![\"55017109725_3174858cba_c\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/55017109725_3174858cba_c.jpg\" "\\"Meet")
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani (right) with his newly appointed Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn. Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of NYC Mayor\u2019s Office<\/p>\n
Zohran Mamdani\u2019s very first act as mayor was to announce his Department of Transportation commissioner.\n<\/p>\n
The newly minted Hizzoner named transportation veteran Mike Flynn as the head of DOT, an agency that is key to executing one of his central campaign promises: delivering \u201cfast and free\u201d city buses.<\/p>\n
Mamdani named Flynn, who has years of experience as a transportation official and consultant, as DOT\u2019s new boss moments after being sworn in as mayor during a midnight ceremony<\/a> inside the decommissioned City Hall train station<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is an honor to have Mike here alongside me as we embark on an administration that will take seriously the responsibility and the opportunity we have to make this streetscape and the public transit of the city we call home, the envy of the world,\u201d Mamdani said during the Jan. 1 ceremony.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will require someone who\u2019s experienced, who is fluent in the landscape as it is, and who is ambitious and imaginative towards the landscape as it could be and I can think of no better person than the man alongside me,\u201d he added, referring to Flynn.<\/p>\n Flynn had been rumored to be a favorite<\/a> for the role throughout the day on Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n DOT oversees New York City\u2019s streetscape. The agency\u2019s purview includes paving city roads, managing traffic patterns, adding road safety features, and installing bus and bike lanes across the city.<\/p>\n During the ceremony, Flynn \u2014 who spent nine years at DOT under former Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio \u2014 said he is \u201cthrilled\u201d to be joining the administration because Mamdani and his team \u201cfundamentally understands the role that transportation plays in the day-to-day lives of New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n Flynn worked at DOT for nearly 10 years, ultimately serving as the agency\u2019s director of capital planning and project management until 2014. During that time, he oversaw major capital projects such as street reconstruction and pedestrian and bike infrastructure.<\/p>\n Since then, he has worked in the private sector, leading the transportation consultancy TYLin City Solutions\u2019 New York office. He also taught courses on urban planning, transportation, and sustainable design at the Pratt Institute for eight years.<\/p>\n Following Mamdani\u2019s Thursday inauguration, Flynn outlined how he plans to take the agency in a new direction for the transportation news website Streetsblog<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that we need to aim higher, we need to be bolder and more ambitious,\u201d Flynn said. \u201cI think that DOT is an agency that has largely remained as is for a long time. Something that I\u2019m really interested in, and I know the mayor is too, is helping government deliver better for New Yorkers, more efficiently and more effectively. I\u2019m excited to work with my team to identify those opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani picking Flynn as DOT commissioner, as well as Julia Kerson as deputy mayor for operations, quickly drew praise from the transportation advocacy world this week.\n<\/p>\n Riders Alliance Executive Director Betsy Plum, in a Wednesday statement, said the group expects Flynn\u2019s DOT to both restart street redesign projects stalled by former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 administration and making city buses fast and free a priority.<\/p>\n \u201cFast and free buses can\u2019t be an aspiration tucked behind competing priorities,\u201d Plum said. \u201cThey must be the measure of success. A city that works for bus riders is a city that works for everyone, and we\u2019ll be looking to this administration to make that standard real \u2014 and to hold the entire system accountable for getting riders where they need to go, quickly and reliably.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes to Mamdani\u2019s pledge to make buses fast and free, Flynn will have no say over the latter.\n<\/p>\n Public transit fares in the city are controlled by the state, which Mamdani will have to convince to make his proposal a reality. He must work with Gov. Kathy Hochul, the MTA, and the state legislature to realize that vision.<\/p>\n However, as the head of DOT, Flynn will play a critical role in speeding up city buses. A large part of accomplishing that goal will be through building far more protected bus lanes \u2014 enforced either by cameras or physical barriers.<\/p>\n Adams\u2019 DOT consistently fell short<\/a> on hitting legally mandated targets for new bus lane construction under the NYC Streets Plan, which was passed by the City Council in 2019. Although the city was required to construct 150 miles of protected bus lanes over the past four years, it ended up building about 28<\/a>.<\/p>\n Flynn told Streetsblog that he hopes to start making progress toward building more bus lanes right away by getting projects that had been stalled by the Adams administration, such as the Fordham Road bus lane in the Bronx, back on track.<\/p>\n