The Mamdani administration needs to present the Division of Transportation sweeping new energy to approve new bike and bus lanes, claiming it’ll pace up such initiatives by 33% — deepening an already bitter combat over town’s streets.
The Fee on Authorities Effectivity, or COGE, was set to formally undertake 5 proposed amendments to the Metropolis Constitution, which might be put to voters on the November election poll.
One of many proposals, “Query 3,” would do away with inter-agency session necessities that critics — together with firefighters, disabled residents and neighborhood coalitions — have used to delay or halt latest bike lane initiatives.
Underneath the modification, the DOT would additionally now not have to finish group board shows earlier than starting building. The transportation commissioner may declare an “quick want” and construct first.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s workplace, in a press launch detailing the 5 poll questions, touted that the proposal would “Velocity up avenue security initiatives, together with bike lanes, by no less than 33%.”
New York Metropolis has greater than 1,316 miles of biking lanes, together with greater than 140 miles of on-street protected bike lanes, in accordance with DOT.
The company put in 27.9 miles of latest protected bike lanes in fiscal 12 months 2025 and DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn informed the Metropolis Council in early March that the company anticipated to outperform that in 2026, however didn’t give a goal.
Councilwoman Joann Ariola, a Queens Republican, referred to as the proposed modification “an especially harmful precedent.”
“This mayor is really displaying the totalitarian colours that so many people warned about,” Ariola mentioned. “What he’s doing is successfully utilizing a handpicked constitution fee to create a fastidiously engineered query meant to eradicate a regulation that he doesn’t agree with.”
Ariola sponsored a 2025 regulation requiring DOT to seek the advice of with native firehouses about security earlier than implementing bike lanes and different main avenue redesigns.
Query 3 would let DOT skip these consultations.
“Right now it’s Native Regulation 6. Tomorrow, it is likely to be every other regulation that the administration finds inconvenient,” Ariola mentioned.
Opponents had relied on that regulation when suing over the security of a motorcycle lane in Queens that they warned would maintain firefighter’s ladder vans from reaching higher flooring.
Janet Schroeder, director of the NYC E-Car Security Alliance, mentioned the modification would depart pedestrians extra uncovered.
“It is a pedestrian metropolis first. Bike lanes don’t defend pedestrians from an e-vehicle rushing, working lights or leaving the scene of a crash,” Schroeder mentioned. “That is an authoritarian-like avenue take over and we at NYC EVSA signify the bulk opinion and won’t enable this.”
However a spokesperson for the mayor’s workplace framed the modification as “frequent sense.”
“This commonsense change will assist the Metropolis ship safer streets, extra dependable bus service, and a better-connected bike-lane community extra shortly, whereas guaranteeing security and accessibility stay central to each avenue redesign,” the spokesperson mentioned.
If commissioners approve the modification as drafted and authorized to the Board of Elections by early August it will be positioned earlier than voters on the November 3 poll.
The bike-loving mayor’s first finances put about $23 million towards a brand new bike community growth program via 2031 and greater than $11 million subsequent 12 months for 45 new cycling-focused workers at DOT.
His finances additionally places about $272 million towards buses for brand new bus lanes and bus infrastructure via 2033, together with 70 new bus-focused workers at DOT.
Lower than 10% of New Yorkers repeatedly bike, in accordance with DOT knowledge.
Schroeder additionally questioned whether or not the DOT was working with correct crash knowledge. The company depends on NYPD studies to trace pedestrian accidents brought on by e-vehicles, however many pedestrians who’re struck go on to the hospital and by no means file a police report, Schroeder mentioned.
“DOT mustn’t lay down another bike lane with out correct e-vehicle crash stats thought-about,” Schroeder mentioned. “That is dangerously incorrect. There are millions of severe e-vehicle crashes, with severe damage in New York Metropolis yearly and rising exponentially.”
An NYU Langone research printed in April of greater than 900 trauma sufferers at Bellevue Hospital discovered that “micromobility” crashes grew from beneath 10% of motorbike and scooter trauma circumstances in 2018 to greater than half by 2023, and now account for practically 7% of all trauma admissions.
