Under oath, Mayor Mamdani's DOT chief declines to commit to bus and bike lane mandates

"The mayor's been clear that we can and must do better, and that safe and livable streets are a priority for this administration. We're committed to delivering more transformative and ambitious street redesign projects going forward. We are doing everything to make 2026 a great year and expect to significantly outperform the last couple of years while also building significant internal capacity to aim much higher and be bigger and bolder in the years ahead."

"We don't want to be coming back to you in six or nine or 12 months with failures again, on not building enough bike lanes, not building enough bus lanes, not building the pedestrian space. We want specific numbers and plans."

New York City Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn declined to commit to the streets master plan during a City Council hearing, despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani's campaign promise to aggressively implement the 2019 law. The mandate requires the DOT to install 30 miles of new bus lanes and 50 miles of protected bike lanes annually. The previous Adams administration ignored these requirements. When pressed by Council members for specific numbers and timelines, Flynn offered only vague commitments to "transformative" projects and promised to release a plan later in the year without guaranteeing compliance with the legal mandate.

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