Bus riders (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

On the campaign trail and in City Hall, Mayor Eric Adams pledged to “build 150 miles of new bus lanes and busways in four years,” which he and supporters of the plan said would speed up the city’s notoriously slow buses, mitigate congestion, reduce traffic crashes, and protect the environment. 

“We will build more bus lanes to facilitate faster commuting,” Adams said in a speech to mark his first 100 days as mayor, in April 2022, “complete with countdown clocks so you know when the next one is coming.” It echoed sentiments from the Moving Forward Together agenda of Adams’ successful 2021 campaign, in which he stressed the importance of a “state-of-the-art bus transit system” in supporting economic development and revolutionizing the way New Yorkers move around the city. 

But nearly 18 months into his term, a series of public reports and hearings have indicated a process that is far behind schedule, keeping many of the city’s slow-moving buses stuck. While overall the MTA, a state-run authority, is in charge of the bus system, New York City government has control of city streets and thus where to install bus lanes and what kind, and the city and state work together on enforcement that can make or break whether bus lanes are clear of other vehicles.

Buses crawl around New York City at an average of 9 miles per hour, according to a March 2023 report from New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office, meaning they are often moving even slower during rush hours. The vast majority of bus riders are low- and middle-income New Yorkers of color. According to Bronx City Council Member Pierina Sanchez, buses on the BX12 route in her district can drive as slowly as 4-8 miles per hour. 

“You can almost walk or speed-walk down faster than [the 12 bus] down Fordham Road during peak hours,” she told DOT officials at a May 19 city budget hearing.

Mayor Adams rode the bus and made an appearance at a "better buses" rally hosted by advocates in Brooklyn in August 2022, just over seven months into his tenure. At the rally he recommitted to speeding up the city's buses and building out the bus lane capacity he had pledged.

"Buses are the transportation backbone of our city," the mayor said, according to a transcript from his office. "They reach every corner of our city, every borough, and then a lifeline for so many New Yorkers on how we utilize our service." He called the bus "the great equalizer," and a place where New Yorkers "cross-pollinate with the diversity of this amazing city," but also stressed that "buses serve a lower income community — that's the largest population that uses it," and that no matter who you are, "you want a level of consistency in this operation."

He stressed his "commitment to advancing 150 bus lanes in four years," calling it "important."

But many months later, frustration over the Adams administration’s lack of progress on the city’s buses, ridden by around 1.4 million New Yorkers per weekday during the first quarter of 2023, according to the MTA, has made transportation advocates more skeptical of his promises.

Just before a state budget deal was reached, Adams endorsed a proposed pilot program championed by Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and State Senator Michael Gianaris, both Queens Democrats, and other legislators that would make 10 New York City bus routes free for commuters (the budget deal included five, one in each borough, to be determined by the MTA with public input). In response to the mayor’s endorsement of the free-bus pilot idea, Philip Miatowski, senior director of policy and research at nonprofit advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, warned to “be wary of any electeds who claim to support free buses from a budget they don’t control while having little to show over what they do control: bus lane mileage.” 

With a state budget deal in place, attention has now shifted to the city’s own budget process, with a spending plan due by the July 1 start of the new fiscal year. Part of what advocates, elected officials, and bus riders are concerned about with the mayor’s approach to buses is management of his own Department of Transportation, including funding and personnel, as well as directives to better execute on promises already made.

Current Status of Busways and Bus Lanes
In 2019, the City Council passed and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law the Streets Plan, which required the construction of 20 miles of camera-protected bus lanes in 2022 and 30 miles of the same in each of 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, for a total of 140 miles over five years.

According to the New York City Department of Transportation’s update to the mandated Streets Plan released in February, the city completed just 7.7 miles of new bus lanes in 2022, meaning just over 5% of the mileage needed to reach Adams’ own benchmarks and falling well short of the requirements in the Streets Plan law itself.

According to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, New York City had a total of 138 bus lane miles as of November 2022. 

Meanwhile, no new busways, which heavily restrict non-bus traffic on stretches of city roadway, have been completed since Adams took office. Three busways built during de Blasio’s second term were given permanent status, but two of them, the Flushing Main Street busway and the Jamaica Avenue busway, had their 24 hours of operation reduced under Adams — to 6am to 7pm and 6am to 8pm, respectively.

As of March 2023, busways are maintained on Archer Avenue in Queens, Jamaica Avenue in Queens, 181st Street in Manhattan, Jay Street in Brooklyn, 14th Street in Manhattan, Fulton Street in Brooklyn, and Main Street in Queens. The only busway listed as being “in development” by a DOT-provided list is for a stretch of Fifth Avenue between 34th and 57th Streets in Manhattan, which is part of a major Adams administration plan for the avenue. A planned busway on Fordham Road in the Bronx was just canceled, accordjng to Streetsblog, by DOT after pressure from local business leaders.

Of the 7.7 miles of bus lanes that the DOT completed since Adams took office through the end of 2022, only 4.2 miles are covered by camera enforcement, according to a DOT official. Those cameras film vehicles that illegally drive, park, or stand in bus lanes in order to automatically issue tickets. The Streets Plan criteria only counts camera-protected bus lanes in its benchmarks mileage.

The recently-approved state budget also expanded bus lane camera enforcement, giving the MTA and city more freedom to issue tickets for offenders. According to the legislation, drivers caught parking or driving in bus lanes and bus stops will be charged with a $50 fine on the first offense, with an additional $50 assessed for each additional infraction to a maximum of $250 within a 12-month period. The MTA announced plans to equip a total of 1,000 buses with on-board cameras by the end of the year.

DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodríguez, a former City Council member from Upper Manhattan appointed to lead DOT by Mayor Adams, acknowledged the situation at a February 14 hearing before the New York City Council Committee on Transportation. “The two areas that we are behind are the bike lanes and bus lanes,” he said. “As the Commissioner and a previous Council Member, I ask for your support and leadership to help me accomplish these goals.” 

At a May 19 budget hearing, DOT First Deputy Commissioner Margaret Forgione told City Council members that DOT was preparing for summer and fall construction on bus priority projects — mainly new bus lanes and bus lane enforcement — along University Avenue, Gun Hill Road, and Fordham Road in the Bronx, Northern Boulevard in Queens, Livingston Street in Brooklyn, and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan. 

Nonetheless, DOT officials were unable to provide numbers on bus lane progress to date in 2023, which Rodriguez and Forgione said was due to the seasonal nature of the construction process.

“We have just entered our installation season,” Forgione explained. “We can’t lay down markings or do much of our asphalt work in the wintertime, so we are just beginning implementation and it would be better for us to update you in just a little bit on all the projects that are underway.” 

Asked by Brooks-Powers when they would catch up to their missed 2022 benchmarks, Rodriguez offered few specifics. “We feel that 2023 will be a good year,” he said. “We have many projects, some of which are in front of many of you council members.”

Reactions to Progress on Bus Lanes and Busways
When Adams rolled out his bus plans early last year, public transit advocates like the Bus Turnaround Coalition expressed strong support and eagerly offered cooperation. But as actual implementation failed to gain momentum, many of the same groups have been scathing in their criticism.

“Mayor Adams promised millions of riders that he would speed up the nation’s slowest bus system with 150 new bus lanes over four years,” said Riders Alliance Executive Director Betsy Plum, responding to Adams’ State of the City Address in February of this year. “So far, we’ve seen barely more than we can count on one hand. The administration must pick up its own pace so bus riders can pick up ours.” 

Riders Alliance publishes a Bus Lane Tracker, which attests that only 6.8 miles out of the promised 150 miles of new bus lanes under Mayor Adams have been completed. 

The 0.9 mile discrepancy with DOT’s number comes from Riders Alliance not counting Main Street in Flushing, El Grant Highway, and Pelham Bay Park, the first two of which Riders Alliance Digital Strategist Derrick Holmes says are not completed bus lanes, even if they have been “enhanced” in 2022. According to Holmes, Pelham Bay Park was also excluded because it constitutes “100ft of ‘busway’ that didn’t feel like a significant/reportable improvement given the double-digit bus lane mile deficit DOT is already in.” 

The stagnation has also displeased several members of the Council’s transportation committee, including Chair Brooks-Powers. “It is clear that the DOT is not doing what is required by law to build and upgrade street infrastructure citywide,” she told Gotham Gazette in a statement earlier this year. “We can and must do more to redesign dangerous roadways with hard infrastructure investments.” 

The City Council’s frustration was evident at the February 14 hearing, where DOT Commissioner Rodríguez, DOT Deputy Commissioner Eric Beaton, DOT Assistant Commissioner for Intergovernmental and Community Affairs Rick Rodriguez, and DOT Director of Safety Policy Julia Kite-Laidlaw all faced sharp questioning.

Asked by Council Member Gale Brewer to affirm under oath if DOT could meet its 2023 benchmarks, Rodríguez declined to make any promises, instead stressing his department’s focus on quality over quantity and prioritizing higher-need neighborhoods in a time when staffing shortages and supply-chain issues are limiting its capabilities. 

“We’re going to work to the best of our ability to meet those targets,” added Beaton. “But we want to make sure we’re not just guided by the number of miles, but also doing the projects that are most impactful for the highest number of people.” 

“Alright, I got it,” Brewer interjected. “I don’t agree with your answer, but I understand.” 

Rodriguez appeared to be more confident of hitting 2023 Streets Plan benchmarks in the May 19 budget hearing, telling the Transportation and Finance committees that DOT was on track to meet its annual targets. “Thanks to Mayor Adams’ commitment to putting his money where his word is,” he stated, “DOT has all the resources that we need for us to do the job, weather permitting.” 

But he continued to add the same cautionary note to his answers as in previous hearings, stressing that DOT was considering both quantity and quality, as well as community approval, in implementing bus priority projects. Rodriguez furthermore indicated that DOT has to account for open streets and outdoor restaurant seating, which was not included in the Streets Plan that passed in 2019. 

DOT Staffing Shortages 
At the February 14 hearing and in other settings, Rodríguez cited supply chain delays and staffing shortages as obstacles to meeting goals on bus lanes and busways, though he has more recently emphasized the lack of support from elected officials and communities as the most significant challenge.

Council Member Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn Democrat, expressed alarm over the 750 staff vacancies across DOT, a problem he said was exacerbated by the Adams administration’s policy of deliberately preventing hiring to save money. DOT currently employs just over 5,500 people. 

“I am deeply troubled by this administration’s commitment to financial austerity and shrinking the size of government at the expense of achieving the goals you’re espousing,” Restler told Rodríguez in February. 

Since taking office, Mayor Adams has issued repeated directives for city agencies to cut their budgets, often clashing with City Council members and other government officials in the process, including by eliminating some of the many thousands of budgeted personnel vacancies. By many accounts, the mayor had also been slow to adjust hiring and retention policies in order to staff agencies, exacerbating a challenge he inherited from the prior administration and hurting the service-delivery performance of city government. According to Streetsblog, DOT operations continued to suffer from a mass exodus of staff and low morale among those who have remained.

Council members anxious about DOT’s staffing problems may have found some comfort from the mayor’s abandonment of a policy that authorized city agencies to make just one hire for every two vacant positions. According to DOT Deputy Executive Commissioner Paul Ochoa, DOT was “keeping up with attrition” and had commitments from City Hall that “if we get to a point where we fill our vacancies, then we’ll start having conversations about bringing in more budgeted headcount.” 

At the May 19 budget hearing, Ochoa testified that a recent sprint in hiring by the Adams administration has enabled the department to better keep up with attrition, losing on average one employee for every two than they hire. “Since March, we’ve had almost 150 hires and 75 separations,” he said. 

“I’m happy to see that there’s some modest forward momentum,” Restler responded.

Rodríguez, citing DOT efforts to create hiring pipelines through job fairs and partnerships with institutions like City College, promised that his department was committed to filling the vacancies as best they could in a tight labor market for engineers and planners.

At a City Council hearing on the mayor’s $102.7 billion preliminary budget held on March 9, Rodríguez also suggested that DOT was struggling to compete with the private sector, which tends to offer higher salaries and more generous benefit packages, as well as more flexible hybrid and work-from-home schedules. Mayor Adams has until recently insisted that all city employees work in-person every day, no matter their roles. Small flex-schedule pilot programs have been launched for two city agencies earlier this month, but not yet at DOT.

Rodriguez has maintained that DOT retains support from Adams, who he said promised an additional $370 million in capital funding – 18% of DOT’s budget – for streetscape improvements and safe street designs “We’re fine with the resources that we have,” he told the committee. “Any additional resources are always welcome.”

“You’re fine with the resources you have,” Brooks-Powers responded, “but also there are challenges with the resources and implementation of policy because the staffing is not there…am I following it correctly?” 

Rodríguez argued that DOT had to be satisfied with what they could get under the circumstances. “New York City has limited resources,” he said. “There is not a tree where we can just take all the dollars from there. We have limited resources for agencies to get what they need and do their jobs, so what I’m saying is that I’m comfortable with the investment that Mayor Adams has made with our agency.” 

On April 26, Adams released his executive budget for fiscal year 2024, which includes $1.41 billion allocated to DOT, a marginal (0.3%) increase from the $1.4 billion budgeted in the preliminary plan presented in January. While Rodriguez maintained his satisfaction with the number, Brooks-Powers was more skeptical. “I question whether an executive budget that includes $27.9 million in PEGs in FY 2024 will have a negative impact on our shared goals for better, safer transportation citywide,” she said in her opening statement at the May 19 budget hearing, referring to the mayor’s budget savings efforts, known as a Program to Eliminate the Gap, or PEG.

Community Support and Opposition 
Rodríguez requested support and leadership from the City Council in overcoming community opposition to traffic safety projects on several occasions. “Our team had a plan on how to accomplish those numbers in 2023,” he said in the February 14 hearing, of the Streets Plan’s bus and bike lane benchmarks. “But one challenge that we face is that when we go to communities, there is major opposition to our plans to bring in bus lanes and bike lanes.” (“I was supportive,” Brewer offered.) 

Historically, local concerns have been especially prevalent in areas where residents have traditionally relied heavily on cars. One 2015 proposal for an expanded bus lane on 125th Street had drawn fire at community board meetings, with the chair of CB 10 complaining about new bus infrastructure slowing down her taxi commute. “There’s still a very entrenched car culture in this city,” said then-Council Member Mark Levine, a Manhattan Democrat. “For years, the car has been king, and that’s how we made policy.” Then-Council Member Rodriguez, for his part, maintained that “anything that will help move our buses safe and faster is something we’ll support.” 

There are several recent examples to support his point.

Bronx City Council Member Oswald Feliz claimed in a June 2022 letter to Rodriguez that using Fordham Road as a proposed busway would “force thousands of cars onto nearby alternative, residential streets, creating endless gridlock and danger for pedestrians.” Riders Alliance spokesman Danny Pearlstein responded in StreetsBlog that “NIMBY drivers are back at it, yet again spreading tired falsehoods to deny tens of thousands of Bronxites faster and more reliable bus commutes.” Construction of the Fordham Road busway has not yet begun. 

Elsewhere, Queens Council Member Nantasha Williams had suggested ending the pilot period for the busway on Jamaica Avenue, alleging at a June 2022 Council transportation committee hearing that in building bus infrastructure, DOT does not assess its impact on businesses and other drivers. Brooks-Powers joined Williams in expressing reservations about the way the Jamaica Avenue busway was implemented, telling StreetsBlog that people could not access local businesses. As of March 2023, the Jamaica Avenue busway is still on pilot status. 

Brooks-Powers contended that concerns over certain bus lanes and busways were based on flawed execution rather than opposition to bus infrastructure on principle.

“It’s not that members do not want [bus and bike lanes] in their communities,” she told Rodríguez. “It’s that they want to have the community at the table in a really meaningful way to implement this.” Some areas, she said, saw new infrastructure sprout up without any community input, including a raised, unprotected bike lane in Far Rockaway that has been used more often as a parking space for cars than for bike-riding. Other areas, Brooks-Powers pointed out, did request bus and bike lanes but were not provided any investment by DOT.

Williams echoed Brooks-Powers and took the point further. “I have said on the record multiple times that it is unfortunate that the Queens Boulevard bus lane doesn’t come down to Jamaica, and so I understand your commentary around it not being popular,” she said. “But I don’t think that is where we should stop. We should work together to educate the community and make sure that there is even just connectivity to a bus lane that doesn’t come down to Jamaica Avenue or other areas of the district that might be more appropriate versus arbitrarily slapping down a bus lane and then getting upset if the community doesn’t like it.”

Other council members offered more unreserved support for bus priority projects in their districts. “Come to District 33,” Restler told the Commissioner. “I am here to help. We will build every bike lane, every dedicated busway across the city of New York. We are here for it, we love it.” 

Community responses have indicated broad approval for new bus infrastructure in their neighborhoods. In a poll commissioned by DOT in Bronx Community Boards 5, 6, and 7, 66% of respondents expressed support for additional bus lanes on Fordham Road, and 70% for a busway. One citywide survey by Siena College taken from December 2020 had a majority (56%) of respondents supporting the installation of new bus lanes, even at the cost of some parking space.

Bus Infrastructure and Street Safety
The urgency of quickly installing new bus infrastructure as a safety measure was underscored at the February 14 hearing by testimony from several family members of people killed in traffic violence — there were 255 such deaths citywide in 2022 and 273 in 2021. According to Transportation Alternatives, 51 people have been killed in crashes during the first quarter of 2023. 

Families for Safe Streets member and Bronx resident Monique Williams, whose father was fatally struck by a driver in 2020, told the committee that more protected bus and bike lanes would help lower the death toll. “These are things that we know will calm traffic down and encourage people to drive more carefully,” she said. “It makes it possible for people to safely commute and reduce senseless crashes, and it saves lives.”

Amy Cohen, another FSS member whose 12-year old son was killed by a car driver in 2013, called on the City Council to pressure DOT to move more rapidly, fulfill its NYC Streets Plan commitments, and employ safety measures on dangerous streets and intersections. “We need every Council member to champion those proven safety measures,” she said, “and not be impediments to change when a small group of residents think their parking space is more critical than the lives of residents in their district.”

In testimony delivered to the Council transportation committee on March 9, Transportation Alternatives Senior Director of Advocacy & Organizing Elizabeth Adams called the sluggish pace of bus lane construction “unacceptable,” emphasizing the disproportionate effects of traffic violence and congestion on New Yorkers who are low-income, younger, and people of color, who tend to have longer commutes and fewer mobility options.

“New York’s traffic-clogged and dangerous streets cost residents more than $6 billion a year in traffic crashes and lost time,” she said. “We leave money on the table when we fail to build safe and equitable street space.”