Mamdani’s Midtown Bus Plan: Bold Reform or Empty Rhetoric?

Paul Riverbank, 1/12/2026Will Madison Avenue’s bus lane overhaul finally end Midtown gridlock, or fall to city inertia?

But an overdue pivot is coming to that stretch of Madison Avenue, where bottlenecks have been a defining fixture for years. The city’s Department of Transportation, spurred by an energetic push from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is planning to extend the bus-only lanes farther south: from Grand Central down to 23rd Street. It’s a technical change—new lines on the pavement, stricter rules about who can drive where—but, in spirit, it feels bigger than that.

Mike Flynn, who oversees the DOT and whose job requires equal measures of patience and optimism, wasn’t in a mood for platitudes at the press conference this week. “Enough half-steps,” he said, glancing across at Fifth Avenue, where a similar overhaul sped up commutes and won rare, genuine gratitude from bus regulars. As he put it, “Those changes meant quicker rides. Minutes matter—a lot.”

The redesign isn’t flashy. Two dedicated lanes for buses, carved out next to a single car lane and a flex lane, which shuffles depending on the hour. It’s the same approach that’s managed to keep traffic above 42nd moving at something close—but not quite—to a sprint, by New York standards. Below 42nd, the aim is simple: let the buses outpace the foot traffic for once, and chip away at delays that have become a fixture of daily routine for the M1, M2, Q32, and several other lines. It’s an almost mundane solution, but then, sometimes progress is about the absence of drama.

No one, especially at City Hall, is pretending this came easily. Deputy Mayor Julia Kerson didn’t sugarcoat the delays—last year’s painting window came and went without a drop of city-issued paint. “People aren’t just tallying lost minutes. Some folks miss shifts. Parents turn up late at daycare. That’s the fallout of a molasses-slow bus,” she told me, with equal helpings of frustration and resolve. The new team, she promised, is committed to finishing the job before winter sets in—assuming, of course, New York’s weather grants its consent.

To the uninitiated, an extra swipe of paint doesn’t sound like much. But on Madison, the stakes are visible: DOT data says buses below 42nd average a stubborn 4.5 mph, and—this almost defies belief—over half the corridor’s travelers ride the bus. Walk the avenue during rush hour and you watch as buses crawl behind moving vans or double-parked delivery trucks, each jam echoing down the line for blocks.

Business folks, too, are tuning in. Manhattan Borough President Brad Will, whose office sits not far from the epicenter of the Midtown gridlock, made the business case plain. “This is the world’s most important business district. If transit here falters, it hurts everything, from your favorite bodega to the Fortune 500 offices above it,” he observed, waving toward the banks of lobbies that spit out commuters by the thousands.

Transit groups are, predictably, less diplomatic about the city’s pace. Betsy Plum at Riders Alliance might have put it best: “We don’t need miracles—just paint, just someone to keep cars out of the bus lane. We know enforcement works.” The numbers back her up: similar changes on Fifth Avenue delivered up to 20% faster travel times for express buses, by simply sticking to the blueprint and keeping the lane clear.

And while all eyes are on Madison, the city’s to-do list runs longer—there’s McGuinness Boulevard in Brooklyn, 31st in Queens, and more. Each corridor brings its own chorus of complaints, but also a mounting impatience: the more New Yorkers watch these street miracles materialize elsewhere, the more unwilling they are to tolerate the slow lane at home.

There’s a larger backdrop, of course. Congestion pricing looms, threatening to shift even more commuters into the public transit system. Officials and advocates alike link the fate of bus lanes with efforts to keep Manhattan’s arteries unclogged. As Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal quipped, “That ‘fast and free’ promise is catching on. We just need to see the second half delivered.”

Here’s the catch: the city has made promises before, only to see them bogged down in the slow grind of bureaucracy and weather. This time, officials insist, they’re ready to move faster than the gridlock they’re fighting. Riders, as always, will judge for themselves. When the holiday lights come up this winter, we'll see: will Madison Avenue finally turn the tables, letting buses breeze past standstill traffic—or will it be another season of waiting, watching the world crawl by through a fogged-up window?

If you’ve ever stood under the faded traffic lights at Madison and 42nd, you know the ritual: buses bunch up like parade floats, horns toss their own grievances into the air, and riders peer out the scratched windows, willing the city to inch forward. For the tens of thousands who file onto those buses each day—nurses, shift workers, students, and, let’s be honest, quite a few tourists—it’s less travel than choreography, performed at an excruciating four or five miles per hour if luck is on their side.But an overdue pivot is coming to that stretch of Madison Avenue, where bottlenecks have been a defining fixture for years. The city’s Department of Transportation, spurred by an energetic push from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is planning to extend the bus-only lanes farther south: from Grand Central down to 23rd Street. It’s a technical change—new lines on the pavement, stricter rules about who can drive where—but, in spirit, it feels bigger than that.Mike Flynn, who oversees the DOT and whose job requires equal measures of patience and optimism, wasn’t in a mood for platitudes at the press conference this week. “Enough half-steps,” he said, glancing across at Fifth Avenue, where a similar overhaul sped up commutes and won rare, genuine gratitude from bus regulars. As he put it, “Those changes meant quicker rides. Minutes matter—a lot.”The redesign isn’t flashy. Two dedicated lanes for buses, carved out next to a single car lane and a flex lane, which shuffles depending on the hour. It’s the same approach that’s managed to keep traffic above 42nd moving at something close—but not quite—to a sprint, by New York standards. Below 42nd, the aim is simple: let the buses outpace the foot traffic for once, and chip away at delays that have become a fixture of daily routine for the M1, M2, Q32, and several other lines. It’s an almost mundane solution, but then, sometimes progress is about the absence of drama.No one, especially at City Hall, is pretending this came easily. Deputy Mayor Julia Kerson didn’t sugarcoat the delays—last year’s painting window came and went without a drop of city-issued paint. “People aren’t just tallying lost minutes. Some folks miss shifts. Parents turn up late at daycare. That’s the fallout of a molasses-slow bus,” she told me, with equal helpings of frustration and resolve. The new team, she promised, is committed to finishing the job before winter sets in—assuming, of course, New York’s weather grants its consent.To the uninitiated, an extra swipe of paint doesn’t sound like much. But on Madison, the stakes are visible: DOT data says buses below 42nd average a stubborn 4.5 mph, and—this almost defies belief—over half the corridor’s travelers ride the bus. Walk the avenue during rush hour and you watch as buses crawl behind moving vans or double-parked delivery trucks, each jam echoing down the line for blocks.Business folks, too, are tuning in. Manhattan Borough President Brad Will, whose office sits not far from the epicenter of the Midtown gridlock, made the business case plain. “This is the world’s most important business district. If transit here falters, it hurts everything, from your favorite bodega to the Fortune 500 offices above it,” he observed, waving toward the banks of lobbies that spit out commuters by the thousands.Transit groups are, predictably, less diplomatic about the city’s pace. Betsy Plum at Riders Alliance might have put it best: “We don’t need miracles—just paint, just someone to keep cars out of the bus lane. We know enforcement works.” The numbers back her up: similar changes on Fifth Avenue delivered up to 20% faster travel times for express buses, by simply sticking to the blueprint and keeping the lane clear.And while all eyes are on Madison, the city’s to-do list runs longer—there’s McGuinness Boulevard in Brooklyn, 31st in Queens, and more. Each corridor brings its own chorus of complaints, but also a mounting impatience: the more New Yorkers watch these street miracles materialize elsewhere, the more unwilling they are to tolerate the slow lane at home.There’s a larger backdrop, of course. Congestion pricing looms, threatening to shift even more commuters into the public transit system. Officials and advocates alike link the fate of bus lanes with efforts to keep Manhattan’s arteries unclogged. As Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal quipped, “That ‘fast and free’ promise is catching on. We just need to see the second half delivered.”Here’s the catch: the city has made promises before, only to see them bogged down in the slow grind of bureaucracy and weather. This time, officials insist, they’re ready to move faster than the gridlock they’re fighting. Riders, as always, will judge for themselves. When the holiday lights come up this winter, we'll see: will Madison Avenue finally turn the tables, letting buses breeze past standstill traffic—or will it be another season of waiting, watching the world crawl by through a fogged-up window?