Will New York City Finally Have a Bus Mayor?

Eight leading mayoral candidates share their ideas and plans for improving public transit.

When the pandemic engulfed New York, it highlighted the vital role public transit plays in a city where essential workers — many of whom are poor and people of color — count on the subway and buses to get around. Although the subway is the city’s lifeblood, the mayor of New York has little say over the subway because it is operated by an agency controlled by the governor. But as the city slowly recovers, public transit is central to its efforts to bring back daily life and has become a key focus in the race to become the next mayor. And New York’s next leader does have far more influence over buses by virtue of controlling the streets they run on.