Mamdani names transportation chief with job of making buses fast and free

NEW YORK – Mr Zohran Mamdani, more than any recent New York City mayoral candidate, made improving the city’s embarrassingly slow bus system central to his election campaign. His clarion call: Make buses fast and free.

To accomplish those goals, Mr Mamdani announced shortly after midnight on Jan 1 that Mr Michael Flynn, a long-time transit official and consultant, would be the next commissioner of the Department of Transportation.

Mr Flynn’s appointment was expected – his name began circulating as a favourite for the role on Dec 31 – but his presence at Mr Mamdani’s intimate swearing-in early on Jan 1 was surprising.

Just after the new mayor took his oath of office in the old City Hall subway station, he introduced Mr Flynn, who was among a group of two dozen family members, friends, supporters, and reporters and photographers who attended the underground ceremony.

The station’s faded grandeur spoke to “the importance of public transit, to the vitality, the health and the legacy of our city”, Mr Mamdani said before he invited Mr Flynn to stand by his side. We “will take seriously the responsibility and the opportunity we have to make this street scape and the public transit of the city we call home the envy of the world”.

Mr Flynn, 46, who worked at the Transportation Department for nearly a decade before joining an urban transportation consulting firm, echoed the sentiment. “I know firsthand that New York City DOT (Department of Transportation) has some of the most passionate, talented and committed public servants in the country, if not the world, and they’re ready to think big and deliver big on our ambitious agenda,” he said.

The new commissioner will be closely watched. The Mamdani administration has made a number of promises on road safety, many of which involve public transit.

New York’s buses travel at roughly 12.9kmh, on average, and are among the slowest of any major American city, while serving largely lower- and middle-income residents, especially in the boroughs beyond Manhattan.

One of Mr Mamdani’s goals – making buses free – is outside Mr Flynn’s purview.

The Transportation Department does not control the cost of bus fare, which will rise to US$3 (S$3.85) in January, up from US$2.90. To make buses free, City Hall would have to broker a deal with Governor Kathy Hochul, who controls the transit system and would most likely have to raise taxes to finance the plan. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the buses, has signalled its reservations about free buses.

But Mr Flynn will have significant power to make the service faster, by changing roads and building more protected bus and bike lanes. Both are goals that transit advocates had hoped Mayor Eric Adams would champion.

Mr Adams was required by law to help carry out a plan to create 241km of bus lanes with barriers or camera enforcement, and 402km of protected bike lanes over five years, a task that now falls to Mr Mamdani.

Mr Corey Johnson, the former City Council speaker who helped pass legislation requiring that plan, said Mr Flynn was key to developing it as a consultant for the city.

Mr Adams’ administration missed the mark every year. In the past four years, the city installed about 45km of bus lanes and 153km of protected bike lanes, according to the Transportation Department.

Critics of Mr Adams’ track record on street projects cite a number of abandoned or revised bus and bike lane projects, one of which was mired in claims of corruption.

In August, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a top aide to Mr Adams, was accused of participating in a conspiracy to block bike lane changes on McGuinness Boulevard in Brooklyn, in exchange for a relatively small sum of money and a role on a television show. She pleaded not guilty.

On Dec 31, several transit advocates cheered Mr Flynn’s appointment.

Mr Justin Balik, the vice-president at Evergreen Action, a climate advocacy group, said that Mr Flynn is a “serious pick” who can balance the many demands of the job.

Mr Sam Schwartz, the chair of the transportation program at Hunter College, said he hired Mr Flynn to lead the Manhattan office of his former transportation planning consulting firm, where he worked on a number of road redesign projects that made streets safer for pedestrians.

“Mamdani clearly has made moving buses faster part of his goals, and making streets more livable,” he said. “Mike Flynn is about as expert as you get in those areas.” NYTIMES