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Mayor Zohran Mamdani and MTA Chair Janno Lieber stood arm to arm, grinning ear to ear during a news conference in downtown Brooklyn on Wednesday.

Over the last year, the two have publicly disagreed over Mamdani’s campaign pledge to make buses free to ride. But they share the goal of speeding up service, and came together to announce a new plan to do just that along 50 corridors.

They declared it was a new day for collaboration between the city transportation department — which manages the streets and stoplights — and the state-run MTA, which operates public buses. Lieber noted that former Mayor Eric Adams largely resisted measures to improve New York City’s sluggish bus service.

“The support at the local level in the prior City Hall was, shall we say, uncertain,” said Lieber. “Not the case anymore.”

He called out the “overdue commitment” mandated by the city’s 2019 “streets master plan” law, which required the DOT to install 30 new miles of bus lanes every year. Building the new lanes “are, by the way, a matter of law in the city of New York,” Lieber said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul echoed the criticism.

“You know, we’ve wanted to do this before. This is not a brand new idea,” she said. “But we’ve never had the partnership and the leadership in City Hall that we have right now.”

Lieber and MTA officials had for years publicly criticized Adams’ lack of support for bus lane projects. They were upset when the administration scaled back plans to give bus riders more priority on Fordham Road in the Bronx, a decision Mamdani has already said he’d reverse.

The transportation department under Adams regularly scaled back or nixed street designs. Adams’ former senior adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin has pleaded not guilty to taking bribes and favors in exchange for watering down an aggressive redesign of McGuinness Boulevard in Brooklyn that would have taken road space away from drivers. (Mamdani has also reversed that decision).

A spokesperson for Adams did not respond to a request for comment.

A presentation on the new initiative said it was the “first joint DOT-MTA bus plan in nearly 10 years.” The presentation notes the plan “resets the relationship” between the two agencies “to center on a new set of shared goals.”

The claims of collaboration are a major step for the two agencies. But whether things actually improve for bus riders remains to be seen. If both sides make good on their promise, big changes could be coming to New York City streets.

NYC transportation news this week

Congestion pricing may speed up ambulances in Manhattan. Congestion pricing has not only reduced gridlock in Manhattan — new research shows it could also be saving lives, according to a paper published Monday by six academics for the National Bureau of Economic Research. However, the union representing the FDNY's EMTs and paramedics questioned the study’s findings. Michael Greco, president of Local 2507, said the report was a good starting point, but wanted to see more peer-reviewed research that better accounts for the variety of traffic patterns in Manhattan.

Help wanted. The city’s Department of Transportation is looking for a “creative” engineer to run one of the country’s most challenging infrastructure projects: fixing the decrepit triple cantilever section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. It’s not an easy job.

One of the Bronx's oldest subway stations gets a makeover. A nearly finished $123 million project — which faced nearly three years of delays — added elevators and restored the 120-year-old headhouse at the 149th Street-Grand Concourse station.

Fresh rules for New Jersey e-bikes. New regulations for e-bike riders in New Jersey go into effect on July 19, including requirements for riders to be at least 15 years old and for motorized bikes to be insured. Here’s what else you should know.

Curious Commuter

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Question from Em in Manhattan

Why does it always take so long for the subway doors to open? Once the train stops, me and the people on the other side of the door are stuck there looking at each other for a good 20-30 seconds.

Answer

Subway trains have 20 to 30 seconds of “dwell time” at each station baked into their schedules, according to MTA spokesperson Kayla Shults. That time runs from when the wheel stops until it starts moving again. Passengers only wait for the door to open for a small portion of that time, which is how long it takes for the conductor to check the platform, ensure the train is in the right place, and open the doors. But when a train pulls into most subway terminals, the conductor in the middle of the train needs to switch cabs and prepare for traveling the other way before opening the doors. The extra step takes a bit longer, which is why you can often hear people mutter under their breath, “Just open the damn doors.”