Mayor Zohran Mamdani revives 4 NYC bus, bike lane projects pulled by Adams

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is resurrecting a major busway project and three bike lane overhauls that were pulled by the Adams administration.

The mayor announced a plan to redesign the Bronx's Fordham Road was back on during a comically tight press conference Friday aboard an MTA bus. 

"The Adams Administration stopped the Streets Master Plan. We're bringing it back," Mamdani later posted on X.   

The city will also complete a protected bike lane on Ashland Place in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; implement a long-delayed plan for a bike lane network across Midwood, Flatbush and East Flatbush; and build new Brooklyn and Kingston Avenue bike lanes, according to the mayor's office. 

Fordham Road busway back on 

Mamdani said the Fordham Road busway project's revival backs his promise to deliver faster buses by improving service along the borough's busiest corridor. 

"My team is serious about achieving at least a 20% speed improvement on each of our bus priority projects," Mamdani said. 

The plan would move designated bus lanes away from the curb and toward the inner lanes of traffic. 

"The buses can only move as fast as the conditions at the street level allow. That's why today's announcement is so important," MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said. 

The plan was killed by the Adams administration due, in part, to concerns from local business owners. 

"The one lane is not gonna move as fast as these one lanes now. You're gonna have people backed up further. Whenever somebody wants to make a turn down the side street, the lane is gonna stop, stand still," said Frank Franz, founder of Belmont BID. 

Will the buses be free?

While Mamdani said the redesign will help make good on his promise for fast buses, there's still a ways to go to make them free. 

"When we're talking about making buses free, the place of agreement that both [Lieber] and myself have is that this is something that the MTA can only do when we ensure that we provide replacement revenue for what the MTA would make from the fare box," the mayor told CBS News New York. 

City Hall said it will finalize designs for Fordham Road in the coming months and aim to complete the project this year.