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New York City’s new transportation commissioner is looking to cities like Bogotá, Tokyo and Paris for inspiration as he seeks to realize Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s mandate to make NYC’s streetscape “the envy of the world.”
“New York is the greatest city in the world, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that we can’t learn from our global peers,” Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn said Thursday on WNYC’s “Morning Edition,” specifically calling out the capitals of Colombia, Japan and France.
Bogotá has received global acclaim in recent years for its expanding rapid bus network and bike lanes. In 2022, the city received a sustainability award from the Institute for Transportation and Policy Development.
Tokyo has long been light-years ahead of New York City when it comes to reorienting its streets, with an efficient subway system and sprawling network of pedestrian plazas that discourage commuters from driving.
And in Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo has over the last decade prioritized banning cars from the city center and expanding pedestrian space. Last year, Parisian voters passed a referendum to close an additional 500 streets to traffic — and remove 10% of the city’s parking spaces.
Cyclists represent more than 10% of all commuters in each of the cities cited by Flynn. In New York City, only about 2% of people commute by bike.
Mamdani rode into City Hall declaring he would make the city’s buses “fast and free.” While Flynn has little influence over the free part, he could do a lot to speed up bus service.
New DOT boss Mike Flynn believes he has the political air cover from Mayor Zohran Mamdani to make drastic changes to the city's streets.
Flynn’s vision represents a departure from former Mayor Eric Adams, who repeatedly declared New York has “the best transportation system on the globe,” despite ample evidence to the contrary.
Under Adams, the DOT shrugged at a City Council mandate to install 150 miles of new bus lanes and 250 miles of bike lanes over a five-year period. The city installed less than 30 miles of bus lanes and less than 100 miles of bike lanes during his tenure.
The Adams administration repeatedly blocked the DOT from moving forward with aggressive street redesigns, including one on McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint that became the center of an alleged bribery scandal with the former mayor’s senior adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin.
But Flynn said the DOT’s staff wasn’t at fault for the shortcomings and scandals, saying those problems were “really happening at City Hall” and the department “has a top notch team” with “lots of processes in place to make sure that we’re always operating above board.” Mamdani has already directed Flynn to move forward with the full McGuinness Boulevard redesign that the Adams administration blocked.
Flynn is a technocrat who’s spent his career working in the nitty gritty of transit, and his resume differs from those of recent DOT leaders. His predecessor, Ydanis Rodriguez, was a former city councilmember who scored the job after supporting Adams’ campaign.
Flynn worked at the DOT under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg before going to work for Sam Schwartz, a transportation consultant considered the godfather of the MTA’s congestion pricing tolls. His mother was a public school teacher in the city, while his father was once a bike delivery worker.
Flynn’s familiarity with agency bureaucracy could help him move fast on Mamdani’s transit priorities.
“My bottom line as DOT commissioner is, let’s look at the data, let’s work with our stakeholders, let’s find the best solution, and then let’s move forward with urgency because safety shouldn’t wait,” Flynn said.
NYC transportation news this week
The dilapidated Rockaway Park station. The Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street subway station is so run-down, the MTA has fenced off nearly half of its platform, forcing some riders to walk through several cars just to exit the train when they reach the stop. Bill Amarosa Jr., the head of subways at NYC Transit, said the platform poses "no safety risk" and his team is waiting for "warmer weather" to fix the problem.
Prepare for a lot of snow. Authorities are warning New Yorkers to brace for up to a foot of snow into Monday, so consider not going anywhere you don’t have to.
Penn Station plans. Amtrak has named the three finalists vying for the contract to overhaul and then operate Penn Station, with at least one pitch calling for Madison Square Garden to be moved.
Jamaica station upgrades? Gov. Kathy Hochul said she wants the state to pitch in $50 million to redesign the busy transit hub in Jamaica, Queens, where the City Council recently approved a rezoning plan that could bring 12,000 new apartments to the area.
Death of the MetroCard spells trouble for airport workers. The MTA stopped selling the vinyl swipe cards at the start of the year, but the Port Authority, which runs the city’s airports, still sells them — and they’re the only way for airport workers to score steep discounts on the pricey JFK AirTrain fare.
Curious Commuter
Have a question for us? Use this form to submit yours and we may answer it in a future newsletter!
Question from Gregg in Queens
Inside the Houston Street station on the F is a track that seems to have been unused. Why can't the Q be directed onto it as part of a future Second Avenue subway extension?
Answer
Those tracks are part of a long abandoned plan for a downtown Second Avenue subway. The Second Avenue station on the F has four tracks, two of which were meant to serve the subway line that never made it downtown. Riders shouldn't hold their breath, though. Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this month put the line’s downtown extension on the backburner, opting instead to build a subway extension in Harlem. For now, the MTA uses those tracks when it has to re-route trains, for planned work, or the annual holiday train rides. Fun fact: The tracks were used as a terminal during the brief reign of the V line (2001-2010).
