One of the more frustrating aspects of New York City's local politics is how driven it is by progressive activists with pet causes, time on their hands, and no access to a mirror or larger perspective on life. But the average activist is largely harmless in the scheme of things. It's the multiplication of them pursuing a fact-free proposition that can be the problem. However, what compounds this in the city is what passes as the "leadership class" for progressives also monopolizes public time for these same issues far beyond its weight class. Transportation and trip modes in the city is a perfect example of how out of touch this group is.
In NYC, you would think that buses and bikes have taken over the city from Zohran Mamdani's "free buses" campaign plank (one of four top repeated slogans and issue planks that he either does not have the power to do or wouldn't do a thing in the scheme of things) to the TransAlt (Transportation Alternatives) bike lanes all over the city obsession.
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| Source: NYC DOT Citywide Mobility Survey courtesy of Reza Chowdhury's X |
Let's look at the facts: a bus makes up just 4% of the total trip mode in NYC, while a bike makes up just 3%. On the other hand, walking takes up 46%, vehicles 32%, transit 18%, and rail/subway 14%. These percentages add up to more than 100% because some will combine more than one in their daily commute to work or wherever else they're going.
Walking is the most common trip mode in the city. And increasingly, its conflict is not with cars but with bikes, especially of the e-bike and scooter variety, who, unlike vehicle operators, lack the requisite understanding for their responsibility on the road, do not face the legal liabilities like someone operating a vehicle does, and pretty much do whatever they want at increasing levels.
Many people in their various trip modes frequently break the rules of the road and the street. But those on bikes seem to not have grasped the consequences like the rest. Pedestrians and frequent walkers know they're going to lose a battle and perhaps their life against a car. Those driving a car, even the terrible drivers, have an ingrained sense of destruction of what a car accident will do not just to a pedestrian, but to the drivers. Bikes operate in this middle ground where they have become both a hazard and dangerous to pedestrians and a hazard and dangerous to vehicles too, although in this case they seem to lack the understanding of how vulnerable they are on a bike if they face off against a car. Putting a bike lane all over the city has not brought any greater order to this off-kilter relationship, no matter how many statistics NYC's Department of Transportation wants to roll out. People make value judgments with their eyes and experiences.
NYC is a place that is totalitarian in its administrative code and closer to anarchy in its day-to-day realities. And the increasing anarchy in transportation to being driven by the 3% of those whose trip mode is with a bike of some form. The 4% part of this equation is part of the "free bus" plan that Zohran keeps talking about. A few things on this: while, no doubt, the honest citizens of the city would benefit from this, especially elders, there are already many fare evasions on buses just like there are in the subway. This is not going to be some game changer because it already happens, would make the MTA's finances even worse off, cannot even be done unilaterally by an NYC Mayor, and again... we're talking about 4% of trip modes. What about safety for pedestrians, the most common trip mode? What about congestion pricing? A tax on the second most common trip mode and as you can see above, utilized by every income bracket considerably more than bikes, buses, and yes, even the subway.
In fact, during the congestion pricing discussion the last few years these same activists would use the data on how many New Yorkers drive (around one-third) for their commute to make the case that the majority is somehow with them. I have my issues with the MTA, but even its Chairman points out how flawed Zohran's transportation plans are for the city.
A real discussion on transportation in New York City would be holistic and in proportion to actual trip modes. This is not what we're doing and this has not been at all how the public debate has gone this year. Progressives in leadership and in their activism are guilty of the same mistake they accused "car culture" of: they are not centering their ideas and transportation around the actual needs, realities, and preferences of people. They have been myopically obsessed with being anti-car and making it as hard as possible to own and operate one. So far they have been unsuccessful. We're not a city of bike riders using these bike lanes, they're still mostly empty years later. And those who do ride bikes are still going on sidewalks, still operating how they wish when they're in traffic, and, at the recreational level, they are even going into city parks where families with children and seniors frequently gather. Simply put, they control by law or by behavior a share of the public commons far beyond what is justifiable.
I wish this were just an isolated issue. But it's not. Issues like this are why it's so easy to call urban progressivism an elitist philosophy and worldview.
On issue after issue, this is the case and nothing much will change until the hard organizational work to build out a civic alternative is done. NYC will never get more affordable, is about to get more dangerous, and to add insult to injury, we will keep paying more and more for less and less, until the day the "new Tammany Hall" and its progressive activist and leadership class is defeated and dismissed from its monopoly control over the city's politics and future.
Troy M. Olson is an Army Veteran, lawyer by training, and co-author of ‘The Emerging Populist Majority’ now available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Target. He is the Sergeant-at-Arms of the New York Young Republican Club and co-founder of the Veterans Caucus. He has appeared on CNN, CBS, and OAN. He lives in New York City with his wife and son, and is the 3rd Vice Commander (“Americanism” pillar) of the first new American Legion Post in the city in years, Post 917. You can follow him on X/Twitter and Substack at @TroyMOlson
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