 100 Gold as well. And that's what I said over the course, in the final, I think it was, maybe it was a week before the general election, that those actions made it nearly impossible for us to move forward.
SPEAKER_03I think we've been clear that the actions of the prior administration made it nearly impossible to proceed on that vision and proceed on it in a way that would be realistic. And when it comes to your first question, we continue to be confident not only in the importance of a tax on secondary homes worth more than $5 million, in the necessity of the half a billion dollars it would raise towards making sure that our streets are safer, making sure that our schools are stronger, that our city is more affordable. And also our law department has informed Mr. Mastro that it will appear before the appellate division second department on Thursday morning to address the stay and any other related matters. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03
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