NY: While on NYC’s slowest bus, Mamdani says he’d as mayor bike, ride public transit to work

Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday that he will regularly commute to City Hall by bus, subway and bicycle if he’s elected.

“Every now and then, absolutely, you have to move around the city the way New Yorkers do,” Mamdani told reporters when asked if he’d take public transit and bikes to work as mayor.

Mamdani, who’s polling as the front-runner to win November’s mayoral election, added a caveat, though.

“With the kind of death threats that have become part of public life, my public life, it just means you have to think through a couple more steps when you’re making this [type of commute],” he said, “but it doesn’t change the way you move through the city.”

Mayor Adams, who abandoned his reelection bid last month amid record low approval ratings, made a similar commuting pledge before he took office in January 2022, though he has mostly been driven to work by his NYPD security detail.

Mamdani made his commuting promise while riding the M57 — a crosstown Manhattan bus route that ranks as the city’s slowest — to highlight the need to improve local bus transit and make it fare-free, a key plank in his campaign platform.

Mamdani’s plan to make buses free hinges on a proposal to generate billions of dollars in new revenue from tax increases on New York’s millionaires and corporations, a move that would require approval from the state. Critics, including independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo, have panned Mamdani’s plan as unrealistic, saying there’s no way Gov. Hochul will help him approve such tax hikes as she faces her own difficult reelection race next year.

Mamdani has recently acknowledged he may need a plan B as it relates to new revenue, but also says he’s encouraged by the state Legislatures two top Democrats, Assemblyman Carl Heastie and state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, coming out in favor of his taxation plan.

On Wednesday, Mamdani concluded his M57 ride — which took nearly 40 minutes from W. 72nd St. to E. 55th St. — with a rally where he was joined by Manhattan Congressman Jerry Nadler, City Comptroller Brad Lander and other supporters who spoke in favor of his push for making the city’s public buses free.

After the press conference, Mamdani rode an electric CitiBike back to his campaign offices, accompanied by the Daily News.

During the ride, Mamdani drew heckles from a woman shouting “communist” at him repeatedly as he biked through Midtown with his NYPD security detail.

“It’s no surprise to see that there are people who will hear that and then will echo it,” Mamdani told The News, referencing President Trump’s repeated claim that he is a “communist.” Mamdani identifies as a democratic socialist.

Also during the ride to his offices, Mamdani said building more bus lanes is as important as making the buses free. “What good is a free bus if it’s a slow bus?” he said.

Mamdani blasted Adams for failing to make good on bus lane construction benchmarks set out by the city’s 2019 Streets Master Plan.

But he did not fault officials at the city’s Department of Transportation, who are in charge of bus and bike lane construction, arguing they were blocked from doing their work by Adams and his political appointees at City Hall, as highlighted in former chief adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin’s recent corruption indictment.

In fact, Mamdani wouldn’t even rule out keeping Adams’ DOT commissioner, Ydanis Rodriguez, at the helm of the agency if he wins the Nov. 4 election.

“I’m going to assess everyone on the basis of their work, on the basis of their merit, not on the basis of who appointed them,” he said.

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