Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Breaks Ground on Bronx’s First Busway Along Tremont Avenue
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good afternoon, everyone. Or good morning, rather — speaking of the future, because I'm thinking of the busway. It is a pleasure to be here in the Bronx alongside dedicated advocates and partners in government as we announce that DOT has begun work on the Bronx's first-ever dedicated busway right here on Tremont Avenue. And I want to acknowledge we have a number of leaders both inside and outside of our administration joining us here today. We have our deputy mayor of operations, Julia Kerson, that we've just heard from. We have our DOT assistant commissioner, Diniece Mendes. We have our MTA executive vice president of buses, Frank Farrell. We have our Bronx River Alliance deputy director, Daniel Ranells. We have our communications director and policy director of Riders Alliance, Danny Pearlstein, who is here with us. We have our MTA board member, Dan Garodnick, who is here with us. Our Transportation Alternatives director of advocacy, Shawn Garcia. Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Stop the Cross-Bronx Expansion Coalition, Nilka Martell. We have Renae Reynolds from the Tri-State Transportation [Campaign]— the executive director of that [campaign], to be specific — and we have our MTA board member Blanca López, 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 [and] 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 percent 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've 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, [but] 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 percent, saving riders up to six minutes per trip, and decrease pedestrian and cyclist injuries by up 45 percent. 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.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI 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're 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.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI 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.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI 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. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think to 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 that 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 are 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 [Street] 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.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Breaks Ground on Bronx’s First Busway Along Tremont Avenue.