Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani could make driving in the Big Apple hell on wheels.
Car-hating Transportation Alternatives boss Ben Furnas has been appointed to Mayor-elect Mamdani’s transition team for transportation, climate and infrastructure — and his agenda is a nightmare for the city’s drivers.
Furnas was named to the post this week, but his group already had its “full transportation agenda” for the incoming administration ready to go, having released it earlier this month.
Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas has been named to Mamdani’s transportation committee. Stephen Yang
Among the plan’s more than 80 demands is a bizarre proposal to build playgrounds smack in the middle of city streets that would then be redesigned into cul-de-sacs — a move the group claims will solve the city’s “playground desert problem.”
The plan fails to mention how traffic would be rerouted.
The group calls for building playgrounds in the middle of streets, like here on St. Marks Avenue in Crown Heights. Helayne Seidman
The group also wants to create “school streets” by closing streets to traffic near every New York City school. Currently 72 of the Big Apple’s nearly 3,000 schools have done so.
Transportation Alternatives is pushing to build busways on every major city route — similar to the controversial plans to ban cars on 34th Street that even bus riders have opposed.
At a community meeting earlier this year, Murray Hill residents voiced concerns that after first banning cars on 14th Street, and now 34th Street, the anti-car lobby had its eyes on 42nd Street next.
The group wants to close streets to traffic by every NYC school. The city has nearly 3,000 of them. 880cities
Transportation Alternatives’ blueprint confirms such a fear by pushing for busways on “every high-priority bus route, as measured by factors including highest ridership and slowest speeds.”
“I’m so sick and tired of reading ‘oh, New York City busses are the slowest,’” slammed Stacey Rauch, a Murray Hill resident who takes the bus every day and argues the problem is the lack of busses – not the fact they’re slowed down by cars.
“It’s like a cult — ‘cars are bad,’” she added. “Be a little bit reasonable and understand that sometimes some people can’t live your puritanical, cultish indulgence of either always walking or biking,” she said, arguing Furnas’ plans will hurt seniors and people with reduced mobility.
Furnas’ group wants to replicate the 14th Street model – where cars were banned in favor of buses – all over Gotham. Taidgh Barron/NY Post
“He may think he’s doing good. I bet you if he went to his grandma, she wouldn’t be too happy.”
Furnas’ group also calls to slash parking spots all over the five boroughs — with plans to “repurpose” the space on blocks close to subway stations with “amenities” like wider sidewalks, larger bus shelters, bike parking, benches, so-called “micro forests” and even public restrooms.
City Council Member Robert Holden (D-Queens) slammed the plans, saying the DOT’s “handlers” at Transportation Alternatives have long ignored the needs of families, seniors, workers and small businesses.
Critics say Furnas’ plans would create traffic nightmare for drivers. dantada – stock.adobe.com
“If the Mamdani administration lets them continue to turn our neighborhoods into playgrounds in the middle of streets and wage war on drivers, it will be a disaster for public safety, quality of life and basic common sense,” he told The Post.
“The fact that the worst DOT commissioner of all time, Ydanis Rodriguez, is apparently in line for a job in the Mamdani administration shows exactly how bad things could get.
The polarizing rat-riddled street dining shacks could also come back in full force — with Transportation Alternatives calling to “ensure the program is year-round, permits enclosed structures and is less onerous for small businesses.”
Mamdani has made free buses a cornerstone of his campaign, but Transportation Alternative’s agenda goes much further. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post
The powerful anti-car group, which indirectly lobbies for Uber and Lyft, has long wielded power with lefty city officials through a relationship critics have described as incestuous.
But Furnas’ appointment gives Transportation Alternatives power to go even further and stack Mamdani’s Department of Transportation chock-full of like-minded zealots, critics said.
“I’m furious,” slammed Rauch. “I voted for Mamdani — he didn’t take PAC money. Why is he favoring special interest groups?”
The pandemic-era dining shacks many have called an eyesore could make a full fledged comeback under the group’s plans. Gregory P. Mango
Among Furnas’ key allies appointed to the transition team are Sara Lind from Open Plans and Betsy Plum from the Riders Alliance.
Furnas tried to sell his group’s agenda as a win for drivers.
“When it’s easier and cheaper for more New Yorkers to get around by bus or bike, the reduction in traffic will make it quicker and safer for everyone who still has to drive,” he told The Post.
Furnas tried to sell his group’s plans as a win for drivers. Brigitte Stelzer
“Look at how successful congestion pricing has been for drivers: traffic is reliably flowing smoothly in Manhattan for the first time in our lifetimes. New Yorkers are saving valuable minutes every day on their commutes. Don’t you want some more time back?” he added.
Mamdani’s team did not return The Post’s request for comment.