Mayor Zohran Mamdani seems focused on delivering on his promise of fast buses, albeit not free ones just yet. An Aug. 6 town hall at Brooklyn College invited Black and Brown commuters to talk about how the city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) can improve the borough\u2019s major routes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne level, the bus means family. On another level, a bus has meant frustration. Family because if you take a bus enough times and it\u2019s part of your day-to-day routine, you will start to recognize other people on the bus,\u201d said Mamdani at the town hall. \u201cFrustration because there have been many times in my life where I\u2019ve looked at the bus time app, and I\u2019ve thought the bus is coming in eight minutes, six minutes, four minutes, and then somehow that bus disappears as if it never existed.\u201d <\/p>\n
The city\u2019s Next Stop Plan<\/a> is a joint program with the MTA and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to come up with designs that improve bus speeds up to 20 percent on 50 priority bus corridors citywide. <\/p>\n \u00a0Demetrius Crichlow, the president of the New York City Transit (MTA NYCT), talks about commuter complaints regarding the OMNY system at the bus town hall held at Brooklyn College on Thursday, August 6, 2026. (Ariama C. Long photo)<\/p>\n The plan will kick off in Brooklyn, specifically on Flatbush, Church and Utica Avenues. The area has over 150,000 riders across 13 bus corridors, some of which run as slowly as two miles per hour on very crowded, congested streets, said Moriah Richardson, a MTA transportation planner. <\/p>\n According to a 2024 study by the Pratt Institute and Riders Alliance<\/a>, Brooklyn\u2019s Flatbush Avenue alone serves primarily Black (59%) and Hispanic (12%), along with women and low-income riders with annual household incomes of less than $80,000. <\/p>\n The survey indicated that most of these bus riders are local, essential workers or small business owners living in Flatbush or adjacent neighborhoods who frequently travel to Downtown Brooklyn, Kings Plaza, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Clinton Hill\/Fort Greene, Crown Heights, and Park Slope, as well as Manhattan and the Bronx. In many cases, they take the bus to their closest train to transfer from what\u2019s now colloquially called a \u201ctwo-fare zone.\u201d About 93 percent of Flatbush Avenue bus riders surveyed said that they would take it more often if it were faster and more reliable.<\/p>\n \u201cSpecifically, two-thirds of people reported long waits in extreme weather. 48 percent reported having to pay for a car service. Nearly half of people [reported] emotional stress. A third of people lost pay, got reprimanded or even fired from work because of slow transit,\u201d said Richardson. \u201cThese are neighborhoods that rely on the bus and public transit to get around and are being punished for it, which underlines the need for us to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget dollar vans<\/p>\n The study also pointed out that in a thriving community of entrepreneurs, independently owned dollar vans \u2014 largely operated by Black American and West Indian drivers \u2014 have taken a central role in transportation in the area for a flat rate of $2. Despite adamant community support, two city council bills<\/a> sought to crackdown on the dollar van imprint in Brooklyn in 2025. One bill was related to enforcing safety code violations<\/a>, the other was to study the dollar van industry<\/a>. The MTA has continued the push to get rid of \u201cillegal commuter vans\u201d that pose a \u201csafety risk\u201d<\/a> with Mamdani\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and transit organizers, like Riders Alliance, joined in on the MTA\u2019s workshop to get feedback from hundreds of bus riders. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m aligned with what the mayor is trying to do, how the mayor\u2019s putting this forth,\u201d said Williams at the event. \u201cMy job, to be honest, is to make sure that these conversations are real and that they actually embed the community\u2019s responses into the plan. Transportation is really important to us. I do want to remember our commuter vans as well; sometimes they get left out of the conversation. So, we want to be sure the commuter vans are involved and our New Yorkers with disabilities. Also, reminding us they would love to see more raised curbs; we saw a woman get washed away during a storm; with a raised curb, that might not have been the case.\u201d<\/p>\n Richardson said the long-term Next Stop plan is to potentially have fully separated bus lanes, bus priority through intersections, upgraded bus stations with greenery and public space, and fast, frequent bus service with longer stop spacing similar to Select Bus Service (SBS) in Flatbush, Utica and Church by 2030. <\/p>\n Flatbush Phase Two will be between Grand Army Plaza and Avenue H, Richardson continued, with Flatbush Phase Three eventually extending from Avenue H all the way down to Kings Plaza.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking at Utica Avenue from Fulton Street all the way to Kings Highway. And we\u2019re looking at Church Avenue between Ocean Avenue and Kings Highway as well. Improvements to these corridors will be designed to prioritize all of you, to prioritize the bus rider,\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd we\u2019ll ensure that people are able to get around faster, safer and on more reliable buses. In addition to corridor-wide improvements, we\u2019re also taking a closer look at potential circulation and safety issues at bus hubs, particularly in and around Flatbush Junction.\u201d<\/p>\n Problems with OMNY<\/p>\n More immediately, the MTA has also come under fire from an onslaught of social media posts claiming <\/a>that OMNY, the digital tap-and-go payment system, has charged them extra for what are supposed to be free subway-to-bus transfers. Riders also claim they can\u2019t reach the 36 taps needed to trigger the unlimited weekly fare cap.<\/p>\n Demetrius Crichlow, the president of the New York City Transit (MTA NYCT), said at the bus town hall that the MTA has heard the concerns and they\u2019re working on solutions with Cubic Transportation Systems, the primary private military contractor<\/a> for the MTA.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been working with Cubic, which is the company that handles a lot of OMNY transition,\u201d said Crichlow. \u201cBut I think like any new technology that you will allow, you\u2019re going to have some challenges on whether it is actual, real issues and sometimes it\u2019s a perception of how we operate the system. We\u2019ve acknowledged that there are some things that we could do better and working with Cubic.\u201d<\/p>\n