Mamdani's 34th Street busway pledge slips as year-end deadline nears with no work in sight

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani promised a busway on Manhattan's 34th Street by the end of 2026, but with the year nearly over there is still no sign of work on the ground. Streetsblog reported on November 9 that a visit last Thursday evening to East 34th Street and Third Avenue — the eastern gateway of the planned busway — found the existing bus lanes unchanged and no signage indicating construction was imminent.

City Hall promises a signage gantry, but no confirmation the busway is on time

A City Hall spokesman, Jeremy Edwards, said the city is installing an overhead gantry at Ninth Avenue for future busway signage and coordinating related street furniture installations by the end of the year, but did not say whether the busway itself is still on schedule. The busway would ban non-local private cars from 34th Street between Third and Ninth avenues, leaving the corridor to buses and trucks. Mamdani announced in June that the project had "advanced" and would be completed this fall, having repeatedly attacked his predecessor over delays to the project during the campaign.

A troubled history: halted by the last mayor, then blocked by Washington

The busway was first proposed in May 2025 and was meant to move forward the same year, until then-Mayor Eric Adams abruptly halted it; Adams relented only as part of a deal to rezone part of Midtown, after Mamdani called him out. Before work could begin, Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the Federal Highway Administration stepped in to stop it over stated concerns about truck and emergency vehicle access, noting the corridor is part of the National Highway System; the administration also accused the city of failing to coordinate with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. The same federal delays held up the Tremont Avenue busway, which unlike 34th Street the Mamdani administration did build in 2026.

The M34 crawls at 5.3 mph, and most buses run late

As of September, the M34 crawled across 34th Street at an average of just 5.3 miles per hour, forcing riders to wait almost two and a half minutes longer for a bus, with only 66 percent of buses arriving within five minutes of schedule. Mamdani campaigned on making buses "fast and free" and, in August 2025, raced the bus on foot to show it moved more slowly than walking. Road-striping season in New York usually runs from about May to October, but this year's super El Niño is expected to bring warmer than usual temperatures, which may extend the construction window. Samir Lavigna, second vice-chair of Manhattan Community Board 5, said the busway has strong community board support and blamed the federal government for the delays.