On the Lexington Ave.-59th St. subway station, commuters move a colourful art work by Elizabeth Murray bearing this W.B. Yeats quote: “In desires start accountability.” It’s arduous to think about a greater epigraph for New York’s transit system — constructed on ambition and hampered by an establishment — the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — designed to guard our elected officers from proudly owning accountability.
For many years, mayors have saved the MTA at arm’s size. The reason being easy: the authority will not be beneath the mayor’s direct management. Its funds rely closely on state funding. That monetary dependence comes with gubernatorial strings.
Mayor Mamdani can change all of that.
He campaigned on making buses free (and quicker), arguing that transit needs to be a instrument of financial aid, not a monetary burden. Voters embraced that imaginative and prescient — it’s not a stretch to argue that’s why he gained, and no coincidence that he selected to take his oath of workplace within the deserted subway station beneath Metropolis Corridor.
The query now’s whether or not Metropolis Corridor will settle for actual accountability for delivering it.
I need to be clear: As a former MTA chair I don’t agree with Mamdani’s proposal to make buses free. Nonetheless, some model of it’s more likely to transfer ahead, and I hope he succeeds in one thing I couldn’t do — lastly making New York’s bus system work for the thousands and thousands who depend on it daily.
Mamdani ought to begin by doing one thing no mayor has completed: nominate himself to function one of many metropolis’s representatives on the MTA Board.
In contrast to the below-ground oath of workplace, this may not be a symbolic gesture. Sitting on the board would sign that town’s transit system is a core mayoral accountability.
There may be precedent for this sort of management. Twenty-five years in the past, London confronted an analogous dilemma. The British authorities funded and managed London’s declining transport system with little native management. That modified in 2000, when Ken Livingstone grew to become London’s first immediately elected mayor and assumed the position of chair of Transport for London.
I labored at TfL throughout that interval and witnessed Livingstone deal with transportation as a defining accountability of metropolis management. He campaigned on increasing what the system may ship and accepted political possession for the implications.
That possession imposed self-discipline. It compelled troublesome trade-offs, together with help for fare will increase he had lengthy opposed, leading to reinvestment within the Underground, a remodeled bus community and safer streets.
New York ought to be taught from London’s success. Clear political possession issues. Having Mamdani himself on the MTA Board would transfer the area nearer to a mannequin the place town’s prime elected official owns and champions public transit.
Critics could fear {that a} mayor serving on the MTA Board would politicize the company or blur traces of authority. However the MTA already operates inside a political framework formed by state and regional appointments.
Mamdani’s direct participation on the MTA Board desk would assist reassure the general public that his free-fare proposal is achievable inside the authority’s broader monetary actuality and that its results on the general transit community are being taken critically. In any case, free fares are the simpler a part of his bus agenda.
Dashing up buses is way tougher. We all know what works: devoted lanes, sign precedence, enforced curb guidelines, route redesigns and quicker boarding. The success of the 14th St. Busway proves the purpose. Choose Bus Service ought to proceed to increase, however it can’t be the spine of a citywide resolution when solely 20 of greater than 300 bus routes profit from it.
The actual impediment to quicker buses is our collective tolerance for conduct that paralyzes the streets: double-parking “only for a minute,” blocking bus stops and speeding intersections. These actions really feel regular, even innocent — however multiplied 1000’s of instances a day, they create town to a standstill.
Right here, the mayor can form avenue design, site visitors enforcement, parking coverage and interagency coordination to get buses transferring. The mayor can elevate bus velocity as a top-tier precedence in an authority traditionally dominated by subway considerations. That shift would actually matter — particularly for essentially the most susceptible riders most reliant on our bus system.
Accountability can’t cease at buses. Subway security, together with policing and social providers, additionally relies upon closely on selections made at Metropolis Corridor. The mayor’s concentrate on buses ought to reinforce, not distract from, town’s broader accountability for your complete transit system.
The art work at 59th St. provides a quiet reminder. Goals are simple. Duty is tougher. By taking a seat on the MTA Board, the mayor can present New Yorkers that he’s a frontrunner prepared to just accept each.
Walder is a former chairman and chief govt of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a former senior chief at Transport for London.
