A bus lane operating alongside one of many metropolis’s busiest streets, Madison Avenue, shall be expanded one other 19 blocks by the tip of the yr according to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promise to make buses “quick and free,” the Division of Transportation commissioner introduced Sunday.
Mike Flynn, the DOT veteran who was named to the Mamdani administration on New 12 months’s Eve, revealed the plan to increase the prevailing Madison Avenue bus lane from forty second Road to twenty third Road alongside Deputy Mayor Julia Kerson on Sunday afternoon.
“When Mayor Mamdani requested me to function his transportation commissioner, he challenged me to make New York Metropolis streets the envy of the world, and that’s precisely what we’re going to do. We’re going to realize it by pondering huge, specializing in New Yorkers’ day to day lives, and performing with urgency,” Flynn boasted.
Kerson highlighted Mamdani’s “high priorities,” together with “making buses quick and free” for all New Yorkers. She stated that Madison Avenue is likely one of the most congested streets within the metropolis, with “92,000 bus riders [using] this hall each day.”
Flynn instructed The Submit that the “similar configuration” at present on Madison Avenue — two bus lanes on the east aspect of the road plus one basic site visitors lane and a versatile parking lane — shall be prolonged from forty second Road south to twenty third Road.
Kerson bashed the present common bus pace, which she stated crawls at “about 4 to 5 miles per hour” and might have disastrous ripple results on commuters’ days.
“That’s not simply irritating, it may imply lacking a shift at work, arriving late to a physician’s appointment, or your child being the final one to get picked up after college,” Kerson stated.
The duo’s plan piggybacks on a proposal made by the DOT that was quietly delayed attributable to “interference” from former Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, Kerson alleged. She stated the Mamdani administration will prioritize assembly the “portray season” that Adams’ workforce missed and guaranteed the mission shall be accomplished in 2026.
Flynn couldn’t present a selected timeline for the mission, however famous that they’ll require “good climate circumstances” for the paint to stay and dry.
“The plan is to have it carried out this yr,” he assured.
Borough President Brad Will praised the “stretch of the superb central enterprise district” to the “vibrant neighborhood that surrounds Madison Avenue.”
“The central enterprise district is the busiest and the biggest in the whole world and if you consider how vital it’s to the native financial system, to driving so many companies into success, small enterprise and others, we want higher mass transit,” Will stated.
The neighborhoods dotted alongside the Midtown Manhattan stretch of Madison Avenue embody Murray Hill and NoMad — the place Amazon founder Jeff Bezos splits his time in his multi-million greenback “mansion within the sky.”
