Transportation

Public transportation is the heartbeat of New York. It’s the way we get to work, school, and the doctor’s office–and it needs to work for everyone. Kathryn’s plan will deliver a safe, reliable and efficient transportation system to power our recovery.

Today, our streets and sidewalks are a losing battle between competing uses

Instead, we must ensure that our public spaces serve the public first.

Even before COVID, too many New Yorkers faced long, unreliable commutes to work and school, and entire neighborhoods were underserved by public transportation. Incremental change here isn’t going to cut it.

Smart, effective transportation strategy means bringing new jobs closer to where New Yorkers live, learn and play–and protecting our environment. Kathryn’s transportation plan is the most climate focused plan.

Our plan will create more equitable access to jobs by expanding transportation options, but also protect our health and make our streets, sidewalks, and bike lanes safer and more enjoyable. Building on the success of open streets and outdoor dining, we have an unprecedented opportunity to redefine our streetscape and create vibrant outdoor spaces that will attract tourism and drive our recovery. 

Today, our streets and sidewalks are a losing battle between competing uses.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Electrify 10,000 school buses to protect our youngest lungs
  • Make it easier to ditch diesel and switch to electric vehicles
  • Create permanent open and complete streets to put pedestrians and cyclists first
  • Expand protected bike lane network by 250 miles
  • One-swipe in-city network for LIRR + MetroNorth
  • Pilot parking permits for electric vehicles
  • Use curbside space for public amenities
  • Get trash bags off the sidewalk

Ensure our public spaces serve the public first

  • Create permanent Open Streets that prioritize pedestrians and public use over cars, while preserving access for emergency services and deliveries.
  • Create Complete Streets in all five boroughs that prioritize pedestrians, bicyclists and public transit riders--alongside sustainable infrastructure and community uses.
  • Regulate delivery companies like Amazon to reduce congestion, improve safety and protect workers--and provide incentives to support micro-mobility options for the first/last mile of multimodal transit trips.
  • Pilot residential parking permits for low emissions vehicles to make on-street parking a privilege, not a right, and reward traffic law compliance.

a bold approach to sidewalk and curbside use to improve quality of life

  • Use curbside space for public amenities to improve New Yorkers’ experience of their city, integrate sustainable infrastructure (bluebelts, rain gardens), create new sources of opportunity for small businesses, and in turn provide a boost to New York’s economy
  • Expand the Clean Curbs program for containerized trash and recycling setout--to keep our sidewalks clean and passable.
  • Expand bike parking infrastructure, seating, arts and culture uses and other community-based amenities.
  • Make our permanent Open Streets and Complete Streets beautiful, safe and enjoyable with retractable bollards, planters and community-driven programming in partnership with BIDs and block associations.
  • Accelerate street and sidewalk construction by reinstating a fast capital project program at DOT and ensuring the agency has blanket CP approvals for bread and butter projects

Speed up buses, expand and better maintain protected bike lane network

  • Create new dedicated busways and bus lanes, expand offboard payment and all-door boarding, give our buses priority at intersections, and grow the Express Bus network and Select Bus Service to cut down commuting times.
  • Expand the protected bike lane network to be more equitable and interconnected by adding 250 miles of protected lanes, prioritizing connectivity.
  • Better maintain the bike lanes we already have: procure badly needed small equipment to clean and plow bike lanes
  • Better integrate CitiBike into the existing transit network and subsidize expansion into communities that have been underserved by the existing program.

Expand and strengthen our public transit system for all New Yorkers

  • Work with state and federal governments to fully fund the Fast Forward program and press for real reform at the MTA
  • Prioritize installation and maintenance of elevators throughout the MTA to move toward a fully accessible public transit system, and make intersections safer with fully accessible pedestrian ramps citywide.
  • Better integrate transit systems: Work with MTA to create a one-swipe in-city transportation network that integrates LIRR and MetroNorth service. Explore Citibike and NYC Ferry fare integration and OMNY fare integration.
  • Invest our public transit dollars wisely to advance equity and serve more New Yorkers: reallocate ferry subsidy toward and expand Fair Fares, and protect MTA Bus Company from service cuts.
  • Kickstart planning for new transit to create opportunities for new housing and job growth, including the Utica Avenue and expanded Second Avenue subway and new ferry terminals in East Harlem, Inwood, Hunts Point and northern Queens.

Achieve safer streets by focusing on interventions that work

  • Achieve Vision Zero by making changes to the built environment to physically prevent crashes, instead of relying only on driver behavior change
  • Leverage automated enforcement including speed-safety, red-light cameras and new technologies like failure-to-yield cameras.
  • Bike safety is paramount: we must protect the workers for whom a safe bike lane isn’t optional--it’s their job to be there. That means robust enforcement of bike lane violations and safety barriers that work.
  • Align the agencies that play a role in traffic enforcement to streamline and centralize management and accountability in one department.

Transportation x Climate

Make it easier to ditch diesel and switch to electric vehicles

  • Triple the availability of public car chargers, and incentivize New Yorkers to install charging infrastructure at home with parking discounts and property tax rebates.
  • Electrify more than 10,000 school buses to protect our youngest lungs and ensure the MTA bus system is electric by 2040
  • Develop additional grid capacity to be able to expand the use of electric vehicles for our heavy duty City fleet--including Sanitation vehicles.
  • Implement a zero-interest loan program to help small businesses—from ice cream trucks to florists—buy small-scale, electric, pedestrian-safe delivery vehicles to replace diesel vans.
  • Kickstart planning for new transit to create opportunities for new housing and job growth, including the Utica Avenue and expanded Second Avenue subway and new ferry terminals in East Harlem, Inwood, Hunts Point and northern Queens.
  • Learn more about our climate platform here.

Push for the adoption of congestion pricing

Rapid implementation of the Commercial Waste Zones plan to realize the benefit of removing 18 million miles of Sanitation truck traffic from NYC streets every year

Endorsed by

— Streets Pac

Media Coverage

STREETS BLOG

"It is a visionary package that focuses on getting it done,” she said. “A lot of people have vision, but can you get it done?”

AMNY

Mayoral candidate Kathryn Garcia is proposing making 10,000 school buses fully electric and creating a system requiring parking permits for New York City motorists using street parking for car storage

NY DAILY NEWS

Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former Sanitation Commissioner, sees herself as a logistical expert who’s well-equipped to streamline the city’s sluggish bureaucracy — skills she said will help her speed up New York’s notoriously slow buses.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

New York City’s streetscape would change drastically under mayoral hopeful Kathryn Garcia’s vision for revamping transportation in the Big Apple. And Garcia is betting those changes would make New Yorkers’ commutes easier and soften the city’s carbon imprint on the environment.

GOTHAMIST

A centerpiece of [Garcia’s] plan includes an idea that environmental advocates have pushed for years: requiring school buses, whose gas and diesel emissions have been linked to respiratory illnesses in children, to be fully electric. Approximately 150,000 city school children ride yellow school buses daily.