The M42 in Manhattan is without doubt one of the slowest buses within the metropolis, partly as a result of automobiles use and park within the bus lane on forty second Road.
Photograph by Barbara Russo-Lennon
As Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani prepares to take workplace, transportation is as soon as once more on the heart of the dialog about how the town capabilities and whom it serves. In October, the College Transportation Analysis Middle (UTRC) on the Metropolis Faculty of New York launched the 2025 NYC Mayoral Candidates Transportation Coverage Primer & Voter Information, providing an goal, side-by-side comparability of the most important candidates’ platforms on transit, avenue security, congestion pricing, and different key matters.
Now, the UTRC has adopted that evaluation with a companion publication, Three Mobility Needs for the Mayor of New York Metropolis. This new report asks a easy query: what do the town’s mobility stakeholders need from the subsequent administration?
For the primary time, the UTRC invited peer reviewers of the Mayoral Voter Information — representing main transportation nonprofit advocacy teams and trade associations — to establish their high three priorities for the upcoming administration. Every group contributed insights on mobility from its distinct vantage level, overlaying matters resembling congestion pricing, sustainability, freight logistics and enhancing accessibility for individuals with disabilities. Regardless of their numerous views, a number of frequent themes appeared of their suggestions, that are summarized beneath.
The prominence of public transit, and the mayor-elect’s pledge to make the town’s transit buses “fast and free,” made it unsurprising that transit enhancements appeared as a high precedence amongst many contributors. Over the previous 4 years, regardless of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority being managed by the state and the mayor having solely 4 of the 17 appointments to the MTA Board, the Adams administration made vital impacts on transit coverage.
These included increasing eligibility for Truthful Fares, a half-price transit low cost program for low-income New Yorkers, and finishing bus pace enchancment initiatives in all 5 boroughs. A number of contributors to this publication agreed that the town ought to distribute larger funding and a focus to creating buses sooner, broadening the attain of Truthful Fares to serve extra New Yorkers, and including extra Bus Fast Transit routes.
One other key space of focus for contributors was the important function that taxis and for-hire automobiles play in supporting the town’s financial vitality. Over the previous decade, the taxi and for-hire car trade has confronted disruptions from the emergence of app-based ride-hailing providers and fluctuating yellow taxi medallion values. Lately, additional uncertainty was brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, growing insurance coverage prices, and the implementation of congestion pricing. Since taking workplace, the Adams administration labored to stabilize the trade by instituting a program that delivered over $470 million in debt reduction to greater than 2,000 taxi medallion homeowners needing assist. Additional initiatives launched to assist drivers buy automobiles which can be accessible to passengers who use wheelchairs.
The panelists’ suggestions pointed to the necessity for enhanced monetary assist for car homeowners aiming to make their automobiles wheelchair accessible, the creation of insurance policies to enhance driver compensation, expanded alternatives for brand new entrants into the trade, and assist for the institution of a driver-run insurance coverage firm to handle escalating insurance coverage prices. Suggestions was additionally supplied by some within the taxi and for-hire car trade on the usage of autonomous automobiles within the metropolis, together with the issues for job safety for skilled drivers.
Enhancing street security on New York Metropolis streets additionally performed a distinguished function in suggestions from mobility companions. Members within the report credited the work that the Adams administration advocated for on the state stage together with expanded use and hours for pace cameras, the passage of Sammy’s Regulation, avenue redesigns, and the revolutionary use of pace limiting expertise on city-owned automobiles. Stakeholders, advocates, and specialists surveyed referred to as on Mayor-elect Mamdani to undertake an formidable avenue redesign agenda, together with vital growth of Sammy’s Regulation 20 miles-per-hour security zones, piloting of low-traffic neighborhoods, and recognizing that streets can do greater than transfer automobiles and vans however as an alternative additionally serve pedestrians, bus riders and cyclists.
Quite a few organizations additionally expressed issues concerning the implementation of anti-idling legal guidelines and the Residents Air Criticism Program. Underneath the Adams administration, citizen-submitted violations rose considerably – exceeding 120,000 in 2024 – with some people taking part extra steadily because of the monetary incentives related to this system. Whereas transportation operators, together with bus and truck carriers concerned on this report, assist efforts to cut back emissions and promote cleaner air, contributors famous that the present course of for issuing and adjudicating violations would profit from refinement. Ideas included creating mechanisms to cut back unintended operational impacts, making certain equitable remedy between non-public carriers and public-sector fleets, and contemplating regulatory flexibilities for carriers demonstrating significant progress towards cleaner and safer mobility.
If the mayoral voter information captured marketing campaign guarantees from the highest down, Three Mobility Needs for the Mayor of New York Metropolis gives a bottom-up blueprint drawn straight from the Metropolis’s transportation neighborhood. It affords policymakers a synthesis of viewpoints from throughout modes and pursuits, united by a shared curiosity in bettering mobility throughout the 5 boroughs to make New York safer, fairer, and extra environment friendly.
Balancing these priorities can be one of many Mamdani administration’s biggest challenges and alternatives. Because the UTRC report concludes, these “three wishes” are greater than an inventory of requests – they’re an invite for partnership with Metropolis Corridor, the transportation trade and advocates, and the communities they serve. Town’s mobility stakeholders have a transparent message for Mayor-elect Mamdani: hear, collaborate, and maintain New York shifting.
Matthew W. Daus is a former New York Metropolis Taxi & Limousine Commissioner, chair of the transportation legislation apply at Windels Marx and chair of the New York Metropolis Bar Affiliation’s transportation committee.
