Transit & Streets Quiet since Aug 13 Updated Aug 13, 2026
The bus speed plan
Mayor Mamdani and Gov. Hochul released the first joint DOT-MTA plan in a decade to speed buses on 50 priority corridors by 20%, commit to all-door boarding by 2027, and build BRT-like routes on five outer-borough stretches. The plan is the most detailed bus commitment the city has made in years but omits the free fares Mamdani paired with speed on the campaign trail, and its success depends on bus-lane enforcement the city has historically failed to deliver.
The story so far
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Aug 13, 2026 Latest
DOT broke ground on the long-stalled East Tremont busway in the Bronx, which will bar most cars from a six-block stretch from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. starting Sept. 19, over the objections of local drivers and shop owners.
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Aug 12, 2026
Bronx Times reported the Mamdani administration will break ground on a Tremont Avenue busway meant to speed bus service for 40,000 Bronx riders.
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Aug 3, 2026
El Diario NY reported growing friction between Mayor Mamdani and outer-borough Democrats, including Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, as Bronx Council Member Oswald Feliz said his district received only "migajas," or crumbs, on a bus lane project.
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Jul 28, 2026
Bus speeds fell on nine camera-enforced MTA routes as drivers covered license plates with towels and popped trunks to dodge tickets, even as the NYPD writes 12% fewer plate-covering tickets than two years ago.
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Jul 23, 2026
The Department of Transportation broke ground on offset bus lanes for Fordham Road, the Bronx's busiest and slowest bus corridor, part of the Mamdani-Hochul plan to speed 50 routes citywide.
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Jul 22, 2026
Brooklyn's unlicensed dollar vans are colliding with Mayor Mamdani's Flatbush Avenue bus-rapid-transit plan, as MTA Chair Janno Lieber pushed the city to finally enforce against them, Gothamist reported.
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Jul 13, 2026
The Mamdani-Hochul bus plan named Utica Avenue, Brooklyn's busiest corridor at more than 40,000 daily riders and currently averaging 6.9 mph, for a bus rapid transit study estimated to cost $220 million, versus the nearly $16 billion the MTA priced a subway extension at in 2023. DOT and the MTA said they will study rapid bus investment options on Utica Avenue but committed to no construction timeline.
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Jul 10, 2026
The bus plan includes $628 million in city capital funding over five years plus $254 million in expense funding, and the MTA will buy 2,500 new buses to replace 40% of its aging fleet. NYC buses currently average 8 mph, the slowest big-city fleet in the nation.
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Jul 9, 2026
In follow-up coverage after the plan's release, Mayor Mamdani told City and State that the fight for free buses is not at all over, framing speed improvements and free fares as separate policy tracks even though the joint 51-page document makes no mention of fare elimination.
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Jul 8, 2026
Mayor Mamdani and Gov. Hochul released 'Next Stop: Better Buses, Faster Service,' targeting a 20% speed increase on 50 priority corridors, all-door boarding citywide by 2027, and BRT-like center-running lanes on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, Northern Boulevard in Queens, Church-to-Conduit between Brooklyn and Queens, and Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. The city will install 25 new queue-jump signals per year. The plan does not include free fares, which Mamdani had paired with speed as a campaign pledge.
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