City Council members delivered harsh criticism Tuesday to the Department of Transportation over the city’s failure to meet targets for expanding bus and bike lanes during the Adams administration.
The NYC Streets Plan, established in 2019, mandated the city build at least 150 miles of protected bus lanes and 250 miles of protected bike lanes between 2022 and 2026, according to the plan’s requirements. Department of Transportation numbers show the agency repeatedly fell short of these targets under Mayor Eric Adams.
“A 50% is a big, fat F,” said Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu (D-Manhattan), who noted the city is “trying to make up for lost time” after two years of hovering near the halfway point of its mandate for new bus and bike lanes.
New DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn and his deputies faced intense questioning from council members over what Councilmember Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) called an “uninspiring” record on street redesigns meant to prioritize cyclist safety and speed up buses.
“The way things have been working is not good enough,” Restler said. “And I hope that you are hearing that clearly from this City Council, that we want to see significant improvement.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani named Flynn as DOT head in his first official move at the start of 2026, signaling his administration’s focus on improving bus service that averages 8.1 mph, according to a February 2025 Independent Budget Office report. The report found this among the slowest speeds in the country.
Mamdani campaigned on delivering “fast and free” bus service as a key transportation proposal, according to his campaign platform.
Transit advocates testified that the Adams administration largely ignored the Streets Plan mandates. “It was a long four years fighting for bus riders under the Adams administration,” said Jolyse Race of Riders Alliance. “And for four years, the streets plan was ignored and bus riders were completely disrespected by the elected officials.”
Flynn inherited significant project backlogs from the previous administration. The city completed just 20.8 miles of bus lanes toward its 30-mile goal for 2025, though this represented an improvement from the 13.5 miles built the previous year, according to DOT figures.
“The mayor has been clear that we can and must do better, and that safe and livable streets are a priority for this administration,” Flynn said during the hearing.
Flynn cited Mamdani’s recent revival of bike and bus-lane projects that the Adams administration had shelved. “Our most important steps have been to resume important street redesign projects that stalled due to political considerations or legal challenges,” Flynn said.
These revived projects include protected bike lanes along McGuinness Boulevard in Brooklyn and extending double bus lanes along Manhattan’s Madison Avenue from 42nd to 23rd streets, according to Flynn. The city is also redesigning long-planned bus lanes on Fordham Road in The Bronx.
The McGuinness Boulevard project faced opposition from the “Keep McGuinness Moving” campaign, which had significant ties to the politically connected Argento family that owns a film production company and other area businesses, according to previous reporting.
The Fordham Road bus lane project was previously scrapped after encountering opposition from Fordham University, the New York Botanical Garden and the St. Barnabas Hospital Health System. The then-head of New York City Transit called this move “perplexing” and “disappointing.”
Earlier this month, Mamdani announced the Fordham Road project’s revival while appearing with MTA leadership. “The bottom line is this: The buses can only move as fast as conditions at the street level allow,” said Janno Lieber, MTA chairperson and chief executive, on February 13.
The hearing highlighted the new administration’s challenge in addressing years of delayed infrastructure improvements while facing continued political opposition to street redesigns across the five boroughs.
