But the reality is that the city's contribution to paratransit has not kept pace with that growth in ridership. There's no reason why the MTA should be punished financially for fixing an operation that the city dumped on us a while ago. I also want to talk about a few other areas of concern with respect to the city budget. I know that's where your heads are at um that could impact on our shared goals. First, faster buses. We are thrilled that the mayor is starting to revive bus lane projects that were abandoned um or delayed by the p last administration. Now it's time to kick things into high gear which will require not only more miles of bus lanes, more ACE cameras, but also here's the punchline, dedicated funding for traffic enforcement to keep the air the the lanes clear of private vehicles. There are hot spots. There are bottlenecks all over the city where we need the traffic agents to keep it possible for buses to move. Number two, affordability. I always say the m, you know, mass transit is one of the few things that makes New York affordable and we are huge supporters of the fairs program and we're disappointed to see that the mayor's budget actually reduces its funding by $25 million. For years, we at the MTA have been joining the council, your predecessor council, um in urging expansion uh of eligibility so that more people can get the benefit of fairs. It doesn't make sense that today a person working full-time for minimum wage is actually making too much to qualify for fairs. That doesn't make sense. And we'd like to see the eligibility threshold raised. Our transit system, as I say, is one of the few things that actually makes New York affordable. So, but if there is money that is being talked about to increasing affordability, let us prioritize people who are struggling to make ends meet, whether they use the bus or the subway or paratransit. And we also need your help you making sure that we are preparing for the next generation of student omni moving moving from the physical passes to digital at least for the high school kids who have overwhelmingly do have access to phones. Student Omni has been an unbelievable success offering young New Yorkers a lot more flexibility in getting around not just during the school year but 247 365. It's going to take continued close collaboration with the public school system to asssure a smooth roll out of the new virtual student omniard and we need DOE to prioritize getting ready for this new phase especially training their own staff and I'm just being honest we have real concerns. We had an understanding with DOE that they were going to be ready. We were all going to be ready for next school year and that is starting to be a big question mark. So, I'm putting that on on everybody's radar. On on to number three, climate resiliency, specifically storm water management and the city's role in this. I've spoken to Ch Speaker Menon about this. Every big storm, and they're only getting more frequent. Torrential rainfall overwhelms the city's sewer capacity, causing backups that result in severe flooding and stoppages in our subway system. Our team has ideas about where the city can start expanding capacity. We don't need the 7th Avenue line to constantly being knocked out whenever there's a storm that not that that delivers more than an inch and a half of rainfall in an hour. Um we need some investment by the city perhaps in the capital budget. Also, city DOT needs dedicated funding to repave the areas where the curbs have been reduced almost to nothing. And the result is that during storms, water spills over onto sidewalks and then cascades down through the grates onto subway platforms. We've all seen this on social media and it's time to make the investments that address this very, very unfortunate condition. And finally, safety. Obviously, the the NYPD's budget has a direct impact on our on our system and the safety of our passengers. We know that the increased police presence in the subway does not come cheap. The governor has also invested significantly in that and it has yielded that presence has yielded huge results. Overall, subway crime has down 14% in 2025 compared to 2019 before the pandemic. And it's also the increased safety has led to a surge in customer satisfaction. Satisfaction with safety on trains is up six points now to 63% which is the highest level since we began taking surveys. We are headed in the right direction but we cannot lose ground. Rider satisfaction with overall service reliability has increased and we expect it to get higher as we deliver the new 68 billion 2025 to 29 MTA capital plan. 90% of that plan is focused on state of good repair work. Basic stuff like new signals, power systems, rolling stock, new subway cars, plus a ton of ADA elevators across the entire system. We are repairing the infrastructure that past leaders and past MTAs actually left to crumble for a hundred years. And we're doing it better, faster, and cheaper than ever before. MTA Construction development saved over a billion dollars in 2025 alone. The bond buyer, um, which pays a close attention, as you can imagine, to what's going on at the MTA, actually just ran a story last week calling the MTA a model for government builders nationwide. But while we're prioritizing state repair, we're not forgetting about expansion entirely. Uh my prepared remarks discussed the written remarks that are submitted to you discuss some of these projects in detail. The Innerboroough Express, Penn Station Access, I'm going to skip over it in the interest of time, apart from one important update, and this is breaking news. As I mentioned to the chair on the way in, the MTA has just filed a lawsuit against the federal government to restore funding for the Second Avenue subway. the phase two project that will take the Second Avenue subway from 96th Street up to 125th Street. Everybody knows the Trump administration has been withholding money for New York infrastructure projects. We intend to get every cent of what has been promised and frankly based on the agreements what's owed to New Yorkers. And we're not afraid to fight for it in court, just as we've successfully taken on the feds over congestion pricing and also successfully fought for FEMA reimbursements which are held back for many years. Second Avenue Subway is a incredibly worthy project, long overdue transit justice for East Harlem, promised since the 1940s and phase 2 is well underway and it's on budget and it's on schedule. I was up at 125th in Park last week looking at some of the work. Um there's a a huge uh there's a huge excavation going on that will be part of the tunnel boring process and we don't want that work to stop because of this funding uh gamesmanship that's going on in Washington. We want to keep showing New Yorkers that this in fact this is in fact a new MTA which is a business-like government operation focused on riders and focused on results. And we want to be your partners not just on fairs and faster buses but housing too. The the the chair and I briefly uh discussed this in the last uh week. The housing project we recently negotiated for Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn is a good example of what's possible. We all know that good transit is a precondition for good development. So we look forward to working with you all of you on these issues. And I'm happy to take your questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for showing up today and of course for the preliminary discussions. My first set of questions are on cost shifts. In the 2023 2024 state budget, there was an increased payroll mobility tax increase levied on New York City businesses. In 2024, the fi the final receipts from payroll mobility tax and MTA total 3.6 6 billion up 803 million from 2023. The MTA sees this tax growing from 4 billion in 2026 to 4.15 billion in 2028. Does the MTA project this revenue source to continue to grow in later years? >> Uh I'm going to let Jay comment on that if you if you would check check the the stats. But here's the bottom line. Payroll mobility tax is a huge success. the the business community was very clear with us coming out of COVID. They said we need good, reliable, frequent transit in order to get people back to work and to rebuild the New York City economy. And that's why you saw that particular small increment in the PMT, a business tax, um actually not meeting with resistance from the business community, because they wanted and they have gotten great service, more frequent service, and a much better mass transit system, and it's been part of New York's revival. So, we're very pleased with that. The governor took on the political responsibility of getting that done in Albany. She delivered. She's delivered again for the capital budget. uh and and we're very grateful that we're you know it's it's been one key to the financial success. Jay, what are the projections? >> Thank you, chair. Um our growth in PMT is small. It's relative to the actual growth in the business employment sector. And so we see our payroll uh mobility growing about $50 million annually through our financial plan. And that's covered through our expense growth uh for expenses that we have in our budget projected. You say 50 million per year in the next five years. >> Yes. Through 2029. >> Thank you. With congestion pricing in effect, how will this increased tax burden impact businesses in the congestion zone? I think I think I said it before is that one of the rare things what's special about the couple of uh initiatives you've just mentioned is the business community has been consistent in supporting um investment in transit through the payroll mobility tax and also the congestion pricing initiative is not a negative for business to the contrary. The New York City partnership documented how billions were being lost by time wasted in traffic and the business community partnership, but also the real estate community, you know, consistently supported congestion pricing and they've been with us celebrating, literally celebrating the fact that congestion pricing has been so successful in improving the economy of New York. you know, traffic is down, but business is up, employment is up, uh, and there's been no negative business effects from congestion pricing. To the contrary, it's been a success. >> Have you seen ridership increase in the congestion zone? >> We have, but it's hard to attribute it specifically to congestion pricing, chairman, there are only 140,000 people a day who who actually drive to jobs in the CBD. We have, you know, somewhere between a billion, a million and a half and two million jobs in the CBD. So, they are really a small dot. I could take all those people on the mass transit system tomorrow and it would not really alter our ridership. We carry four and a half million people a day. >> Thank you, chairman. What will the additional funds from the payroll mobility tax be used for? They're already dedicated to the MTA's five-year financial plan, which is a lot. You know, I mentioned in my testimony that we have balanced budgets and in the out years, that's the last couple years of the financial plan, half of 1% of a deficit. And that's because in part because the payroll mobility tax has been a successful uh ingredient in putting the MTA on solid financial footing. What work has the MTA done to identify opportunities for efficiencies in their operating budget? Are there any in-house consultants MTA has on payroll to help facilitate programs or projects? >> Well, you know, thank you. Um, you you know how passionate I am about this issue. Part of our success in I think getting the support in Albany from the governor, but also from the legislature to put the MTA in solid financial shed was that we stepped up and said, um, we've got a $2.5 billion deficit. We will take 500 million of that and solve it ourselves through efficiencies. Not by cutting service, not by cutting personnel, but actually just by becoming more efficient. We have accomplished that. We've now set ourselves on a course for another $250 million of savings. And you're right, we did it by uh by creating an in-house consultant operation that really works with the operating agencies to say, how can you deliver the same or better service at a lower cost, and it's been successful. We've hit our goals year after year. >> I'm gonna now turn over to the topic of paratransit cost shifts. This is a very um I would say a sensitive area for the city. Uh in 2020, the state began to require the city to fund 50% of the net paratransit operating expenses of the MTA. I believe in the 1990s it was in the 33% or so. Um it went up to 50% as of 5 years ago and in just the last 5 years has gone up to 80%. Um, last year the governor's budget extended the city's funding contribution level to this level for another two years, costing the city an additional 165 million annually starting in state fiscal 26. In MTA's latest budget, they you it assumes that this cost will be permanent despite the need for legislative renewal at the state level. My question is, Mr. Chairman, why does the MTA increasingly pass this cost burden on to the city? because it was a this was a city operation that the MTA took on and has grown in cost only because we are doing I I think a a standout job of delivering better service. Last in the last couple of weeks we have the most parat we had a day where we had more paratransit riders than ever before in the city of New York. 50,000 people ridership has gone up 20% per year and yet the MTA is having to eat that additional cost because we're providing much better service even though we've reduced the per trip cost. So it seems like this is one of those things where the MTA is being punished for actually doing a good job. And in the division of labor between city and state, this has been primarily uh you know something that the city wanted done by the MTA and and was a city obligation. So we think it's fair that they share the cost of all this improved service and increased ridership. >> Does the MTA believe that this should be uh a permanent cost shift? I we we we we think that the that what needs to happen is that the cap on the city's contribution should be removed so that as we grow ridership um that that that is shared consistent with our cost sharing formula. Right now the extra ridership is in effect all being shifted to MTA's side of the cost ledger. So is it fair to say that the MTA wants uh more increased cost to the city? >> Yeah, but but just bear in mind that the for example in the capital plan, which was the $68 billion capital weed plan we did last year, the city's share of the capital plan went up not at all even as the state solved, you know, had solutions for growing the MTA capital plan by 30 plus percent. So in the division of cost and division of labor between our the two jurisdictions, this is one where the city ought not in our view be shifting cost to the MTA. I can't keep providing more and more and better and better service if it's all going to, you know, come out of the MTA's hide. I just want to acknowledge that we're joined today by some of the activists in the disability community who have, you know, although they have historically been pushing the MTA to do more and better, some they've also been partners uh including Michael Ring who is the co-chair of our uh our accessibility uh uh advisory committee. I just would like to you know acknowledge of course that you know the city obviously as at least speaking on behalf of the council we would object to you know having this cost to be permanent and given that this is something that is due up for next year's budget um we're going to know we believe that it should go back to at least the 50% levels in five short years the city has been forced to shoulder an almost 50% increase in its contributions for paratransit what does the MTA project to be the right cost share for the city of paratransit cost in future years >> I the the right cost share is the one that would have elim if you eliminate the cap on the K city city's contribution right now it will the the contribution needs to move with ridership now in fairness we also need to make sure that our the the folks who are are uh you know relying on paratransit now that we are improving accessibility to the subway system that we're we're doing a ton of outreach to make sure that folks are aware you have a a subway way station in your neighborhood that is now accessible. The bus system is 100% accessible. So we hope that we will u even though paratransit has been such a success we will continue to uh introduce a lot of folks who need accessibility to the benefits of using the uh the existing system. >> Mr. Chairman, you mentioned in your testimony that costs have obviously been harder control for paratransit. Uh, what is the MTA doing to control the growth in paratransit costs? I >> I think I've I've answered this respectfully. I think I've answered this. What we've what we're not what we've done is that we've reduced the per ride cost, but we can't be held accountable and punished for actually making service better and more attractive so that people are calling upon it. That people who used to have to would wait five minutes for the phone to be picked up are now getting the phone picked up promptly. that more people actually have access to online ways of uh online uh techniques for reserving their ride. Um that we've made on demand service a little more available. So I I don't think that MTA should be punished that if the costs go up because we're providing service and making it more accessible. That's a collective issue and it should be the cost should be shared rather than telling the MTA to make the cost go away. That's a sign of success. All right, I'm going to move on to just want to also stay for the record again. I hope that the MTA stays open to reducing the cost shift to the city on paratransit as we move into next year. >> If you find some other, you know, some other source, the MTA is not does not print money and we don't levy taxes. So, telling the MTA to, you know, find the money, that's that that doesn't work. But we're always willing to work with the council and with the state on solutions. But at the end of the day, if people are going to use the system and it's going to be good, it's going to have to be funded. >> Let's just stay open. Free bus routes. In the 2024 state budget, funding was included for a pilot program offering one free bus route in every burrow. From September 24, 2023 to August 31, 2024. Five MTA bus routes were fair free to passengers on these routes. The routes offered were were BX18A, B60, M116, Q4, and S4696. Can you update the committee on how this pilot program went? What were the results? And do you consider this program to be successful? you know, the I I I would rather not get into a a debate about this off discussed issue, but but the way we look at that pilot program that was done a couple years ago was yes, there were there was a little more ridership on on the routes. Um but bus speeds did not go up and our analysis of who was riding indicated that we were not attracting new riders. what we were doing is we're taking people from paid routes and they were choosing to take uh the free bus um which is you know if the goal is to increase trans you know mobility in effect and have people have more opportunity to have access to jobs and education um we didn't look at it as a uh as an unqualified success um and uh we have you know and I think there are a lot of questions about and I've raised them and I' I'd rather not get into the detail right now but we ra the question is we need to this is an idea which has I understand you know great uh appeal uh but hasn't really really been studied we have a sacred system in New York that we depend on our mass transit system it makes New York possible and I am I have concerns that we ought to be studying any of these huge transformational ideas uh much more thoroughly before we consider expansion >> would you say the program was not a success. >> Uh, I've drawn the I've described the conclusions that we drew. I'm I'm going to pass on the opportunity to to headline. >> All right. I I'll I'll take I guess I'll take that. I'd like to recognize we've been joined by Council Member uh Lewis. How did you how do you choose which bus routes to make free to passengers in that pilot? And do you learn anything while the program was running that can inform future decisions? Yeah, I but what we I I I don't have it my John, do you have I don't have my the the criteria, but I think the legislature gave us criteria when they passed that five route uh five fi five routes, one in each burrow. We were looking for routes um that were not um along subway lines and looking for routes that we'll learn something from. And uh so I think the routes that were picked were were were were sufficient. They were done by agreement and uh at the conclusion of the study you know we put out a report and in you know the facts are there um for anybody to read and and learn and as the chair mentioned I think the key thing that everybody was looking at were was will this make buses run faster and it and it didn't. Did you see an increase in subway ridership at stations along these uh these routes for the buses? >> I I I don't I don't think so. >> Interesting. What would be the estimated cost to provide free bus service throughout the city? That's we haven't done nearly enough analysis and we haven't been asked by the legislature which is one house of the legislature put a proposal on for a new pilot but nobody's asked us to do the kind of study that would be necessary to give you an accurate answer on that. But the answer is but the answer ultimately would not include you know the MTA's projections for bus revenue are one thing which push a billion dollars in a couple years. Um but it would also include what would be the cost of to the subway system of people shifting from subway to bus. What would be the cost that's the revenue impact? What would be the cost of additional buses? What would be the cost of uh additional bus operators if needed? All that stuff would have to be studied to give you a meaningful answer, but it would be, you know, as I've said, roughly based on just our revenue projections and some other small factors, it would be north of a billion dollars. >> Uh, which per year >> per year would like to walk back to Mr. McCarthy. Is it fair to say that it free buses could mean slower buses and would that you think that would would that be something that would remain consistent? it. Look, there's I don't know that that's that it means slower, but the New York Times did it. They they sent out a bunch of reporters and they did a, you know, a pretty thorough look at a bus route and they determined that the speed gained from not having someone pay was or the the time it took for someone to pay was not the issue for the pace of buses. It was the congestion on the roads. It was double parked cars. It was the lack of enforcement in many areas. So, um, that's, you know, that's something that I know you and others are focused on and it makes a lot of sense based on what they reported out. Not >> not to make headlines, Mr. Chairman, would you say fast and free or contradictory? >> Um, no comment. >> Okay. I I think the point is we're ready to do we're working with the city to do fast. that is under that discussion is well underway and I credit the new DOT team and the mayor and the mayor's team for stepping up on that. So let's let's let's get going and doing fast. We have a lot of questions relevant to the second half of that sentence. >> I think I know your answer on this one. Does the MTA support triing free buses again during the World Cup? >> I haven't honestly I haven't been asked that by anybody in a position. Okay. And we're not we're not going to study things that are not on, you know, not on the agenda of the city and the state and other power players. >> Has the city or the state asked you to do anything on this? >> Nobody's asked me to give free buses to people who are paying $1,000 a ticket from other countries? No one's asked me that so far. >> Fair. Fair. A a city controller report from September 2025 found a majority of buses are performing at below average standards. 56% of bus lines, 186 out of 332, received a grade of D or lower, meaning that they run at speeds significantly below the borrow wide average, are more likely to experience bunching and consistently failed to arrive at scheduled stops on time. By comparison, only 27 lines, 8% received a B or higher. Only seven lines received an A grade per hour, consistent with January 2019 speeds at 7.8 8 miles hour. What is the MTA doing to improve bus speeds throughout the city? >> Okay, so you've just made recited stats that are the most powerful argument for all of this bus speed uh initiatives that have been the law of the some of them have been the law of the city of New York for several years but haven't been implemented. >> Talking about the the streets plan. >> I'm talking about the streets. >> We have a hearing on that later. I'm going to zero in on it. >> Okay. So, we're for all of those initiatives. Well, we we are strong supporters of uh the busway goals, the bus lane goals, including potentially busways. We're strong. We have been pushing pushing for more and more ACE cameras and ACE cameras are a success. We have seen improvements in speed on those on those uh on those routes. Um we have seen consistent improvements in speed. We have seen that people don't violate again and again and again. Give New Yorkers credit just like they are where there are speed cameras when they know that there are ACE cameras there. Um they are not engaged in you know repetitive recidivist violations. So the system is working where we get uh where we get the ace cameras and that's at a over I think how many routes? It's a huge I I'll get you the number, but it's but a huge portion of our routes about 20% of our routes now are now uh covered by ACE cameras. We want more traffic enforcement agents to break the bottlenecks, but we have been supporters of, you know, traffic signal prioritization, which is another DOT initiative. Um and uh uh and the whole congestion pricing initiative was obviously focused on trying to make buses move more closely and we have engaged in these burrowby burrow uh bus network redesigns. I'm not going to give you all the details but you know we have been leaders in trying to make buses faster using all these techniques and um we're going to continue to push forward especially now that we have a partner hopefully in the city DOT. >> Yeah. I think chair if I can just add to that we have been you know commissioner Flynn's team has been meeting with us and they're you know very enthusiastic and uh working together on ways that we can make buses faster and this is really getting into the nitty-gritty um including the bus lanes including enforcement and really the MTA looking at themselves and how we can run buses out of depots faster whether it's uh signalization and other things. So, this is it's a good time for anyone interested in faster buses because I think the teams are really working well together. >> Collaboration is great and would love to see, you know, more of that. I have a follow-up to ACE uh program. A lot of these cam the cameras capture the back of the the cars, but at what point are they going to start capturing the front of the cars? Cuz you you we find a lot of folks in in in my neck of the woods, they cover the license plates in the back or they'll put the hood uh of their car up so you don't capture it. Are we working on technology to also capture the front of the cars? >> Yeah. But uh but I I'll just say that uh you know the the pattern of folks covering license plates, altering license plates. I mean, you know, one thing that the last administration got right is that messing with license plates is a crime issue in New York. It's not just an MTA uh bus lane enforcement issue. People messing with license plates is very deeply connected to uh the crime issues in New York. And uh I'm hoping and confident that the under the new administration, the police will continue to enforce on that because that is a a huge problem. What has been the impact of congestion pricing on bus speeds >> if any? >> There has been improvement although it's you know I have to check that there has been an improvement. Um the the greatest improvement is uh obviously this the buses that are moving the fastest are the express buses that are coming into the city by on the crossings. So you have the Holland and the Lincoln tunnel. The Holland tunnel you have 50% reduction in the time to get across. Lincoln Tunnel was like 30%. The Williamsburg Bridge and other East River crossings have also seen significant improvements in speed. So, express buses and the inter intra burough buses coming to Manhattan. Dramatic improvements in Manhattan itself. The improvements in speed have been somewhat less, but they are also uh they've also been validated and documented and we'll provide those details. John, do you have anything on that? >> No. No. Bus speeds are up, but not not as much as the other vehicle speeds entering the zone where, as the chair said, is where we're seeing the most dramatic increase. There are other reasons that will slow down a bus within the zone. Again, going back into the idea of how cars are parked and and how traffic is moving um once you're inside the zone. So, but we have seen increase in speed, bus speeds within the zone. >> I'm now going to turn over to my colleagues, Council Member Lyn Shman. Thank you very much and thank you for being here. Um, I want to say for the record that I am an express bus rider. I ride public transit um to come to city hall to do my work. Um, so one thing I want to say is that do you work closely with the NYPD around the in because I will tell you that most times the where I take the bus from because I'm in for first of all I'm in a transitri area. I have happen to be lucky, but um there are cars and trucks parked in the bus lane. >> Yeah. >> And when it come to Manhattan, it can't they can't you the bus can't use the bus lane. So, are you working with the NYPD to make sure there's enforcement? >> Um absolutely. But you know what? There's nothing like support from elected officials um to help us. So, um, we're we're, you know, we we do stay in close touch with them, but the hot spot that you're talking about are real and many of them are every day. We just walk outside here, just walk down Broadway. I know >> when you see how the bus lane gets blocked. So, um, obviously the NYPD is fighting crime and doing a ton of things, but we welcome your help in bringing focus, consistent focus to this issue and maybe some set aside money in the in the city budget for those traffic enforcement agents that are necessary. It's a separate group within NYPD >> and and and having them funded for the dedicated purpose of keeping bus lanes open is one option that we could use your help on. No, I I Yeah, and I appreciate that. The other thing I wanted to talk to you about and I appreciate you pushing your advancing in terms of accessibility and all of that, but um in terms of the safety, I know about the stats, but the reality is there are a lot of homeless on the I haven't taken the subway in a long time. I'm an I'm an older adult. I have I have a bad I have severe arthritis in my knees, so I can't really do that. But I hear from constituents that there are a lot of and crime is a little different than feeling comfortable being on the train. Um, and so, you know, there are people with mental health issues and I understand, you know, there are things that have to be done around that as well, but I wanted to see what your sense of of doing something there. And the scout teams, by the way, that the that the governor has are great and it's we could expand that. That's on the state level. They work really well. >> So, thank you for that uh that shout out. the the scout program, just make sure everybody's aware, is we pair a clinician with a with several MTA police officers, not to the police officers are dealing with the homeless person, but so that the clinician feels safe to really engage with somebody who, and this is focused only on people with severe mental illness who may be candidates for, >> you know, involuntary commitment if they've got to come indoors for their own good or for the safety of others. So, we've had that program for a couple years now. The governor has paid to expand it. We're up to uhif 30 >> 20 teams and we're going to go to 30 >> 20 teams on the way to 30 teams and we're very s overall I I don't want to waste you know your time, but we have seen a significant increase in customer satisfaction with safety in the subway system. I mentioned in my testimony the highest ever stats on the feeling of safety on board trains and in the stations as well. But we got to keep pushing. You're absolutely right. It's the one thing that's a make or break for people's willingness to ride the system. >> No, absolutely. And um I also wanted to ask, is there any consideration being given to expanding express buses? Because for example, I know the express buses where I am just operate during the week. like if they operated on the weekend, you'd have more people coming in. It's, you know, in terms of economic development and all of that. And um the other so the second question to that too is that um half fairs, if there's any consideration, I'm going to put in a reszo for half fairs for the express bus because I know in my district I have a lot of seniors uh who want you know to go to doctor's appointments and they take it and all of that and if there's a way to do that that would be helpful. >> Okay. So fair far fairs gets >> what the the the the the reduced fair gets half fair on the express off peak. So um listen, let's let's let's get into let's get into discussion. We're we're the reduced fair program is hugely successful. People use it, right? Um and we, you know, we want to keep that constituency. But I will I will say this. Um all of our decisions, we looked at express buses as part of the Queens bus redesign. We added one or two routes. >> Um, but it's under always understudy about whether the ridership and the constituency justifies putting on a whole new route. We got to balance the budget, but we love uh that express bus service seems to be really popular. The customer satisfa buses. >> So anyway, I'm going to I'm going to try to push for half fairs on the express buses. >> And just to add, we did add service um when congestion pricing came on. And then in addition to that, just I think in in your neck of the woods, the what's important is this the new city ticket where it's available all the time, right? Used to be only the weekends >> is is a great option. And we have the in Queens bus redesign, the rush routes that take you to the Long Island Railroad stations and most recently we now uh seniors can ride in the mornings. It used to be that you had to pay a full fair. We're doing those changes. I think that might work. >> I'm just going to push for that. So, and I and I I've had conversation with the governor as well about that. Um, I just want to before I end, I want to give a shout out to Lucille who works with me in my office and she's amazing. So, um, thank you very much, chair, and thank you. >> You're shaming me. I should have recognized Lucille Sanghai who's the head of our government community relations operation and the key intermediary with so many folks in this building and and in city hall. Lucille, >> thank you. you. Since we're on the topic of express buses, I'm just going to ask a question on that. A report found that express buses have higher average speeds, but a much lower on-time reliability rate than the system overall. Many express buses travel across bridges, highways, and tunnels, allowing them to reach speeds most local buses cannot. However, they fail to reach stops at their scheduled times compared to local or SBS buses. This is problematic for riders given that express buses are less frequent than other types of service. All of the 10 bus lines with on-time performance rates below 50% are express buses. Are there steps that MTA has taken or could take that should improve express bus speeds on particular routes or specific borrows? If so, please share with the committee. >> Okay. So, you ask is what can MTA do? It comes back to express buses have the longest routes. So they are most subject to the the impacts of all of the street conditions that we have been talking about in this hearing. Um so you know what really comes down to is is traffic going to stop it? Is the bus lane going to be blocked? You know the are the double parking going to get in the way? Will people be parked in the bus stop that makes it impossible for them to load people? all of those conditions that we need partnership with the city and and and uh and and more enforcement to address. Those are the reasons the principal reasons that uh express buses are more subject to delay um on their much longer routes. >> Thank you for for answering that. I'm now going to turn over to Council Member Wong, followed by Marte. >> Thank you, Chair. Um uh thank you, Mr. Lieieber, for coming. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um before I begin, I just want to ask um uh do you take the bus or subway regularly? >> Yes. >> Okay. And how about uh >> Shafia? >> Sheneifa. >> Sheneifa >> every day. >> Every day. Okay. And John, >> absolutely. Every day. >> Okay. >> That's good. That's good because uh and Jen, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um I have really I have really three questions. Two of them are from my constituents and and they're quite concerning. Uh I we all grew up with Omniards, I mean Metro cards, and every time I use it, it tells me my balance, you know, whatever you put in 30 bucks, you know, balance 25 or every time I do a transfer, it tells me it's transfer free. But when I use my Omniot, it doesn't tell me that. Um so my constituent who emailed me directly says uh this is actually uh is worse than the metro cut in many ways. Uh can you can you answer that is sure is something you can fix or >> so yeah so um right now you can get all that kind of information at the omni machine and you can get it online and you there a number of different ways. Nevertheless, I'm sympathetic to what your constituent has said and that's why when we're we are now trying to get over the final phase of implementing Omni, but we are already working on a variety of tools. This was all the Omni system in terms of software was done long before I got involved with this. Um, and there are shortcomings and we're going to be adding customer transparency issues along the lines of what you just described. So, it's in process, you know, too late for some people. I'm not thrilled about um about those shortcomings. But the Omni system, I just want to emphasize, has major pluses, which is if people want a weekly, they don't have to come reach into their pocket to see if they have 30 plus dollars. They have they get they can get a weekly automatically just by using it. And it's saving people $40 million in wasted money that people were investing in monthlies and weeklies a year. We're trying to save people money and give them a better deal. >> Yeah. What I what I have re encounter is that constituents often felt they were overcharged and they weren't told when they used the Omniart during transfers and only found out after the fact at the like at the end of the month or when they check online when they get home, oh, I'm being charged. Why am I being charged? And then it it's like too late to to even raise that because uh the the person is already home. >> Yes. And you want to talk about the customer service we do on that? >> Yeah. So similar to what the chair mentioned, I mean we have put in a lot of um provisions as well as customerf facing um messaging within the system. We have stood up customer service centers um across the the um entire subway system where customers can go within their community. In the past, um, customers had to travel all the way downtown to Stone Street. So now we have 30 customer service centers in the burrows that can answer these questions as well as customers using um, our app. We have lots of text um, and email interaction as well as, you know, good old 511. So we do have a huge customer service operation that is dedicated to this matter while we work on getting the technology for the customer facing components. >> Yes. And again they're so used to seeing the balance for decades. Every time you use it they see the balance and suddenly that feature is gone. So that that is the mindset of my constituents and I I hope you understand that. >> I totally get it and we're working on it. We're going to try to improve that over over time. >> Thank you. Um my next question again is con congestion pricing. Uh my constituents a lot of them are drivers because my district uh is uh many parts of it is not subway accessible so they have to drive. They're telling me that congestion is now shifted north of Manhattan to north Manhattan to the Browns and in South Brooklyn. Yes, there's there fewer congestion in in in lower Manhattan, but the cars are still there still coming in. They're still leaving. uh what what do you have to say to that? >> Okay, so I'm I I love and respect your constituents, but your uh but the the data that actually has been collected publicly um shows that projections about displacement of traffic, especially to the Bronx, did not turn out to be true. And there's a lot of data on that. You can go online and the New York Times did a detailed analysis of it. um we had do we have not seen and we planned and we analyzed that to make sure that we did that we were ready if that did happen and it hasn't happened as documented to date. So respectfully I would just say uh you might want to take a look at that data and share it with some of the folks who may feel otherwise. >> I I would look sorry I have chair May I have more time I have one more question. >> Well there will be a second round. >> Okay sure I'll ask a second round. Thank you. Uh, Council Member Marte, followed by Lewis. >> Yeah. >> Hey, good morning. >> Good morning. >> Uh, for years, buses have had Omni readers at the rear door, but paying riders must board through the front. Of course, some riders still board through the back, as we all know, but they can't pay at the rear door because the Omni reader doesn't allow it. Can you tell us how much money we're potentially losing from folks just boarding in the back and not being able to pay in the back so that they just stay on the bus? And is there a timeline of when that back when that rear omniar reader is going to go live so folks can have, you know, both front and rear door boarding? >> Well, respectfully, I'd say most people who are getting them on the rear door are not, you know, not saying that, oh gosh darn, I wish that the the Omni reader were working. so I could pay. They're going on the back door because they know they aren't going to pay there. So, >> I mean, you know, >> okay, well, let let's just let's let's leave that one aside for the moment. But right now, we do have uh well aware that, you know, there there is there's been a lot of discussion over the years about rear door boarding. It's not something that we're against. What we what we have to do is we have to reestablish the the the pattern of everybody's playing by the same rules when you get on the bus. It's disrespectful to the other passengers when people don't pay and it creates an environment where like anything in New York we share the public space and if people aren't playing by the rules it feels like you're a sucker if you play by the rules and uh so we get a lot of beef from our customers who say why are so many people getting on and not paying. We This is partly a self-created problem. Honestly, we we um you know during COVID we asked everybody get on the back, don't pay. We were trying to protect the drivers. Um we toothpaste got out of the tube and we have to reestablish the principle of paying. Once we have a modern fair enforcement system where people can get on and check with a handheld VA validator and that's this year we're going to have that. Um, I am once we reestablish the principle of everybody pays and expects to pay, um, I am willing to talk about making the back door a legal way to get on and pay, but we need to have that system in place and that's coming. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, you know, Council Member Shman brought up your scout team. Is there a way to add a transparency mechanism where we can know where the scout teams have been sent? You know, there are stations in my district like the Bry Street station where we are constantly asking for additional support. Um, but there's no followup. There's no transparency if folks went there, if the issues were addressed, and if they go on a routine, you know, uh, timeline to check up on to see if issues are are a pattern or if there are one time issues. >> Um, I'd like to get back to you on that. I honestly we have obviously we have like the HIPPA rules about we can't tell you about an individual. Yeah, sure. >> But um I'd like to get back to you on that. Um John, do you you have any thoughts on this? >> No, we we we can get back to you. They're assigned by borrow so and by time of day. So the idea is that they're that they're spread out so they're reaching a lot of different areas. >> Okay. >> But uh let's get back to you. I think I think there's probably some some possibility that that can satisfy your request. >> Yeah. I think for us it's mostly, you know, constituents ask, especially >> there's specific subway stations that feel a little bit, you know. >> Yeah. No, and and listen, we all want the folks who are suffering with severe mental illness in the public space to get help. I mean, that's this is just basic humanity. And um um I'm very you know appreciative of our riders who you know want to get help to some of the people some of the neighbors they see who are struggling. So let's talk about you know we can share with if we can share that information and how >> yeah uh my final question is about the F Fton Street Mall just few blocks away. Uh there's been scaffolding up since 2019. Uh my office has been asking MTA to take them down. You know, there's been a city-wide campaign of shedding the sheds and, you know, it's disappointing to see that on, you know, our public lands and our public infrastructure, we can't meet the needs of making our quality of life much better. >> You're you're talking about the southern half of the block between uh Fulton and John. >> Yeah, it's on 11 John Street. >> Okay. So, that's the old Corbin building um which is a really really old building. I will look into that and get back to you. It's a you know, I'm with you. Let's get the sheds down. So, we'll look into that one and come back to you. >> I appreciate it. Thank you for being here, >> Mr. Chairman. It seems like you know every corner of this of Manhattan. >> Um I'm now going to turn it over to Council Member Lewis, followed by Council Member Brooks Powers. >> Thank you, Chair, and good morning, >> Chair Liieber. Uh I want to echo Council Member uh Schulman's sentiments about Lucille and I want to add Shenifa in there. They've been great and very helpful. Um I have two quick questions. So, I'm going to state the questions and then you all could jump in. I'm very h happy to hear about the synergy between you and Commissioner Flynn from DOT. So, I wanted to ask about Newkerk uh Plaza in my district in locations where maintenance responsibilities intersect with city agencies. How does the MTA budget account for shared or disputed responsibilities? And is there any funding set aside for inter agency coordination or rapid response when conditions are not addressed? And the second question is given that the there is 9 billion allocated systemwide to repair elevated tracks and tunnels, what portion of that funding is dedicated to elevated line structures in Brooklyn, particularly the BQ ride ofway in Midwood? >> Okay, so I know Newer Plaza. I know some of those problems and I'm going to I I I don't want to mislead you. I don't know the specifics. We don't have a general fund for like inter agency coordination, but where there we have real estate responsibility. We ought to have funding to address it and we'll come back to you with a clear answer. But I, you know, I live I live on the Brighton line. I I live a couple stops north of Newkerk, so I know what you're talking about. >> Um it's got it's got some conditions. Um, we listen, I I I I'll give you the break. We will come back to you with the breakout, but the capital program that the governor got enacted in Albany last year is transformational because everybody likes new, you know, new shiny new objects and historically there hasn't been enough investment in the existing system which is a hundred years old and falling apart. that, you know, the Brighton Line, which you and I are talking about, was built like over a hundred years ago to take people from, you know, the middle of Brooklyn down to Coney Island for vacations, right? >> It's it really needs investment. We got the money to make those investments in the structure and those old systems. I'll give you these specific numbers, you know, as a follow-up, but that is a huge piece of our capital program. uh the the structures the both above grade structures the ones that are in the cut like the Brighton line and also the tunnels all of it need investment the power systems are like the land that time forgot and they're blowing up all the time we keep hearing about it there's money for that new you know there there is there is money for for 2,000 new rail cars including both 1500 subway cars and 500 commuter rail cars so we're getting to the stuff that has been neglected and I'm thrilled about it I'll give you the specific speific numbers in a followup. >> I look forward to that response. Thank you. Thank you, chair. >> Thank you, council member. Now, we will have questions from council member Brooks Powers. >> Thank you, chair, and hello to the MTA team. Um, thank you for the testimony today. Um, I'm going to start with adding on to the questions for the express buses. Does the MTA plan to make the extend the expanded pilot program permanent for the QM 1516 and 17 express bus lines on the Rockway Peninsula? >> Somebody help me here because I don't I don't know. I I don't have an answer off. >> That sounds like a yes, chair. I'll take it. >> Okay. Well, >> what's the answer? >> Okay. Well, Lucille tells me that we are taking a look at it and we're gonna come back to you timely. >> Okay. Um hopefully I'll be favorable. Can the MTA share data on MWBE and local highend rates for the Rockaway line resiliency and rehabilitation project? >> I I can share it. Um I don't have it at my fingertips, but the big we are we continue to be by far the largest agency on MWBE investment over a billion dollars a year. Um and we're thrilled about that. uh and uh that specific project which you were you were very present for which has been so successful in getting that connection to the Rockaways rebuilt on time and on budget. Um uh I don't have the numbers off hand but we complied with our own rules on that and I'll I'll give you the specifics. Um, and it'll be great if we can follow up on that because I'm still very much engaged on that project and I know that initially the local numbers were not reflective of the local community. So, I thank the MTA team of, you know, restarting that so that we could get the appropriate zip codes included. So, I just want to make sure that we continue to monitor that progress. Um, how does the MTA plan to allocate the $1 billion in projected annual revenues from the casino proposals? Is there is any of this funding intended to target transportation needs in transit desert communities such as via express bus expansions or subway or rail rail, excuse me, extensions. So, so the the good the the story is the governor as part of her solution to the MTA budget challenges in 2023 allocated those casino uh license fees to us and they are an absolute cornerstone of our budget and uh of our operating budget so that we can keep operating more service and hopefully better service. Um go ahead Jay CFO Jay Patel. >> Thank you. So, as many of you know, we were uh we received three license fees earlier this year. We received one in December and two in January. That 1.5 billion was programmed in our financial plan over three years. That continues to be the plan. And the first casino uh tax fees, right, will come to the MTA sometime later this year. um from the first uh casino that will open live later I think I believe in May or June. But the other two projected casinos will not open and be up and running until sometime in 2030 or 31. So the MTA would not receive any of those tax fees until that plan. But again, we have budgeted a small increment of tax fees um from the casinos in our financial plan already to balance. But at a time when there's, you know, there's a lot of challenging news that everybody sees, I mean, how good is it that thanks to what the governor and the legislature did in 23, unlike the rest of the country, we're not cutting, you know, in Chicago and in Philadelphia, they're talking about cutting service by 40% and raising fairs by 20%. We ain't doing that. We have a secure financial situation. Challenges, but secure and we're getting and and that's because of what happened out of Albany. So where's the money going to? >> Goes to service. It goes to provide the A train and all you know the the service that you so make sure >> make sure that we don't like unlike the rest of these big cities that are struggling with bad news from Washington transit that we don't have to cut and we don't have to dramatically >> I'm sorry chair. I just don't want you to feel a bust of me because I have about two more questions for you. Um, so the Rockway Beach branch in the MTA's 20-year needs assessment for 25 to 44, MTA estimated the reactivation of the Rockway Beach branch would serve 39,200 riders, a 17% decrease when compared to the MTA's 2019 ridership estimate of 47,000 daily riders. One, what did the MTA attribute that decrease to? And two, has there been any discussion of putting the Rockway Beach Line into future capital plans? Why or why not? >> Well, I think you you're aware of this that we studied all the projects in that comparative valuation that led up to our our capital plan. We studied all of the big new expansion projects, including the Layer Beach Line, and uh compared them for how much transit benefit and time savings they would deliver and equity benefit and many other things. And the one that came up really big winner was the IBX. And there are others which were okay but they didn't at this point justify mega investment. We'll continue to study them as we go forward. >> Thank you chair. >> Mr. Chairman. Uh next we have council member Hanife. >> Hello and thank you chair. So, first I'd just like to start off with what used to be in my district, uh, 4th Avenue, 9th Street Station, FGR, lines. It's now in Council Member Alexexas. Um, but we've been wanting to know about what's happening with the lighting, the vacant stores. We've been asking both MTA and DOT and have been met with, well, it's DOT's responsibility. Well, it's MTA's responsibility. It would be really wonderful to have lighting, adequate lighting, and there have been proposals to fill the vacant window shops uh with art at least. Uh but would like an update on that and if you could share the uh operational cost of running parransit and then I'll go into some elevator and accessibility questions. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned elevators because, you know, your district has got three major elevator projects >> and we're really proud of that >> and and one that's actually being built right now and we recently completed the ADA station at 7th Avenue and Park Slope. Um uh I we we did a a systemwide redo on the lighting which we're very pleased with and it's one of the reasons we get that much higher safety rate. >> Sure. Because I don't have a lot of time. Could you just specifically talk about Fourth Avenue, Ninth Street? >> Uh, I'll get back to you. >> Okay. >> You don't want to hear about what we're doing broadly on lighting on the specific >> less than four minutes that I have. >> Okay. So, $7.1 billion in new accessibility work. Uh, 60 subway stations at least will receive these upgrades. How are those stations selected and what criteria? >> Okay, so the >> were used to prioritize them. The it is done by analyzing both where the you know trying to make sure we have the the goal is to have no people be no more than one station away from an accessible station. That's where we are right now. That's the prime that's been the principal criterion. We also consult with the disability community. Um there has been a process and we put it out for public comment as well and then we make the decisions. So, it's been very transparent about how we're making those decisions and uh you see the results. You've your district has gotten three or four of them. >> No, we're really grateful and I know that the 7th Avenue FG Station elevator was a real labor of love from the community for years and uh we're really really lucky to have uh that elevator especially because it's in a hospital corridor high traffic foot traffic area. Uh so the MTA states that these upgrades of 7.1 billion will bring the system to roughly 50% fully accessible stations. What's the timeline for reaching that milestone? And how are you all uh measuring progress each year? >> The end of this capital program is when we're going to be at uh 272 out of the 4 uh se 490 stations. And um so we'll be at 55%. We've done 50 projects since 2020. We're proceeding four times as fast as the past MTAs did. >> That's great news. And then how much of uh the accessibility and investment is specifically allocated to elevators versus other improvements such as ramps, platform modifications, or ADA pathway upgrades. I mean technically the elevators are not usually the biggest piece of any of those projects because what what consumes a huge cost of these old stations you got to move all the utilities around move the stairways in many cases move the move the communication system there's a ton of work to create the space for an elevator to come in and for the mechanicals that support an elevator but we also do all the other stuff whether it's the platform edge um other ADA improvements as Well, I'd have to get you have to talk about a specific project if you want me to break it down by how much is elevators and how much is something else. >> Sure. And then what steps uh are is MTA's taking to reduce elevator outages and repair times? >> I'm very proud of the fact we have 97% elevator availability which is way way way higher than it used to be. to the extent that we have any underperforming elevator in terms of availability, how frequently they break down, they tend to be these private elevators, they're privately operated elevators where the city made a real estate deal usually more than 10 years ago. Um, and they got a very weak agreement with a developer to put in and maintain an elevator and those are not maintained as well. Um, they have higher breakdown rates, but we are banging on those guys. They're not, you know, probably 10 to 20 of those elevators, but they drag the numbers down. The city, the MTA operated elevators are actually performing in terms of availability, a very high level. >> And would you be able to share um what percentage of elevators and escalators it's in every month's reports, not the committee reports that are available online along with billions of other lines of data in the MTA open data system. >> Excellent. And what's the average time that it's taking MTA to repair an elevator once it goes out of service? And I'll come back for round two. >> Yeah, I think we've dramatically uh dramatically reduced uh the the turnaround times for for building elevators, but also for maintaining them. I'll have to I'll have to come back to you about >> It varies. It depends on the elevator and the situation you're dealing with, but it is reduced. We'll get you those We'll get you those times. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to bring it back now to the Second Avenue subway. In October 2025, the federal government announced a pause on funding for the Second Avenue subway project to review contracts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In February 2026, the MTA sent a letter to the United States Department of Transportation in regard to 58.7 million for the phase 2 project of the Second Avenue subway, which would extend the Q- line into East Harlem. The Biden administration previously committed 3.4 billion to the Second Avenue subway project as part of the capital investment grant program which is close to half of the entire $7 billion project. Hot off the press, there is a lawsuit. Can you speak to that? And will this will the lack of the the funding that we have now affect project timelines? >> Okay. So, uh, I I said in my initial testimony this morning, we sued the federal government, um, because the Trump administration continues to withhold, uh, the Second Avenue subway funding, which they are contractually obligated to deliver. They've, for now, it's been something like eight months, I think it started back in August of last year or October, I'm wrong, October of this year. But there's never been any uh question that we were we were in no way violating any terms of the agreement. The grant agreement between the federal government and us obligates them to reimburse us for when we when we put the paper in and and make requisitions and they've refused to do it. And then when we kept putting uh the paper in through the portal, the online portal, they shut down the online portal. So, um, we're we're just going in the what they call the uh the federal court of claims, uh, because it's an action on a contract to get them to release the money and let it keep going. As to your question of whether the project's going to be delayed, so far it hasn't. U, but at some point, we're on the verge of of awarding a, you know, roughly billion dollar contract for uh for excavation uh on Second Avenue. and we need to know that the federal money is available and that's why we've had to take this action. >> Have any uh are there any contracts have any contracts been awarded and how many are left to be awarded? >> Well, we've we've we've awarded we've now awarded two major I mean they're small contracts but the major contracts are the utility relocations. This is a something we learned from the the very imperfect first phase of Second Avenue subway is you got to move the utilities out of the way. So you they're not going to get in the way of your construction when you open up the street. So we did that as the first contract. The second contract is the tunnel boring contract. And now we're we need we have another major excavation contract which is close to being awarded but we need to have resolution from the feds. And there's no expected timeline on when the federal court of claims will resolve this. >> They acted promptly on the gateway uh disputes. So, we're very hopeful that they will step in and and take action. >> It is my hope that they act just as promptly. In the governor's executive budget, executive state budget this year, uh she proposed extending the Q line west along 125th Street to my district, which of course we're all very excited excited for with three new stops at Lennox Avenue, St. Nicholas Avenue, and culminating at Broadway. The governor said she will support the next phase of this project with funding for design and preliminary engineering to advance tunneling across 125th Street. Will MTA have to amend their 2025 2029 capital plan to account for this proposed extension of the Second Avenue subway? >> No. So what what the governor's now funded were proposed to fund in her budget is uh for us to do the engineering and the other technical work that will allow us to figure out how to keep the tunnel boring machine going when it reaches what was supposed to be the terminus at at Park Avenue but around uh no Lennox Avenue but it's around the that Lexington Avenue complex 125th and Lex complex. We'd like to keep it going, as you said, to your district all the way to Broadway and 125th Street. We're doing the analysis that would say, how would you do that? How much time would it save? How much money would it save? But then there will have to be once that work is done, a decision about whether we'll invest the big money to do that con additional construction. I'm sure it'll be part of that conversation when it happens. >> Thank you. What is the updated timeline for the project with the additional extension? >> I I don't I can't tell you that offense. One of the things we're going to study uh how much time could we save if we kept the tunnel boring machine going and what would that mean to uh the completion date of a hypothetical extension all the way to Broadway? That's one of the issues that we will answer through this uh year-long engineering and analysis. I just want to go back to the World Cup. Um, your favorite topic. The the summer this summer, the New York City region will will play a host to a round of group matches and the final match of the World Cup. US Secretary US Transportation Secretary Sean Shawn Duffy today announced on March 3rd that the FTA is investing 100.3 million into public transit systems within host cities preparing to welcome millions of fans during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Is MTA receiving any of this money? >> So they had they set up a formula which is based on how many games you had and some other variables. the the New York region got 10 million of that and we're sharing it with New Jersey. We're figuring it out. Listen, our you know the the our our goal is for everybody to be able to enjoy the city. I'm as concerned about the fan events in Queens and the Bronx and around the city as I am about, you know, people getting uh to the games which will be on New Jersey Transit. So my focus is going to be make sure that we have good service you know as people are moving around the city at the time of the World Cup. Uh and we we have a John has has been involved in it. We have a very close collaboration with city DOT talking about that planning right now. >> Have you have you received the money yet from the feds? Not too much. >> No, it it hasn't been broken up yet um between the agencies, but um >> and and when it arrives, if I know there's no use for for free bus service for for uh for folks, it's for for for the World Cup is your position, right? Um what will the MTA >> I haven't been asked to comment on it. >> Fair. What will the MTA use the resources for once you do get it from the feds, assuming you do get Um the these dollars are are are mostly associated with security uh related uh expenses that will be uh associated with the the the World Cup. So this is you know policing around Penn Station where um there's going to be you know you know a very special situation as far as getting people onto New Jersey Transit through the station. Um, so that so that's the primary focus of of this. >> So fair to say for policing at the moment, >> mostly for security related, >> but does I I I have to say I I do appreciate the platform barriers being installed. I think you guys call them bolsters. Is that right? >> The platform barriers >> platform barriers are fine. Um, >> what are how many have been installed? I mean, how many other stations are you looking to cover? Uh, and what are the impediments to installing them at every station? So, govern the governor's given us money to we're going to get to 200 stations by the end of this current year. I'm very proud of that and it has we've done you know we do hundreds of thousands of people in customer surveys and that has improved a sense of safety for many people especially older people and people with kids uh in the station. So, we're going to have 200 stations by the end of this year and we hope we'll we'll find the money to keep going after that. And we're doing it with inhouse labor. >> I was going to ask >> our own workforce. It's something we're we're also proud of. We're saving money by doing it inhouse. >> That was one of my questions is whether or not you're manufacturing it in in-house. What is the cost for each of these barriers? >> Uh I just can't remember off the top of my head. We did the analysis because we wanted to know whether we were going to contract it out or do in-house. And uh uh >> you can follow up with us on that. >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh, regarding just broadly speaking, um, MTA and vacant lots, affordable housing, broadly speaking, New York City is obviously in the midst of an extremely difficult housing crisis. Are there any vacant lots, yards, or large scale property that the MTA has identified as defunct or no longer of use to the MTA that could be used by the city to build affordable housing? >> So, we we we were asked by the governor to come up with plans for every possible uh site for housing. And I'll why don't we just rather than just taking time share that with you because we identified all the sites. As I said though, we're we look for opportunities. We we worked something out at the end of the last administration on Atlantic Avenue where we took an MTA operating site where we you know we we moved off of it. We split the there was an upzoning. We took half of the site. We gave half to the city and we we we got some clarification on our our uh real estate rights on on some uh uh you know bus facilities you know one of which is in your district. So we're always working to free up space and in the suburbs we are taking parking lots all over the place and with the governor's help uh doing housing development on them. We agree with you how every time everywhere there's an opportunity for housing development we're going to jump on it. We have a transit oriented development group that does that every day, all day. >> Well, that is uh certainly refreshing to hear and our office would would really like to partner with with your office on, you know, potential development sites, not only in our district, of course, but throughout our city. And we also have the same, you know, same questions for DT. There's a DT own lot along 158th Street in Riverside in my district where at any given moment you have like seven DT cars in this massive massive uh space where housing could be built. Uh and so we we really appreciate your determination to looking into these projects. I'm now going to turn over to Council Member Wong for round two followed by Council Member Brooks Powers. >> Um thank you chair. Um my first question has to do with the express buses in my district. Um uh ever since that uh the redesign um where uh last year the local elected officials uh sent a letter to MTA regarding these bus route redesign specifically lack of uh buses or the dimissioning of the frequency of buses doing peak hours specifically the QM25 and QM34 on Elliot Avenue. Um, I I I use Elliot Avenue and I have seen personally that people often uh uh have to wait 30 minutes or more for the next bus uh because the first one is packed. Uh it's either wait on the code or to get on the bus and stand and they pay so much for the express bus uh they expect to have a seat there. So my question for you is uh uh what's being done about that because this was raised uh several times already with the DOT and and with uh recent meetups on the MTA regarding uh uh these bus redesigns. Um, I think that there's a dialogue that's, you know, between our offices that's moved along. Rather than me jumping in, let's get let's continue the discussion because we have in some cases seen that there is additional service warranted and we're ready to work with you to add additional service. I'm I'm not certain about whether it's the 34 um or whether it's another line, but let's keep the discussion going because we're ready to talk about how much service there is and are there people being left on the curb. >> Okay, thank you. Very quickly, second question, congestion pricing. Uh my district pays a high proportion of the tax and we don't see investments in our area of Queens. Um can you tell me one investment being made in my district? Well, I I'll tell you what's being done in your district. Um, we've got three accessib ADA accessibility projects. U, the 63rd Street drive, RI RIO Park Station. There's new ADA at Forest Avenue. That's being paid for out of the Capitol program. We're we're we've done the uh accessibility project at Wood Haven Boulevard, which is going to be finished this year. If it hasn't, it's actually in the second quarter, so it's coming up pretty soon. I hope you'll join me for that celebration. Um, we're doing a huge communications and customer service upgrades at Forest Avenue and at Fresh Pond Road. We're making a lot of investments in your district and I'm happy to get into it, you know, specifics with you. Um, it's all it's all above board and it's all discernable. You know, we have an MTA capital program dashboard. So, I urge everybody go online, look at your your district or your area, and you can actually tap on specific projects and find out the status and learn more about them, but we'll work with you obviously. >> Okay. Thank you. And my final message um to MTA, uh my district has expressed strongly they don't want an IBX stop. Please make a note about that. >> I'm duly noted. >> Thank you. >> But no, I I'm not responding. I'm just duly noted. Thank you. >> Okay, >> Council Member Pierina Sanchez for questions. >> Thank you. Thank you so much, uh, Majority Leader Chair. Uh, and good morning. I, uh, ran over from a different hearing. Um, very excited to to have the opportunity to speak with you all today and hear your testimony. Um, I have to say, you know, every time I see the Interro Express mentioned, I get really sad because it was supposed to be the trib. I was at RPA, the New York director, uh, during the fourth plan. um process and and we really tried to get the Bronx in the picture. So, you know, I will not stop advocating for that. >> You mean to say, but we got pen Metro North Pen Access, which is the Bronx piece of this, right? Metro North Pen Access is on the same right ofway that that original idea called for and we're delivering connectivity to folks in the East Bronx. >> Okay. Through that, >> but I'm in the West, so >> um reach us in the in the south and then and then I'll be happy. Um, but my question, so I actually want to piggyback off of Council Member Wong. Um, regarding the Bronx local bus network redesign, um, chair, I just have, uh, my my concern, my complaint and your staff is probably sick of hearing me and my team um, complain about this that, you know, I understand that the redesign, you know, is is delivering improvements and improving balancing of buses. Uh but there there seems to have been no no no consideration or not as much consideration of the beautiful topography that we have in the West Bronx. We have really high hills. We have really um you know our our street network is is not a grid, you know, because we have these cliffs literally under Cliff Avenue is cut off of Bronx. um the BX18 bus service uh that we've complained about a lot and and Assembly Member Days at the state level has also um been talking about this issue and then we have uh in in my you know in the core of my area the BX40 and 41 bus stops are not next to the train stations u some of the stations some of the stops that were removed were right near the transit stops um so I'm just raising that here it it feels like my concerns and our concerns have fallen on deaf ears. We we just get stonewalled whenever we bring up these concerns and it's an accessibility issues. Our our seniors are are um folks who are on wheelchairs, they they can't get to these buses and then there's part of the community that just feels cut off by the way that the redesign was done. So that's a comment. Um and then my question really is on a separate track. Um you know, and it's regarding you know, understanding that the health of the MTA budget is important. Um and understand that uh fair evasion has been an issue but it feels like in my neck of the woods in the South Bronx and the West Bronx it just feels like military there are so many safety agents. So I just want to uh understand you know whatever you can share whether it's the past two three five fiscal years whatever you have um do you have estimates on how much revenue uh the MTA had been losing to fair evasion by year um and then when did the security program begin and how much uh has the MTA been spending on it are you seeing a return on investment or what what return on investment >> listen you know the the the value of what we're doing is trying as I said before and I don't blame the riders, but there was there's confusion. There was confusion coming out of CO because we had a period of time when people saying get on the bat after the bus, don't get on the front, don't pay, and people got accustomed to that. And um and we're just trying to like reestablish that everybody's in this together. Um we are very proud of the affordability of the system, but it's not going to be there if all of a sudden everybody says it's optional. Uh so um there is you know you call it fair evasion enforcement militarization I don't see anything like that I am in your district a fair amount I have been there with the eagle teams who actually get on buses and ask people to you know show them their proof of payment in some cases bud >> unarmed >> unarmed they're unarmed they're not militarized in any way and um but the important thing is that I think that we're going to soon have a system which is more like what you in Europe where unarmed, non-military people just get on and say, "Show me your Omni card or your credit card, however you paid so I can validate that you paid and let's reestablish the uh the the fair payment policies of the past." I'm very proud of the fact that we did complete the Bronx bus redesign first, but it has imperfections. So, let's keep talking about it uh and see if we can make it better. Matching it up to the the subway system obviously makes sense. if there are shortcomings keep let's keep discussing. Thank you, chair. And and I Yes, thank God they are unarmed. But I'll just share that my father was approached by someone. He had paid his fair. They, you know, whatever the conversation was, he was so nervous about it. His and he has he has hypertension. He's a senior. Um he lives in in public housing in the South Bronx. And these interactions, right, it's it's not it's not they have a uniform. They look official. They look scary and that's the point. We want people to pay and I support that. But there's a balance in the communities like ours that are overpoliced that have generational trauma around law enforcement with this heavy use. And it's not just the buses, you know, I understand that it's also the subway stations where you have like three, four, five people at every single point of entry and you have the cops and you have so it's just, you know, I I I love writing the MTA. I I do agree with your testimony. I do feel safe and I do uh appreciate the improvements that we've been seeing, but I just want to bring that into the conversation. the lowincome people that I represent that I where that I come from you know that that my parents are you know there there is an impact on the stress levels and and the mental health uh their mental health of having all of this surrounding. So >> and you know I happens that I have a woman on my right uh Shenifier who actually takes the the the train to your district every day Metro North and the subway. So maybe >> Yeah. So, we also just want to um you know make a note that while the unarmed eagle team um agents are out there every day doing fair enforcement, we have you know taken a multi-step approach to remind and encourage customers that a fair is required. Every single bus before you board there is a message a fair is required >> in English. in English but um but also on board buses I mean and even throughout the subway network I mean we have you know published tons of customerf facing campaigns you know even pulling from the heartstrings it takes a city um and understanding that everyone has to do their part to be part of this fabric of of our neighborhoods and our community and then also you know the the the chairman has said fair evasion should not be a crime of poverty so we do all I the MTA have stepped up and have been doing tons of outreach and engagement encouraging and getting people enrolled in fairs. We do it in our subway systems as well as at our bus stops and hightra areas. So these are many steps and many approaches that we are trying to work with our riders to get them to um pay their fairs. >> Thank you. Uh chair, if I may uh just I >> only I'll allow it because you haven't had a second round of questioning. So, can we just put an extra five minutes for her, please? And then, >> oh, I won't take five, but thank you. Thank you so much, chair. I just want to make sure to follow up on the numbers. I'd love to just see what is being spent. Um, and then the last is an advocacy piece. I, you know, was a huge advocate of the pen access project, but I also just want to on the record here, state, we would love to have uh Metro North service in the West Bronx, too, on the way down, right? Like I would love to be able to jump on in in you know Morris Heights and come down to to the city in the morning but uh our stations are skipped in the West. >> Yeah. >> But we we do have a Mars Heights station right? >> We have a station but the train doesn't stop. >> Well, we've actually increased service. I'd like to show you how we dramatically increase service. And you know, the fastest growing piece of our of our mass transit system regionwide is Metro North Service going north from the Bronx to Westchester and Connecticut. People are seeking jobs and education and opportunity that way. And we love providing that service to New York City people who used to get skipped a lot more. Um I think we've done a lot to actually increase service to Bronx sites with on the metron system and we cut the fair in half. So, um, something I'm proud of and and committed to. Let's keep we should discuss, um, what what how you're looking at that service. >> Excellent. Thank you. Thank you so much, chair, and thank you, majority. >> Of course, Mr. Chairman. So, we're going to have an extension line coming from the east side to the west side, which is exciting. Another to make West Harlem even more of a center of the universe, I would a lot of folks in the neighborhood in my district would love to see a Metro North stop along 125th Street. Can you look into that? >> Yeah. So, not only can we look into it, we did look into it because it was part of the what I mentioned before this comparative evaluation of all of the ideas out there about major projects and extensions and expansions and so on. So when we studied the idea of having uh the Hudson line of Metro North which now comes down to Spite and Dal and then and then zips to the east to come over the the Harlem lift the the Harlem River Bridge have it come straight down like like uh uh the west side. We actually studied that as an investment and it came up as a good investment, a medium to good investment, but only if you did have 125th Street uh station down in your district as well. So, it's an expensive project, but one that that rated reasonably highly on the on the rating system. Um and uh you know again future capital programs might in fact um they'll have to be you know work done but it it might warrant investment in a future capital program. >> Is there any way to add it to the 2025 2029 capital program? >> John go ahead. Yeah, one of the things that we're doing is we're looking at the work that's needed to be done west of Penn Station, the track configuration, so that you can run a train up the west side that that goes into Penn Station from from that line. So, >> right. Right now, there's very limited capacity to get in out of Penn Station from the so-called Empire line that runs up the west side. That's a technical issue that we're actually, as you say, studying. >> Would you have any idea how expensive it would be to do install a stop on 125th Street? >> Real money, but not not Why don't we go back and look at what's in the comparative evaluation because there were very conceptual numbers thrown at it for the purposes of that analysis and that that would be the answer to my question your question. >> It's it's a it's a big transportation priority. I know that a lot of folks have you know have long wanted this. I understand the the limitations that your agency is facing at the moment or the through the authority. Uh but we can just keep conversations on that. That would be great. You'll have to bring Colombia to the table because they would be the biggest beneficiaries of all. Columbia University was struggled to to get in touch with their, you know, their uh their their their conscience to to with your with as a result of your work. We're close to being able to uh announce that Colombia is going to pay for accessibility at the 125th Broadway station. um and um they would need to be part of a solution for a metro northtop there big time. >> Well, of course, we hope that an agreement is reached eventually on that and I'm sure you have more to report on that when the time is right. >> Yeah. >> Uh regarding subway surfing, subway surfing is the act of riding on top or outside of a moving train. In recent years, this dangerous trend has increased potentially due to the rise in social media posts involving subway surfing. In 2023, at least five people were killed in subway surfing incidents as compared to five total fatalities between 2018 and 2022. According to the police department, as of the NYPD, as of October 15, 2024, the NYPD had arrested 163 people for subway surfing in 2024 year to date, a 22% increase from the 138 that were arrested in all of 2023. The NYPD contends that the increase in arrest is due to the increase in enforcement and not indicative of an increased number of subway surfers. However, in 2025, five people died as a result of subway surfing. What infrastructure enhancements does the OT sorry, does the MTA plan on building in order to prevent youth from subway surfing? Okay. So, let's just start off by acknowledging that subway surfing is a tragedy and it is not um this is not fun. This is not high jinx. This is life or death and we cannot have we're going to try to we have been working to try to discourage this. You have probably seen we have announcements constantly in the system to educate kids. We've initiated an animated uh advertising campaign. We have leaned on all the social media companies to suppress this, to use their algorithms, which they're pretty good at using to get business or to find new sources of revenue, but they seem to be not all of them, uh, but some of them seem to be unable to suppress subway surfing videos. Um, that that one area they can't get the algorithm right. One company, Meta, principally Instagram, has been not cooperative on this and I've called them out a couple times. I have reached out to people through uh the the the very effective NYC tech group to say we are going to we are going to have to do something about you if you don't uh if you don't get with the program because you can't have kids looking at these things and getting killed. So, we've been very aggressive about that. We did all kinds of things. We teamed up with New York City public school students to do announcement campaigns and so on and so on. You're aware of all that. Um, in addition, I bless the NYPD. Whatever you think of drones to the way they are using drones to identify subway surfers on some of these outdoor lines, which are where it principally happens, has been effective. And I I really appreciate what they've done. They have deployed officers. And it's true that there have been more arrests, but the arrests are not, no one's being incarcerated. Basically, these kids get taken off the train and they get taken home. And we ask the parents, could you please, we beg the parents, could you please intervene, whether it's a parent or a teacher or a caregiver, a coach, folks need to take responsibility for preventing kids. So, there's a lot of stuff that we have done and we're going to continue doing. One thing on top of all this is it took a while but we have developed a uh and by the way subway surfing was down in 25 versus 24. So I'm by no means declaring victory but the number of cases actually has gone down by about 10%. Not this is by no means cause for celebration but we are pushing in the right direction. We are also on on one of the lines that seems to be the worst in this area which is the number seven. We are actually doing what we call bolsters. They're they're a physical intervention. It's really hard to come up with a way to do this that doesn't prevent the car from being maintained uh in normal course, but the the folks at Transit have tested out and piloted uh a bolster and they're now deploying it onto the number seven trains so that that line in particular will hopefully have kids climbing up from between cars will be um prevented to a greater extent. Um what else Sheneifa am I missing? Um >> so as part of the Boaster expansion are most of the seven uh train seven train stations are going to be covered the ones that are above ground especially >> it's not the stations it's really the physical train itself that prevents kids from climbing up >> between cars and they had to test out a lot of different techniques because again you have to maintain access to the top of the car for for uh for maintenance purposes. But they do have a strategy that they are moving forward with aggressively and and you'll start to see more and more of those. >> And my last question on this topic is has the MTA reviewed case studies from other municipalities with metro systems to study how subway surfing is successfully prevented? If so, what ideas have been implemented? >> I mean, I would have to say we are the case study. Um, you know, we um I talked to lots of counterparts and colleagues across um various transit agency. I mean and this is um you know a phenomenon that is wide sweeping um but they are looking to us and we you know as the chairman said who spoke about the measures that we're taking another thing that we're doing is going I mean we have the partnership with DOE students who have lent their voices to this campaign and the audio announcements but also when we are invited in to assemblies or gatherings uh we do go out and and you know participate in doing a lot of anti subway surfing campaigns as well as bringing on celebrities and prominent New Yorkers to lend their voice to the cause as well. >> Thank you, Council Member Hanife. >> Thank you. I'd like to ask about uh accessoride. Uh could you share what the operational cost of running paratransit is? >> Sure. Power transit cost projected for 2026 is about $990 million total. >> And is that >> it's about a 20% increase from 2025. >> And could you share how MTA handles situations where drivers are late, no shows? What recourse do riders have? >> Well, I mean, we now have uh 85% customer satisfaction on Power Transit, which is a million miles better than they used to be. We have 95% on-time performance. So, we have dramatically improved. I'm not sure you were here. There's been a lot of dialogue early in the hearing about it. Um, uh, so the performance has dramatically improved. Ridership has surged, I think, 20% a year the last two years. And it's not a secret. That's part of the reason it's costing a fortune. We have driven down the per ride costs by using more black cars and and four higher vehicles. But uh but and giving better service but but the overall numbers are surging so much that the overall cost of the program is dramatically increased. >> And is that budget coming from city and state and federal? How is that funding? >> So that the the funding for the program is between city and MTA. We have a cost share on on the program um a historical cost share and a cost share that's currently at uh 50% with a 65 million cap >> and with federal ADA mandates, is there any funding associated? >> There's no operating funding coming from the federal government of any kind. >> Got it. And then what capital investments are planned for the Accessoride fleet replacement or expansion over the next five years? >> Sure. So, uh, normal replacement for vehicles that are part of our our fleet, right? The primary carrier vehicles are MTA owned vehicles. They get replaced on a normal basis. I believe it is every seven years that is already programmed into the paratransit budget um for cost replacements. Coming to the Nav'i lens program that helps ver uh visually impaired users to be more independent in unknown spaces via QR codes positioned within stations especially where it's not possible to use GPS or other computer vision methods. Could you share how many Navi lens are deployed in the New York City subway? I I I don't know that offhand, but I I'll tell you we've what we've what we've done is an incredibly innovative pilot with if you hit a QR code, you can get access to a ASL translator. And we've gotten incredibly positive field feedback on this from uh from the the portion of the disability community that relies on that. Um and uh uh you know we're we're going to expand that but we're using naval lens and other techniques to provide uh accessibility benefits to folks who aren't only mobility. >> Sure. No. And I think I think that's fantastic. >> Yeah. And it is a fixed in um every subway station as well as bus. >> Oh, great. Coming to bus lanes, seven out of nine council districts with the fewest bus lanes are all in Brooklyn, which also includes district 39. In my district, only 20% of streets have a bus lane. How do you decide where to add new bus lanes? And could you discuss how MTA is addressing bus bunching, route planning, and all-door boarding? >> Okay. U there's a lot there. and you want me to go fast. So, I'll say is that obviously we're engaged in a in a in a redesign of the Brooklyn bus system that will account for all of the factors that you mentioned. Um, with respect to we choose we choose the lanes with together with DOT. So, if you want to know if there if that seven out of nine number is going to change, 1 800 NYC DOT. Um, we are waiting for them to put into effect the bus lanes that we all agreed ought to be done a couple years ago. Um, and but we're we're happy to continue to provide data on uh on performance um that will inform our, you know, the bus route redesign process that you're going to be very much part of as it unfolds. We're really excited and eager about the Brooklyn bus redesign and we'll just make a a pitch for restoring the B71 bus in my district or something similar to the B71 bus. And then finally, I just want to uh wrap by asking about you mentioned um that most of the elevators out of service are not run by the MTA, but rather the private contractors. What do the >> developers, >> private developers, real estate owners? real estate owner. So what what's the informant mechanism enforcement mechanism for those? >> That's the problem that the the city made deals with with folks is most of them more than 10 years ago to put in elevators and the agreements didn't have tight uh language about the frequency of you know that the availability how frequently they would be breaking down or repaired or whatever. And uh we're trying to get get some of these operators to to to do move more quickly so that the elevators are more available. John, >> and just to answer a question from an earlier round, it used to be eight months for a capital replacement. It's now six months, so 25% savings. And our chief accessibility officer, Camela Royo, just texted me to say that there's 5,000 naval codes out there systemwide. So, >> thank you, Council Member Schulman. >> Thank you. Um I have a few more questions. one is um it it's sort of a small issue. It is and it isn't. But anyway, the um the the app for the timing of the express buses misses a particular issue. It only says when the bus is like a couple of minutes away as opposed to this is the time that so what it causes me to do and I've heard from a couple other constituents not a lot um is that I there's something called transit time that I pay them $5 a month so I can see what time the bus is supposed to come so I can figure out my day and my plans and all of that but it doesn't it just just be aware like I keep I'll keep refreshing it and it's not until a couple of minutes before it's going to get there that it shows up. >> Okay. So, let's take this discussion offline. We're actually on the verge of issuing an update of our in of our uh great app and it's I think it's going to have a lot of benefits. The people including me who've been beta testing it think it's great, but I want to make sure that you come away happy because you're such a good express customer clearly. Um, but I I got to make you happy. >> I appreciate that. And I appreciate by the way your thoughtfulness and your thorough answers today. I just want to >> say that. Um the other thing too in terms of subway surfing, I want to um piggyback on the chair's questions. >> Have you spoken to DOE? because some of the class some of the classes some of the students in my district have come up with plans on how to deal with subway surfing and these are you know they're they're these are their co you know their their fellow students sometimes and all of that and they have some ideas should we who should I share them with or get you guys involved or >> you can definitely share them with me and we do have um I I think like bi-weekly meetings with DOE and and students to come up with different concepts and ideas and hearing directly. >> Some of them are very creative. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, please again we welcome any and it's their peer group. Yeah. So, okay. No, that's great. And um also is what's the um what are you guys doing in terms of AI in terms of the transit system? Is is there a place for AI in >> listen you know AI is sort of just a general terminology if it's about you crunching taking data to try to deliver better outcomes there is a place for it okay >> you know I wouldn't say that MTA is a is been a thought leader but we have tasked all of our operating agencies to come up with initiatives to start people thinking about it one area where we are using it is try to optimize schedules of all of our services okay so you have the minimiz ize downtime for crews and maximize the benefit to the customer. >> And my last question is about some of the news um about buses being out of service or being put into service that don't have that aren't up to to par. And you know, I just want to get a response from you on on that. >> Yeah. No one listen here's the bottom line. We're never going to put a butt in bus into service that is defective or broken. That's nonsense. Um, we have uh we have disagreements with our friends in the union about, you know, how quickly certain kinds of maintenance activities should be performed and we're trying to get buses on the road so that people in your district and council member Wong's district and everybody else's district aren't st standing there because one bus didn't run. >> Correct. Right. So sometimes our our friends in the union um make public statements that okay suggest >> dangers that are not present in my view. >> And the one thing I want to um just a comment is I was actually on a brand new bus a couple weeks ago. >> Yeah. >> I'd like you to get more new buses. >> Was it an express bus then Lyn? >> Express bus. Yeah. Um because it's more comfortable even to get on the bus and some of the buses are like not in great shape. But >> All right. Well, I hopefully I I I know where I'm sending my next new bus to which line. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Lee. Really appreciate it. >> I would like to add on to Council Member Schulman's uh concern on the surf uh the surfing subway surfing that we've been seeing. The council's taken action. And we're passing legislation next week that would distributeformational materials within our schools and for our students to understand what the risks are of social media, not only when it comes to the spreading of hate, but also when it comes to public safety and issues like subway surfing. Uh so we are taking action on that and something that we take very seriously. Council member Brooks Powers is next. >> Thank you and all those wonderful express buses in Forest Hills. I'm looking forward to confirmation of our three express buses in Rockway being made permanent. Um, but I wanted to say thank you for responding to the letter from myself and council member Areola regarding the Rockaway um, park branch of the A train service. I wanted to know if there was any updates on the on when the work will be completed on that. I know there was an initial response to our letter, but wanted to see if there are any other additional updates. >> I'm looking at Lucille because she's ahead of me. Go ahead. >> We're looking at shortly. So, you know, within the next six to eight weeks. >> Okay, good. Thank you for that. And then just going to um back to the express buses in terms of the accessibility. What we have heard from folks in the disability community has been that it's difficult to reliably take express buses because the drivers don't always know how to lift or move the seats especially in the evenings, nights and weekends and sometimes I think there's a swap out of the bus operators as well that may not have uh training. Can you tell the committee what steps the MTA has taken or will take to ensure that the bus operators are fully versed on the the mechanisms of the bus for the disability riders? >> Well, your your your question echoes something that we hear from one of our friends in the disability community, Gene Ryan, every on a regular basis. Listen, we have we have taken steps to redouble the effort to make sure that every bus driver who's on an express bus needs to know how to operate that lift. And the idea of people getting stuck is, you know, that's not acceptable. So, it's about training and refreshing the training so even if they don't get, you know, aren't prompted to operate the lift for three months that they don't forget how to do it and they can do it timely and effectively. So, we're going to continue that. And let me just reassure you that Gene Ryan ain't going to let us forget about that. >> I know she won't let me forget either. >> We have new videos out there training our operators and they have palm cards explain. So we're as the chair said making sure they know what to do. It's what we owe to our customers. >> Thank you for that. And finally looking forward to the update on the express buses for Rockaway as well. Thank you. >> These are express buses we ran during the temporaries. >> Yes. that you want to make. >> Yes. And I've been getting a lot of feedback from the community in terms of how helpful it's been. And when I've seen them, it's had a lot of folks actually riding it and taking advantage. And I told you we just needed an opportunity to show that we have the wrership for it. >> Take a look. >> Thank you, >> Council Member Lee, Finance Chair. >> Hi everyone. Thank you so much. Sorry I was a little late. Um just wanted to ask a couple uh budget questions and then also as well as um since we're talking about bus lanes, congestion pricing, all those fun topics. So um going to I know this was touched upon a little bit before, but the casino revenue um in the MTA 2025 adopted budget, the authority expected to receive 500 million per year in casino revenue starting this calendar year. Um, in your 2026 adopted budget, this figure jumped to 1 billion. So, does the calculation take into account additional casinos to be built throughout the calendar year or just existing casinos? >> Sure. Um, we when when the casino uh were announced, we took a very conservative approach of how they would be uh deployed or awarded, right? And so what we had planned was in 26, 27, and 28, each of those casinos getting an award and a license fee to the MTA. What we did see is the commission awarded all three of those licenses in the month of December of 25. So we got the revenue of $ 1.5 billion earlier than planned. However, it was already expensed and budgeted for in our financial plan. So what we did was recognize the revenue but it is already spoken for in our financial plan. >> Okay. And what will the funds be used for? More >> specific service. Just to run >> just to run the service. >> Run service. It is it was an essential gap filler that Governor Hokll identified in 2023. As I said before you arrived the rest of the country transit is being cut, services being cut, fairs are being dramatically raised. We don't have to do that because of what Governor Hok and the legislature did in 2023, right? The casino revenues were part of that. >> Okay. Um and then in terms of dedicated taxes, um almost 45% of operating revenues that are necessary to cover operating budget expenses are derived from dedicated taxes and an economic slowdown or recession could adversely impact MTA's ability to cover costs. So has MTA planned for an economic slowdown and what is the contingency plan to cover the operational budget if there is one? >> Well, we just bottom line is that we work closely with the state division of the budget who takes you know is a an appropriately conservative or moderate approach to their their their projections and and um and that's the basis on which we project our revenue sources. Anything else? >> No, agree. um we take both the city and the state projections and use that to model our own revenue. I think both agencies and and entities take a conservative approach. We have planned for the same. Um and we if we see any uptick, we recognize the revenue as uh as it is appropriated. >> Okay, good to know. Um so as so if Okay, so you guys are working closely with them which is good to know. Um, one quick question about I know this that the question was asked earlier, but just wanted to follow up in terms of the um the list of elevators that are being operated by private developers if you have a list of them. >> Yeah, I give you that list again. It's like somewhere between 10 and 20. Um, just talk about so one of them that we lean on a lot that I'm not happy about is the Barkley Center, which is new and it's high-profile Brooklyn and it it shouldn't be going out of service as much as it does, but we are on those people like the proverbial cheap suit because they're not they have not been doing well enough. >> Perfect. Um, and then just really quickly on the bus lanes because I'm in eastern Queens where I think my district is one of the only two that has no subways or Long Island. >> Long Island Railroad in Bayside, right? >> No, that's not me. So, I have no Long Island Railroad and I have no subways. Uh, so we are it's right to the north and south of me, but I'm like smack in the middle of that area. Um, so we rely very heavily on buses as well as cars. And I think when the bus lanes um on hillside were input, I'm sure you've heard feedback on this, but just wondering um is it one year like how long do you guys monitor that because it has caused so much traffic and we understand the need um especially on a thoroughare like Hillside Avenue, but if we can switch it from 247 to certain hours during the day because it has uh we keep getting so many calls into our office about the traffic that gets built up because now there's only one lane. lane for cars. Um, so that is something that I know that myself, Natasha Williams, as well as Jim Janeiro, we all have parts of that on Hillside Avenue and that's something that all of our offices have been hearing. >> We should talk about it's definitely New York City DOT issue as well. And I just remind all of us that the bus the bus the vehicles that go in the bus lane carry 20 30 40 50 people and you know individually individual automobiles. So, I respect the fact that traffic is is impacted, but if you can make things faster for the 40 people who are on the bus, that is making a difference. >> Well, and just to make a point on that note, um faster hopefully doesn't mean that we're I know we went through the whole redesign, but hopefully it doesn't mean sacrificing on stops because for our elderly and the students, that's really important. >> All right, I'm May I just privilege of answering the question? It is a really complicated to find the Goldilock solution, the perfect meat. We have in New York, our our bus system has so much more frequent stops than the rest of the world. And it's one of the reasons our system is our bus system is a little slow. Everybody wants us to have faster service. So, we're trying to balance >> having fewer stops but having them in the right places and not, >> you know, hurting communities. It is a it is a constant issue of balance. >> It's like a jigsaw. >> Yeah. >> No, which I appreciate. And I'll ask if possible another question for the next round I guess. >> Sure. >> Chair, you can ask them now. >> Okay. Uh just one last >> Sure. >> on congestion pricing because that is a area that uh impacts eastern Queens tremendously because not only in the sense of um getting the benefits of congestion pricing because we have to pay the prices, but also I have a a very large percentage of the drivers who live in my district as well. And I know that the $9 was sort of exempt from the drivers, a lot of the drivers, but if correct me if I'm wrong on that, or at least the the the fee was a lot less, but I know before CO there was workings on the state level to try to get some of those resources to go to the outer burrows. And I'm just wondering, I know that obviously the main source is in the subway transit system, but if some of those resources could also come out to the outer buroughs. I I just wanted >> Listen, we can Why don't we just give an IOU to give you the specifics of what projects in your district are going to benefit, but broadly speaking, um it's going to ADA accessibility, the basics of making sure that the system doesn't fall apart. It's going to enable us to run more service on subway and commuter rail >> and and new trains and buses, but we'll give you a specifics on your district and how it's benefiting uh from congestion pricing and and honestly I I would no one ever wants to uh get into the details of it because it's controversial, but with the speeds being picked up on the Williamsburg and the Midtown tunnel so dramatically, there are a lot of folks coming out of Queens. I'm not talking specifics who are seeing real time savings. Their time is worth money. That's why drivers in polls are much more supportive in congestion pricing than they used to be. >> They're not coming to you. I understand they're probably not coming to talk to you, but yes, in the polling. >> I mean, as a driver myself, I I I sort of have a different narrative, but that's I mean, not just me, but the folks in our district, but we we can talk about that offline. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Are you Are you done, Finance Chair? >> Yeah. >> Thank you. All right. Uh, now my last two questions. Uh, and I'm giving two minutes each for the last third third round. Council Wong, followed by Hanife. >> Yes. Hi. Thank you, Chair. Um, I'm counting the number of uh bus shelters in my district that's that's been abandoned or the stops has been removed, but the shelters are still there. Uh, what is being done has been seven, eight months. >> Yeah, I have to talk to New York City DOT. They oversee the bus shelter system through a a franchisee. Um that's not the MTA. >> I see. Okay. Thank you. Um back to the uh express buses. Um what what are being what sort of operational improvements are being done to re remove to improve reliability? Yes, the bus network was a significant change. I do I don't see any improvements. I only see uh bus stops being removed and and the fewer buses coming. What what is being done to improve the services? >> Here here's what's being done is that we in in my era we took away the rule of of uh uh bus redesigns was it has to be costneutral. I took that away and we are spending 35 million a year more on buses in Queens per year. uh as a result of the bus network redesign, we've added rush routes to connect people from u neighborhoods that don't have rail access to get them to the commuter rail station and get to the subway station and we've seen overall an improvement in speeds. So you we can we can share that information. There'll be a full report coming out within a couple months. >> Please. Thank you. And I have 30 seconds. Okay. Uh what's being done to improve the traffic signal timing on bus bus bus routes? >> Traffic signal prioritization is one of the ways we speed up buses and it's being done uh widely but it's part of our discussion with New York City DOT who controls that. We're going to keep pushing for more of that bus specific traffic signal prioritization. >> Yeah, I have some recommendations on boulevard. >> Welcome. Welcome. Get them to us and we'll do that. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Council member Hanife. >> Thank you. I want to come back to lighting and give you an opportunity to tell us what MTA's been up to around lighting repair. So, 4th Avenue, 9th Street Station. I mean, it's it got no lighting. It's drabby. It's uh dirty. And thousands of people are using that station uh to get into Park Slope Gowanis. I mean, it's a it's a huge through line in my district. And of course also now council member Alexa Az. So would love to know just what the plans are or where we are on the roster of getting >> I'm gonna have to get I just don't know the project as well as I know some others. You've raised it now twice. I will get we will get back to you. >> It's very very important since I was a staff person in former council member Brad Lander's office. We've been fighting for this then I was member for four years. Now, Alexa, like I don't want this to keep pass pass passing along to another uh elected official. This is important and I really hope that DOT and MTA can really figure out what each's responsibilities are in terms of whether adding street furniture would be um a positive element versus lighting, which we obviously need more of. And then of course addressing the vacant storefronts. >> Thank you, chair. >> Thank you. Uh thank you so much again, Mr. Chairman, for coming to testify and your team. Uh this panel is hereby excused. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Do you have any time for the parade? >> No. >> No. Same here. >> Thank you. Good. How you doing? Just a quick PSA, please do not approach the deis, everyone. Do not approach the deis. Furthermore, food and beverages are not allowed. If you have any, you can eat them outside or drink them outside. Thank you. How's it going? >> Yeah, that's been My question is slice. I didn't know They didn't send us I want to get One of you here Please at this time everyone please find your seats please. Shh. Keep it on. Sh. Thank you. Please find your seat. We'll be starting. James just turn on the We'll be starting momentarily. Please find your seats. Also, please do not approach the DS at any time. Please do not approach the DS. If you have any questions, please raise your hand and the sergeant at arms. Let me assist you. All right. Since I already provided my opening earlier this morning, I will turn it over to committee council to administer the oath. >> Thank you. Our next panel will be from the Department of Transportation, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, Mike Flynn. First Deputy Commissioner Margaret Forion, Executive Deputy Commissioner Paul Ooa, Deputy Commissioner of Transportation Planning and Management Eric Beaton, and Assistant Commissioner for Intergovernmental and Community Affairs Rick Rodriguez. I will now administer the oath. Please raise your right hands. Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee and to respond honestly to council member questions? >> Yes, I do. >> Thank you. You may begin when ready. Great. Good morning or good afternoon, Chair Abrau and members of the committee on transportation and infrastructure. I'm Mike Flynn, commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. With me today, our first deputy commissioner Margaret Forion, executive deputy commissioner Paulo Choa, Deputy Commissioner of Transportation Planning and Management Eric Beaton, and Assistant Commissioner for Intergovernmental and Community Affairs Rick Rodriguez. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of Mayor Zoran Mandani on DO's fiscal year 2027 preliminary budget and fiscal year 2026 to 2035 capital plan. As Mayor Mandani announced, this preliminary closer. Okay. Uh as Mayor Mandani announced, this preliminary budget confronts the fiscal crisis headon while preserving the core services New Yorkers rely on every day. Within that context, the New York City Department of Transportation remains focused on our chartermandated mission to provide for the safe, equitable, and sustainable movement of people and goods and create public spaces that strengthen our communities. DOT manages 26% of the city's land area, including 6,300 miles of streets and highways, over 12,000 miles of sidewalk, 44,000 intersections, and more than 800 bridges and tunnels. And this budget enables us to sustain those essential operations while advancing savings, improving operational efficiencies, and maintaining critical infrastructure. We appreciate the mayor's continued investment in DOT enabling us to maintain our programs to help all New Yorkers and millions of visitors get around the city. But we're also going to think big and be bold. We're laying the groundwork and will marshall our resources to go beyond the status quo because the status quo isn't good enough. We will implement transformative street redesigns that improve safety. Build busways and other bus infrastructure that speed up service. scale up the production of protected bike lanes and pedestrian space. Take a hard look at parking policy in our city. Usherh in a new era for vision zero that builds upon past success and utilizes new tools and tactics. And streamline bureaucracy to accelerate important work that must be done with urgency and so much more. All of this work will take resources and Mayor Mandani already gave an initial down payment on the important work that's ahead. But resources go beyond just money. There's a national shortage of engineers, which makes hiring for these essential roles difficult. That's why we're leading outreach and events to attract engineers to work at this agency. There's also a shortage of contractors who do the work that's needed for our projects, including painting the markings on roadways and repairing traffic lights. And we're working with contractors to encourage them to expand their operations because we have work that needs doing. With climate change and affordability as two of the defining challenges of our time, we understand our critical role in transitioning our roadways, infrastructure, and assets to a safer, greener, and more accessible transportation network to benefit New Yorkers for generations to come. This is going to be a forward-looking, problem-solving DOT. Not the DOT of no, but turning a ship as big as DOT will take time if we want to get it right. So, we're acting with haste on the things we can deliver now, like restarting shelved bus and bike lane projects and announcing 815 mileph slow zones at all eligible New York City schools this year and at all 3,200 schools citywide by the end of Mayor Mandani's first term. And we're building a rock-solid foundation to deliver on the grander ambitions that we have for this agency moving forward. And it's only March. Let's start with where things stand today with the fiscal year 2027 budget. DO's FY27 expense budget is $1.6 billion and you can see the breakdown uh and in the chart in my testimony. That includes $126 million for bridge maintenance and inspection, 139 million for ferry operations and maintenance, $271 million for roadway maintenance, 367 million for other DOT operations and administration, including sidewalk management and inspection, 451 million for traffic operations, including signals, street lights, automated enforcement, and parking, and 204 million for transportation planning and management, including installation of street signs and roadway markings. Our FY26 to FY35 capital plan is $33 billion and you can see the breakdown on the screen well or in the testimony. 17 billion for bridge reconstruction and rehabilitation, $6 billion for street reconstruction, $3.2 billion for resurfacing, 3.2 billion for sidewalk and pedestrian ramp repair and reconstruction, 1.6 6 billion for street lights, signals, and automated enforcement, 665 million for the Staten Island Ferry, and 1.3 billion for the facilities and equipment needed to support DOT's operations. This budget provides funding to support critical and innovative DOT operations that make New York safer and more livable. It's clear that the Mandani administration shares this vision with the investments in bus riders, cyclists, and pedestrians in this budget. Given the funding for a secure bike parking pilot, summer streets, open streets, and a down payment on bus and bike lane projects that we're actively planning now. These investments strengthen our vision to create a transportation system that provides equitable mobility for all residents and visitors on faster and more reliable bus service. We're thrilled with the mayor's proven commitment to make it easier and faster to travel around the city with his announcement of the revitalization of four previously halted street redesign projects across the Bronx and Brooklyn. These projects will build upon our creative and collaborative work with the MTA to improve the bus rider experience citywide, ensuring that New Yorkers have fast and reliable bus service. The addition of $5 million per year starting in FY27 as a down payment for bus and bike lane projects is not just a line in the budget. It's a clear commitment to faster and safer mobility methods that move New Yorkers efficiently and equitably. This investment makes a bold statement about our priorities by accelerating projects that will decrease commute times, protect vulnerable road users, and support our climate goals, all while strengthening the reliability of the city's transportation network. This is how we deliver safer, greener, faster streets. And we're just getting started on strengthening bike infrastructure. With more than 600,000 cycling trips taken in the city each day, we know we need to think holistically to meet rapidly growing cycling trends. So, we're working with our vendor on launching a secure bike parking and charging program. As many New Yorkers lack in-home bike storage space or cannot carry heavier ebikes or cargo bikes upstairs, providing safe and secure bike parking options at transit stations and major destinations will reduce barriers to bike ownership and encourage transit ridership and last mile trips by bicycle. The addition of secure, covered, long-term parking options in residential neighborhoods will enable people without storage options at home to start biking, which is essential to our goal of promoting mode shift. In addition, the use of electric mobility devices has dramatically increased with nearly 6% of New York adults reporting that they ride an electric mobility device once a week or more. When used safely, these new modes of transportation offer affordable, sustainable, and convenient options for a range of New Yorkers, from families to delivery workers. Delivery cyclists have a particular need for secure bike parking, particularly with ebike battery charging, given a high rate of bike theft and safety challenges of indoor battery charging. Secure bike parking is a new opportunity for DOT to meet the moment during this time of rapid change on our streets, resulting in an intervention that supports evolving mobility trends and makes our streets safer. While overseeing one of the most complex urban transportation networks in the world, we remain proud of our creative work to reimagine the use of public space to continue making a vibrant and people- centered city. This budget includes an additional $2 million baselineed investment starting in FY27 in summer streets and open streets that transform asphalt into opportunity. This funding expands car-free corridors, energizes commercial districts, supports small businesses, and gives families safe, joyful spaces to gather and move. It's about reclaiming our streets for people and delivering more welcoming streets for kids learning to bike, seniors taking a morning stroll, and communities hosting arts, culture, environmental, fitness, and educational programming right outside their doors. Summer streets and open streets are powerful demonstrations of what our shared public spaces can be at their best. This investment keeps that momentum alive and solidifies our commitment to a more open, active, and vibrant city for all New Yorkers. Regarding resoning commitments, as part of this budget, DOT will implement the projects outlined in the downtown Jamaica and Long Island City resonings. Over $190 million of new funding was added to DOT's budget to carry out a variety of projects in Long Island City and downtown Jamaica, including Archer Avenue sidewalk and bus layover improvements, Merrick Boulevard median and busway improvements, and 44th Drive pedestrian improvements. Thanks to the council's partnership, we're able to not only build housing, but build all the other elements needed in these dense neighborhoods. Finally, DOT continues to make significant progress in expanding contracting opportunities for minority and womenowned business enterprises or MWBEs. In fiscal year 2026, we're on track to achieve record-breaking results with $375 million already committed towards MWBE participation, representing 32% of our contracted spending as a department. This milestone reflects more than a numeric achievement. It demonstrates our intentional effort to ensure that economic opportunity reaches the diverse businesses that strengthen our communities. By expanding access to contracting opportunities, DOT is helping to build a more inclusive and resilient business ecosystem while advancing our broader vision of fairness, opportunity, and shared prosperity. In conclusion, we're thankful for the opportunity to testify before the council today and for your continued partnership. We're grateful to the Mdani administration for investing in DOT, strengthening the steadfast work of the 6,000 people at DOT who keep this city moving. We now welcome any questions. >> Thank you so much, Commissioner, for for your time and for bringing your team to testify today. Local law 195 of 2019, also known as the streets plan or the transportation master plan, mandates expansion of the city's biking, bus, and pedestrian safety infrastructure. DOT's most recent report released last week states that the agency only built 20.8 miles of protected bus lanes in 2025, once again short of the 30 mi required annually. DOT was also required to install transit signal priority TSP at 1,00 intersections but completed only 769. The report noted that DOT has installed roughly 18.2 2 miles of protected bike lanes in 2025. An improvement, but still woefully behind the 50 mile benchmark required by the legislation. At our last hearing on the streets plan, I requested uh you to come here today to prepare with a breakdown in funding needed to attain these requirements on a yearly basis. Do you have the breakdown that is the calculation in funding that DOT needs in order to accomplish the streets plan and how much additional funding is required? Thank you, chair. Well, I I want to start by saying that, you know, we recognize that the streets plan mandates are legally binding and we'll do everything in our power to deliver as many projects as we can and we really value the collaboration that we have with the council in achieving that mission. While uh we don't have specific numbers that we can share today as we're still developing the plan for this year, I do really want to reinforce that commitment and we're happy to talk more about some of the investments we have planned. >> Just want to be clear that delivering as many projects as possible does not mean uh a satisfaction of the benchmarks required by the streets plan. uh at the LA you know two weeks ago I requested for the administration to come prepare with a breakdown of what would be needed to accomplish the streets plan. So is it fair to say that you do not have that calculation today? >> Council member um thank you for the question. We did clarify at the last hearing that this hearing would be about the preliminary budget that was already released. We are in conversations with the administration and OMB about that exact question. Um and we expect to have an answer or close to an answer by exact budget. The preliminary budget hearing is as you know the beginning of the process. There are three steps preliminary exec and then ultimately adoption where the administration can um deliver on exactly what you're asking for. >> So you do not have the plan. You do not have the calculation breakdown today despite the fact I requested it at the last. >> Correct. We are testifying on the preliminary budget hearing which was released just a few weeks ago. Will this administration commit to building 50 miles of protected bike lanes and 30 miles of protected bus lanes this year? >> We're committed to uh doing our best to meeting the targets in the plan and we're uh you know we're excited about the down payment we received from the mayor, especially in the midst of the fiscal crisis that we're facing. We're leaving no stone unturned, identifying all the ways we can put out as much uh output this year as possible while we also lay the groundwork to build that longer term capacity. >> So as so what I'm hearing is that there is no commitment on 50 miles of protected bike lanes and 30 miles of protected bus lanes this year. Is that correct? >> Correct. We can commit. We're going to do our best. >> All right. So, just wanted to state for the record that there has been no commitment by the administration to meet this year's benchmarks as required by the 2019 laws. I'll move forward. Does DOT have enough capital projects in the pipeline for 2026 to meet all of the requirements for the streets plan mandates? >> And if so, do you have a list of current capital projects that will be done this year? >> Yeah. Um, council member, obviously our capital program is a key part of what we do for New Yorkers and what we the the type of projects we deliver. Most of the capital projects that we are delivering this year and in fact most of the capital projects have already been counted for the streets plan purposes. We typically start capital projects with SIPs, street improvement projects which are expense funded and then we we move on to capital. It is rare to have a capital project deliver on new streets plan goals. So that means that we probably already counted that project in a previous year. So we do a SIP, we wait to make sure that it works and then we move on to forward for a capital project which means we count the for the purpose of the streets plan we counted at the SIP phase. >> Do you anticipate that in 2027 you'll you'll be able to meet with the current preliminary preliminary budget funding that you'll be able to meet 50 miles of bus lanes next year and 30 miles of bike lanes next year? >> Yeah. So the same same thing goes with bus lanes. Most of the bus lanes for the purposes of streets plan um are protected via camera enforcement which is some of it is capital. You are correct. And we do have the funding uh to make those capital eligible cameras available in as many bus lanes bus lane miles as we can. >> So you are committing and I want to reverse that 50 miles of bike lanes and 30 miles of of bus lanes. You're committing that you're able to you you will be able to meet those targets in 27. >> We were we're going to be able to meet the capital portion of those fundings, but as I mentioned most of that >> this seems like a technicality. I I'm just are you going to be able to meet the 30 the 50 and the 30 numbers next year? >> I think the commissioner already answered that question. I was speaking to the capital portion of the streets plan goals. Most of the most of the goals of the streets plan are are achieved through the expense budget, not the capital budget. Look, I don't get to pick and choose which laws to follow, and I'm unsure why DOT feels that they have the authority to do that. They are legally required mandates of the department, not a suggestion. I know that at the last hearing, uh, DOT mentioned, uh, that you're focused on outcomebased targets. Um, and so I guess my question is, is DOT asserting that if the city met the requirements of the streets plan, it doesn't believe there would be vastly improved bus speeds, safer crossings, and a larger protected bike lane network in the city? No, that definitely that's not the position. I think what we really want to underscore is that both are important. We're interested in the quantity of uh you know changes we can make out there on the street and we're equally interested in what the impact of those changes are to make sure that you know the investments we're making are having the greatest possible benefit to New Yorkers as they can. Um you know one one thing I want to mention is especially thinking about this year in addition to the discussions we've had around you know resources for this year and building the capacity for future years um there's also it's not it's not only about the resources it's also about the process of implementing these projects and we really believe it's important to engage with communities uh as part of these projects and we're a little bit behind the eightball from the previous administration uh for the outreach not having started on some of these projects. So there's also kind of a time aspect to this that has to do with the time it takes to have those conversations with communities. >> So do you believe that the streets plan would accomplish the outcomebased targets that your administration is seeking to satisfy? >> I think as a Yeah. I mean, I think as a general rule, if we're going out and building bike lanes and bus lanes, it's it's we've seen that it has that benefit, but there's a lot, you know, where you put the bike lane or where you put the bus lane and how the specifics of how you design it can make a big difference in terms of the impact. >> So, if if we believe that satisfying the streets plan would lead to outcomebased goals, why not build the streets plan? Well, like I mentioned earlier, we are working as hard as we can and uh I got to say I'm I'm very proud of our team because they really are working tirelessly to uh maximize how much we can get done. >> In 2018, the Department of Transportation's better buses plan established performance targets of increasing bus speeds by 25% citywide from approx approximately 8 to 10 miles per hour. That target has since been abandoned and the lack of progress is evident. Will your administration commit to increasing average local bus speeds to a minimum of 10 miles per hours? >> We're currently in the process of uh developing a strategy for uh increasing bus speeds dramatically around the city. Uh and uh those are the kinds of uh specifics that we're excited to share in the coming weeks. >> Are you able to commit uh to reducing to incre to increasing bus speeds by 25% citywide. >> Uh, as I mentioned, we're we're in the process of developing those commitments and uh the specifics of how we can meet those commitments. We want to make sure that we set ambitious goals that we can follow through on. And we're going to have more to share. So it sounds I mean look from what I'm gathering is there's there's no commitment to satisfy the streets plan. Uh there's no commitment to an outcomebased solution a previous administration had set. So what are you willing to commit to today? >> Well I I want to be very clear that we're very committed to the goals of the streets plan and to doing our best to meet the targets of the streets plan. We support the goals of the streets plan. We think it's been a transformative piece of legislation. Uh it's given us a lot more tools to uh expand the work we do and to approach it more creatively and we're fully committed to uh ramping that up this year and in the coming years. >> In your future streets plans updates, can DOT break down the total operational and capital expenses for their streets plans streets plans projects? >> Yes, council member. Uh we can commit to that. I don't see the problem. Is the administration ensuring that DOT has the funding needed to reach the requirements of the streets plan? >> Uh we're in those discussions right now uh working closely with city hall and OMB. >> So is that a yes? >> Um council member, it is it is not a a simple yes or no question. it is the mayor in his first few weeks gave us a down payment which means it's a very strong signal to make sure that we have all the resources we need a lot of the work that we do you know a little bit it's going to be in fiscal 26 most of the work we do is in fiscal 27 and those conversations are ongoing but I would look at the mayor's down payment as a way as a strong signal in his interest and the administration's interest to have DOT to give DOT all the resources we need to deliver as much as we can deliver including of course the streets plan goals I mean, by definition, a down payment um means that there should be more funding coming. So, I'm going to take it as a no that there is not enough funding needed because it's a down payment and that more funding is needed to satisfy the streets plan. So, the administration has not given the department enough funding in this preliminary plan for DOT to follow the law. And so, the council needs to fight for more funding for you guys from this administration. Is that correct? >> It is a preliminary budget hearing. It's the first >> Do we need to find more funding? Do we Does the council should help you? Do you know I understand you guys have limited resources. Do you need our help in pushing the administration to get you the resources you need to satisfy the full streets plan? >> I don't think Mayor Ramani administration will need push to give us the resources that I think we're in lock step. >> So if you don't need a push, you expect the money to be in the budget and by exec. >> We expect those conversations to continue and I hope that we can have a positive conversation come exact. >> All right. I just it I think I understand you can't say certain things is what it sounds like. Uh but my understanding it's a down payment. It's currently not enough in the budget to satisfy the full streets plan. You expect the administration to fight for this, but you can't quantify how much more resources are going to be added to to fully satisfy the streets plan. >> That's correct. And and it sounds like you also need the council to help you in advocating for the mayor to get you what you need. And I understand you can't answer that question. >> And I think it's it the the help that we need from the council um is not just monetary. It's support for the projects that we have in place. I think the mayor was very clear about the political support needed for a lot of these projects. So we would definitely appreciate that um from every single council member. It would be extremely helpful for this committee to have the calculation of what would be needed in order for us to effectively advocate uh on behalf of New Yorkers who are desperately wanting to see this come to fruition. >> Understood. >> All right, moving to the open streets. Um last July, uh Mayor Mani told Streets blog that open streets are a critical program that I would also expand. However, in the preliminary plan, there is only 2 million in city funding per year baseline from fiscal 2027. The funds are fungeible between the summer streets program and open streets. This funding does not deliver on the promise to expand the open streets program. It actually provides less funding than the 2.1 millions the Adam administration's provided for the program. Is this administration no longer committed to expanding the open streets program? >> No, that's not how I would frame it. First of all, we are very proud of the open streets and summer streets. They're one of the most popular programs we have out there. Um, we have lots of partners in every corner of the city. So, we're we're very excited. The amount of money that the Adams administration gave us last time was at adoption at the end of the budget process. This $2 million at the beginning of the budget process, and I would also um it's worth mentioning that the open streets and summer street spending is usually cut between two fiscal years. Um so we think we are in a great footing for us to um do as much as we did last year if not more for open streets and summer streets. >> Sorry you're saying so is the administration saying are you saying that you will continue to commit 2.1 million of funding program from the commissioner's office on top of this baseline funding. So the administration will commit to a total of 4.1 million. Is that correct? >> No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that the Adams administration gave us a oneshot $2 million at adoption. This $2 million 2.1 maybe um this $2 million that we were given at prelim is enough to get us going. And if we need more funding, we're going to talk to OMB and city hall to make sure that they give us the proper amount of funding. I would say though, it is summer streets and open streets. It's cut through two fiscal years, so it's always hard to say exactly how much money we're going to be spending. A lot depends on the number of partners that we have. a lot depends on the n like the programming that the partners are suggesting we do. So it's not a a simple solution. What I can commit to you is that this administration is in fact very supportive of open streets and summer streets. I would also throw the World Cup in there. So the summer streets may look a little different this year uh than in previous years. But we are very excited and I think New Yorkers are going to be excited about it. >> So like the streets plan, do you expect that by exec there will be more resources allocated to the open streets program? I think if we need them, those conversations will be ongoing. I'm not sure that we knew at this point. Um, but we do have a strong commitment from city hall and the mayor um to provide the resources we need for a successful open streets and summer streets program. >> The current funding doesn't expand it. So there it seems to me that there would be there would there would there would be a need for more resources. Is that correct? >> So I think part of the point here is it's not just about the money like expanding open streets. Each individual open street is typically not very expensive. What we want to do is work with each each partner to make sure they're getting what they need. And so we're still in the process of getting all the partners in. Different partners have different levels of capacity. And and we want to make sure that we're giving the right amount of money, the right amount of logistical support, the right amount of programming to to each partner. So it's not just about saying we have this much money and we're going to spread it wherever. We want to make sure we're running a good program. We're recruiting good partners. We're making sure we're getting out into communities all over the city so it's not just in wealthier parts of the city. And then we're going to deliver the resources and the administration will deliver the resources needed to make those successful. So that that's where the the difference in the budgeting comes in. We don't start from a number and do that many open streets. We get as many open streets as we can, as many partners as we can, and then make sure that they have the resources to be successful. >> Yeah. Let me give you an example. Um, I have a four-year-old and we love Tricker Streets. Tricker Streets is done um and actually live in uh uh Council Member Han's district. Um that's in October of this calendar year. So the the amount of um requests from Open Streets partners to do trick or streets events is actually not going to hit this fiscal year. So this is why Deputy Commissioner Beaton is saying that we are planning for it and we want people to ask us what they want. Um, but the the exact number is to be determined. >> So, is it fair to say that the admin is committing less money to open streets but doing more with less? >> I do not think that is a fair statement. I think we got what we need currently. If we need more, we're going to be asking for more. >> All right. I'm now going to move on to favorite topic, daylighting. Um, in February 2025 at a mayoral forum, Mayor Mani said, "We deserve to have universal daylighting." Furthermore, in December 2023, then Assembly Member Mdani signed on to a letter from Queens Community Board 1 to former Commissioner Rodriguez calling for universal daylighting across the city. Is universal daylighting still the viewpoint of the administration? >> Yeah. And I want to be hopefully clear than I was at uh the prior hearing that DOT sees daylighting as a really important safety tool and uh when it's designed right, a very effective one. And that's why we've done uh we did over 400 locations with it last year and we're on track to do even more this year and the years ahead. Uh we're eager to you know speak with any partners about how we can expand the use of daylighting quickly and effectively. >> So is the administration committed to universal daylighting? Um, we're we are working to make daylighting is already a key part of our toolkit and we're working to expand its use and we want to do that in a datadriven way that uses our resources most effectively. It >> it sounds to me like a no um that the administration is not committed to universal daylighting. And if that's the case, is it safe to assume the mayor has changed his view since the campaign about universal daylighting? I think we would like to see daylighting across the city. >> Well, what type of what type of daylighting? >> Well, we want to make sure it's done right and that uh honestly it depends on the particulars of every location. We're we're always using data to try to target our improvements where we can address safety the best. Uh we live in a world of finite resources, but absolutely we're supportive of uh the concept of daylighting across the city. We just want to make sure that we can design it appropriately in each location so that it has the intended benefit. >> Does DOT have any dedicated funding this fiscal year or next fiscal year for any hardened daylighting projects >> since I understand that DOT is is big proponents of hardened daylighting at least. >> Um yes, council member. We do have dedicated funding for about 4 to 500 locations. >> Four four to 500 >> 4 to 500 locations. Each location is a little different. That was funding that was added um during the last administration uh during the you know the we heard council loud and clear we like daylighting we support daylighting and we actually have dedicated crews to do this work. I would just uh point of uh there is sort of two sides to the daylighting operations. There's the planning operation which commissioner deputy commissioner beaten overseas but then there's also a roadway component to um harden daylighting. So we have a dedicated crew in our roadway division that moves the blocks and drops off the blocks as repaving season starts. So we have both components currently funded in the budget. >> So that that that appears to be from last administration. Does this current administration have any new commitments for harden daylighting? >> Well, we did get it last year, but we got it I believe towards adoption last year. So as you know, >> I can't find any. Just put that >> in terms of for this year's capital project. >> It's it's not on the capital budget. It's on the expense budget >> from this >> sorry from this administration. I haven't found any any listings of new cap of new capital for harden daylighting. >> Right. Uh the the actual daylighting blocks are not capital eligible is my understanding. So we we pay with them with the expense budget. >> Is furniture not capitalally eligible? it. Um, how long do you have um the each >> I have a lot of time. >> Each so essentially um each asset needs to be $50,000 or more to be capitalally eligible unless there is a a corridor or a systems component. So for example, if we do a single street light in a given street that is not capital eligible but if we do multiple street lights as a system they are capitalally eligible. So the blocks themselves are not capitalally eligible. Do you do you not expect uh the furniture at the hard and daylighting to not have a useful life of 5 years or more? >> It's not just a useful life is the is the price too. It is it's PBB rules. >> I wish it was just useful life. That would be great. >> So what what makes what renders it capitalally uneligible if if the useful life is not an issue? I guess >> cost. Yeah, it's cost and useful life. But I thought you just said useful life is not is it could last five years or more. So that's not a problem. >> That's that side is not a problem. It's the cost that is the problem. City the city bonds all the capital funds and it's it's very diffic rule. It's difficult to bond um assets that are less than $50,000. >> U finance chair uh chair Lee has questions. >> Hi. Sorry not to go against the chair Abrau over here, but if you guys wanted to slow roll the bike lane expansion, I know my district would be totally fine with that, but um obviously I know you guys have your mandates um that you need to meet. Um but uh really some really quick questions on uh the budget side of things uh with the vacancies. Um, so I know that the, uh, administration has, you know, designated chief savings officers and so wanted to know if you've identified, um, however, you know, and if it's at the same levels that most agencies are, which is the 1.5% for this year and the 2.5 for next year. Um, and I know that currently you have 704 positions that are vacant. Um, and 11.8% and correct me if I'm wrong, an 11.8% 8% vacancy rate. Um, with street light repair times increasing, PMMR shows a decrease in pothole repairs on local roads and a continuing downward trend in road reservicing miles. So, just wanted to know um, you know, does the department require more staffing actually and if so, how many positions need to be filled and are additional budgeted positions required especially to do all the things that you need to do in your department? Um thank you chair. Um so good to see you. The we have about 800 vacancies currently. Um the vacancy reduction is uh for DOT is 135. The the reason it's not 50% of 800 is because a lot of our positions are grant funded and the grant funded positions meaning they they're paid by the federal government or state government are not included in the mayor's calculations for vacancy reduction. >> And so the our target is 135. And yes, we're expecting to meet it. Um, we do have the same target as every other agency. We're doing our part. We have a 1.5% um target this fiscal year and 2.5% in future fiscal years. We do expect to meet that. We're looking at all types of uh uh sources either PS savings or grant swaps and revenue savings. So, we do expect to meet that. As for the resurfacing questions, I'm going to turn it over to the first deputy commissioner, but um we are fully staffed in our roadway division. So the vacancy reduction and any cut or potential savings uh would not be impacting our revenue our uh resurfacing. >> Okay. So the 135 that's grant uh the 800 vacancies the 135 um that so you're saying that all those positions have been filled. >> No. So um the if if you were just to take um our entire vacancy reduction and do a 50% vacancy cut it would be around >> right because the two Okay. But given that a bit more than half of our vacancies are grantf funded um that means that the denominator is half of that and so our target was 13 136 if I remember correctly and the um it was taken from the numbers that we had in the November plan. >> So the numbers fluctuate a little bit is what I'm trying to say. >> Okay. And it's great to sorry. Yes. >> Sure. Just a little bit about um the resurfacing target. Our current target is 1,150 lane miles per year. It that has been the target for a number of years now. Um we always meet that target. We generally go over that target. >> Um and I think you touched on potholes. Potholes are basically an indication of the condition of the streets and reflective of the weather that we've been having. >> So it was a good thing in previous years. Um >> we didn't have to use it as >> Exactly. This year we of course will see a lot more potholes. um we have freeze freeze thaw cycles happening as we speak in the next week we see temperatures going down into the 20s some nights. So when we have weather like this where we have you know rain and then it freezes then it thaws and then it rains that's what we um see when we get more potholes okay out addressing them. And I guess especially this season knowing that there is more of a need um with resurfacing miles, streets master plan, and all of the pothole repairs. Um do you think that you'll be able to fully staff up and how do you plan to address any needs in the future? >> Yeah. Um well, the roadway division is the one division where we don't have any hiring problems. Um we in fact have about 36 applicants for every um assistant city highway repair uh position that we have open. So we have uh full employment in the roadway division. So we do not expect any problems. >> Um are you looking to use technology training or deployment any differently um to find efficiencies in its operations? Um I know that these days seems like the technology question is coming up a bit but um just wondering. Yeah. So, we are always looking to be um on the cutting edge of asphalt work around the country. We are actually at the highest um in in the nation for using recycled asphalt, meaning we mill up the old street and we put it back into the mix. Um we're already at 40% which is a great number and we're looking to increase that um in the coming months and years to perhaps as high as 50%. Um, and we're also in the process of constantly upgrading our asphalt plant equipment in order to be able to be more innovative. >> Perfect. Um, and historically savings have been taken out at DOT in contracts, telecommunication maintenance safety programs like Vision Zero. Is it expected that these areas will be featured in the Cso's proposals? And can you provide any examples of potential savings? >> Yeah. Um, we're still looking uh our savings are due on Friday. I am the chief savings officer. We're looking at every program, but we're looking at areas where it is not going to be impacting any services delivered to New Yorkers. So, you're right. Usually, we find savings in future contracting um uh budget codes or uh efficiencies in um PS savings, for example, which means, you know, we're just not hiring those folks. So, um rest assured that I we're going to do everything we can to make sure that we limit the impact to New Yorkers. >> Yes, definitely don't want to cut services, especially now. Um and on the revenue side, anticipated revenue from franchises, uh bus stop and other is expected to decrease by 12.3 million in fiscal 27 down to 52 million from 64.3 million in fiscal 26. So could you please briefly explain the scope of this revenue and why it is expected to decrease in the out years? >> Um the targets that we set with OMB are um usually pretty conservative targets. If you're talking about the JCO revenue, that may be due to um a deal we we made with them where they essentially bring down the revenue but install more bus shelters across the city. That was done last fiscal year. We're in communication with OM to see if they're going to do it again this uh fiscal year. But uh overall, we don't expect our revenue to significantly decrease um on any given program. In fact, uh most of the revenue is is coming in coming in a little higher. >> Okay. Okay. Higher. Okay. And parking meter revenue. Uh, parking meters are the department's largest revenue source at 257.7 million. And New York City has more than 12,000 miles of curb encompassing over 3 million street parking spaces. But just 80,000 of these are metered or fewer than 2.5%. So, increasing metered street parking on commercial corridors, I just want to emphasize commercial corridors could raise significant additional revenue for the city. Uh, the center for an urban future has written that if the city were to meter just a quarter of existing free spaces, it could generate at least 1.21 billion in additional revenue. So, do you support increased metering on commercial corridors? And have you done your own analysis on parking meter revenue? Well, I'll start by saying that uh as I mentioned in my testimony, we are taking a hard look at our parking policy across the board. We know curb space is some of the most in demand real estate in the city. Uh but that said, pricing is just one of several tools that we can use. Um things like loading zones um for for deliveries or pick up and drop off of passengers, uh micro distribution hubs for freight. So, we're we're really looking across the board uh all the time. You know, that said, we know it's really frustrating for folks to have to circle looking for a spot, especially in commercial districts. It's actually not good for business either, right? If customers have a hard time. Uh and in addition, it's not great from a safety and and pollution standpoint and all those other things. So, um you know, I think we're always assessing uh our metering and where we have it and you know, as land uses change, should our uh should our metering change? >> Okay. Okay. And do you see any anticipated issues or potential problems um with doing it in, you know, additional commercial corridors and what would that be? And I can say that for districts like mine, they're pretty much wanting to keep things like the residential parking because we don't have a lot of transit in the district and they do rely heavily on cars. It's very residential. So, in terms of the commercial quarters though, if there's any anticipated issues you foresee, >> uh, sorry to clarify, what issues in terms of uh, just being able to expand it? >> Yeah. >> Uh, no, I I I don't think there's uh, issues in in those kinds of um, expansions in commercial areas. Uh, yeah. >> Okay. Okay. And as always, we just like to emphasize that you um engage obviously the community boards and the local folks in the area as well, especially the businesses. >> No, I mean I can just clarify um in the past when we've raised uh our parking meter rates um we haven't seen a huge push back or issues and we do notify the community boards I believe at least 30 days before we do that. I would also uh I think it's also worth mentioning that we have different zones for the city. It is not one sizefits-all. we charge uh depending on the area and the demand. So we we don't expect any issues if we decide to go this route. >> Okay. And I would emphasize instead of just notifying them 30 days before if you could include them in the process for the feedback that'd be great too because then I feel like there's less push back if you get their buy in early. So thank you. That's it chair. >> Thank you. Going back to questions the prelim the preliminary plan baselines 5 million starting in fiscal 2027 for new bus and bike lanes. What cost will the new five million per year in proposed funding cover? >> Um I can start it and then deputy mayor uh deputy mayor just give you promotion. Deputy Commissioner Beaton can um fill in. But we expect a lot of that to be so there's about 20 headcount that we're going to be adding. Most of those would be planners and engineers um to do a lot of the uh work behind the scenes. And then there's also TPS for increase in markings. Uh a lot of that work that we do for bus lanes and bike lanes requires markings. Um and there may be some uh concrete work as well. >> Is DOT hiring for the for these new positions now so that the roles can be filled early in fiscal 27? >> Yeah. Yeah. We actually we were just discussing that technically they don't hit until fiscal 27, but it does take a a while to um bring in folks. So we we have those postings opening um open now. >> All right. I'm now going to turn it over to questions on lane miles cost. Uh we have the 12th snowiest winter on record here in New York City. So needless to say, our roads will be in need of a lot of maintenance and resurfacing work. However, according to the PMMR, the average cost to resurface a single lane mile cost DOT 221,000 was 693, a substantial 15% increase in just two years. In response to rising costs, DOT has stated that the cost of petroleum and the fluctuating cost of oil play a role in the cost of resurfacing lane miles. With global tensions causing a recent recent spike in oil, how will this play a role in DOT's resurfacing operations? And does DOT have a plan in place to keep costs down? And what is specifically planned to do? >> Thank you, chair. So, the increase in costs that you cite were due to a number of factors. Yes, you mentioned petroleum prices which have up till this present time fluctuated. We also have prevailing wage and salary increases in the mix and then overall increase in some of the um inputs that go into asphalt um gravel, stone and and things of that nature. Um we are committed to doing 1150 lane miles and we do expect the price of petroleum therefore um affecting our costs um to fluctuate probably increase um for reasons that we're all aware of in the coming months but we are committed to um figuring out those costs and committing to our lane mile target. >> Is there a a plan in place to keep cost down? >> There are certain things beyond our control. We're constantly evaluating what's happening and we're watching it very carefully. Anything that we can possibly do, we would do. >> On the topic of lane miles, DOT has continue to resurface less and less roads every single year. 1,200 in fiscal 2023, 1176 1176 in fiscal 2024 and only 1167 in fiscal 2025. In the first four months of this fiscal year, DOT is already a few miles behind what was done last year. This is an essential service and function that DOT is supposed to be doing. What is causing the negative trend on lane surface lane resurfacing? >> Okay, I wouldn't call it a negative trend. As I mentioned, our lane mile target is 1150. We will always meet our lane mile target. It's not a perfectly precise science as to which um streets are closed up or completed exactly at the end of the fiscal year. So, sometimes we're over. We always try to be over and sometimes it's by 20 miles, sometimes it's by 40 miles. Um, sometimes we also use that time to catch up on other jobs. We'll do large like wear and tear jobs. We'll catch up on speed humps. Um, and we'll do other work that the agency needs to do once that we have met our lane mile target. >> In 2015, Mayor Delasio announced an increase 242 million to repave 1,200 lane miles across the five burrows through 2016 and,300 lane miles to be repaved by June 2017. Wouldn't you consider this a negative trend? You know, we we talk a lot about that. We actually think 1150 is the right amount um to balance and keeping our roads in a a state of good repair. >> It is a I would consider that to be a negative number compared to the 2017 numbers personally. Um will this administration be less ambitious than the previous administration in completing lane miles? >> I wouldn't. No, it would not. It won't. >> So would that mean that you're committing to the 1300 lane miles? No, we're not committing to 1300 lane miles, but we intend to keep our streets in a state of good repair. >> And and chair, um there was that it was in the last administration when those uh baseline funding were there. A lot of that were to catch up to the Bloomberg years where the um the agency was not getting the proper amount of funding. It sense leveled and so the target of,50 miles is where we need to be. We essentially caught up where we needed to catch up. So is the go 1150 moving forward? >> Yes. >> Which is a negative trend compared to 2017 numbers >> because we caught up. Correct. >> And with the increasing need of like you know the weather with the weather conditions and and everything that's coming our way. I think we we ought to be increasing those goals. Um I'm just curious. Um I know that the administration does not want to get to 1300. I do. If we could get to 1300 what would the cost look like for that? >> Yeah. Yeah, we can check and get back to you. >> Thank you. Does DOT have sufficient funding to ensure that it is operating at full capacity? >> And how many staff work on resurfacing? And are more personnel needed? >> Uh, chair, you're asking about resurfacing specifically? >> Yes. >> Okay. We have over a thousand people working on resurfacing. The division has something like 1,300 um and about 1,00 are involved in resurfacing. >> Are more personnel needed? >> No. >> How does DOT measure the condition of a road and what factors are considered when determining whether corrective action needs to be taken and how often do these assessments happen? >> Yes, so we have a very robust street assessment unit which looks at every roadway in the city of New York about once a year. a little bit takes a little bit longer than a year to get through each roadway. Um we have a system where we look at cracking, potholes, pushups, humps, every sort of asphalt condition um that you can think of and a lot that you probably have never even thought of and we evaluate the condition of that road. Um we have categories we put the roads into, good, fair, poor and that informs which roadways will schedule for resurfacing that year within each community board. Would more personnel be needed to achieve 1300 miles? >> Yes. >> All right. I'm going to turn over my colleagues for questions. Council member Schman. >> Thank you very much and thank you, Commissioner. And I just want to give a shout out to Margaret Forion who I knew when she was a Manhattan rep for DOT. So, um, a couple of questions. One is I know I know you've probably answered this the $271 million you have for roadway maintenance that's enough considering all the potholes that we have and everything else and that would probably get more. >> That's correct. >> Okay. Um I also want to ask you my understanding just talking about universal daylighting that DOT did a study uh in the previous administration on daylighting that showed that some intersections would not b necessarily benefit from daylighting. That's what we were told. >> At this point, we're focused on looking forward and really we want to work. >> So is it so so is it the case that some intersections might not be conducive to to to daylighting? >> We think daylighting can take different forms in situations and we try to incorporate it into all different programs. >> So let me talk about the school the 15 miles per hour. Um, do we know sort of what the parameters are around each of the schools? Like is it a couple of blocks? Is it like how does that how is that going to work? >> Sure. So, we start by focusing on the block that's immediately in front of the school, you know, the place where the most activity is happening with children. And then as we look at each school, we look to see if if it makes sense to continue farther down the street or whether there's any other treatments which like daylighting that could be appropriate to do at the same time. >> Okay? Because offline there's a couple of schools in my district that where there have been accidents >> and um the people there there's a lot of complaints about people speeding through around where the schools are. So offline I I'll talk to you and I know I'm having a meeting with you guys soon anyway. So um and then enforcement. So let me talk about that because there are you know I I think it's a good idea number one. Um but the other is that there are people who speed who get tons of tickets and they feel it's the cost of doing business. So how do we deal with those individuals? >> Uh that's right. We what we've seen is that there's a uh kind of troubling trend of folks who you know we found our automated enforcement programs are very very effective but there is that >> segment right that no matter how many violations they get or maybe they have a defaced plate license plate uh or things like that >> um you know that that challenges the program right it challenges the goals of the program so it's definitely something that's on our radar Uh and council member, one of the things that was uh in the governor's budget, it was a proposal for a city-led ISA program, a recipators program. We've been in conversations with both houses as well as the governor's office. We're in support of that legislation. So that's >> yeah, we've had we've done a resolution, I believe, on that. So >> that's terrific. And and we'll definitely be looking to your support uh as as we're hitting the stretch towards the finalization of the budget. And if you can also let us know if there's legislation that would help in that regard from our from our end. Um please please let us know. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Um that's all the questions that I have for you. That that was easy, right? So thank you. Thank you, Chair. >> Council member Lewis. >> Thank you, Chair. I have a couple of questions. So if I could be added for the second round, but my first one is on outdoor dining. Now that outdoor dining is moving toward a year-round program, there are many concerns uh with DOT's ability to successfully execute this program. So, I wanted to know, does the preliminary plan address the needs and concerns for our businesses, our business community regarding backlog and complicated uh application process? And does DOT require additional funds to hire more staff to process applications? >> Thank you, council members. So DOT is very committed to the success of outdoor dining. Um this has become a beloved program within the city and we're looking forward to should it become year round making sure that is successful. Um right now we have over 3,000 applications and restaurants in the program. we do have enough staff to continue um should we get an influx of further applications to process um everybody that's already working with us as well as any increased applicants. >> Okay. And how much PS funding is currently budgeted in fiscals 2026 and 2027 and beyond for inspection and and enforcement for staffing costs? Um it's about $1.3 million I think. Uh if I remember correctly um we have uh about 10 plan reviewers and uh >> that's for 26 and 27. >> We we have for 26 we're in conversations to make sure that we have the proper funding in 27 and beyond. >> And I can talk a little bit about the enforcement. Um we have 10 people dedicated to enforcement of dining out in fiscal 25. Um there were about 3,400 violations issued for this program. >> Okay. And I think I have one more question I could quickly ask. Um DOT's capital uh commitment plan totals for 14.3 billion across FY 26 to FY30. Is any portion of this funding allocated towards structural analysis, plaza reconstruction, or pedestrian in improvements particularly at Newark Plaza? and if not, what is preventing the project from being included? >> Um, council member, let me check on you, Kirk to see if it's in the five-year window. Um, but a lot of that funding is in fact street reconstruction. So, it usually has ped expansions, plaza per the plaza actually has a lump sum that we that we um that we use for capital funding. Let me just check back on Newkerk. I just don't know if it's in the pipeline or not, but I can give you a timeline if it is. And one more quick question on Newkerk. Given that Newkerk Plaza involves overlapping jurisdiction between DOT and the MTA, does DOT have any dedicated budget or capital coordination mechanism to advance projects that are stalled due to inter agency responsibility disputes. >> Yeah. So, it's obviously a very complicated location with the with the MTA structure, but what we are committed to maintaining it and and making sure that's taken care of. We we do that through our maintenance contract that takes care of plazas all over the city. So we we have been incorporating that into it which is separate from the capital question that we'll get back to you on but we are committed to taking care of the space and making sure it stays clean and safe. >> I look forward for feedback because they've been waiting for years for this support and haven't received it. So I hope we could get it done this year. >> Thank you chair. >> You don't have any other questions? You have more time? >> Not right now. Thank you. >> Okay. Council member Wong. >> Uh thank you, Chair. Um I have a picture here. Uh if you can see it, but uh this is not uh this is not a crater on Mars or on the moon. This is a crater in my district, Queens Boulevard and Grand Avenue. It's been there since the last ice storm. And I lost track of the 301 calls because uh I I made at least two myself. Uh uh is still not fixed. Here's my question. Uh potholes are one of the most common complaints my office receives. Some neighborhoods see quick responses while others deal with the same roadway hazards for months. The crater I show you are about 100 ft away. All everything else was fixed except this one. So here's my question. Why does it take so long for certain potholes to be repaired in some parts of the city and what is DOT doing to improve repair times? Please talk. >> Thank you. Very important question. We do need to make sure our roads are in safe and smooth condition. Um, typically it takes us about two days to repair a pothole. Obviously now in a time like this it might take a little bit longer. It sounds to me and I'd like to connect with you on your condition. Sounds to me like that condition could be something larger, a sinkhole of or something of that nature. So sometimes we find that underground there's something washing away the roadway and that sort of issue takes longer to address because we can't just throw asphalt on top of that condition. It will continue to sink. So instead we work with maybe utilities, maybe with D in order to assess exactly what's happening there to get um a proper fix. So, if you get me that location, I will be sure to get back to you. >> Yeah, it's it's again, it's been there since the last uh ice storm, uh Grand Avenue in Queens Boulevard, my district. >> Okay. >> My second question is about milling and paving, repaving. Uh my constituents frequently report roads being mil, but then it takes two months uh for the repaving to happen uh or some other extended periods of time, leaving rough and dangerous driving conditions. Uh what h what why why is the lag time between milling and final repaving increased in recent years? It wasn't like this um 10 years ago, five 10 years ago. And uh do you have the average time between milling and paving? Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. So there's a a very important reason why we have a lag between milling and paving. That's an opportunity for all of the utilities, um, other city agencies, even homeowners with any kind of plumbing issues to come out and while the street is what we call open, make those repairs, get in subsurface in order to fix any issues. And then we can come back and have a perfect street and we can pave it all at one time. The alternative is having people make cuts um, at different times and cut into a freshly paved street, which is not something that we want. Um, the vast majority of our roadways are paved 2 weeks after being mil. Sometimes you'll find a longer time period if those repairs do need to take longer or um, sometimes we have more streets that we're attending to and we have weather and we don't get back as quickly as we would like to. >> Okay, thank you. And I I have some time. Last question. U, street lights. Uh many blocks of my district have only one or two street lights. So when one goes out, the entire block can become dangerously dark. Um I have cases where um do looked at it and say, "Oh, it's a conison problem." Con Edison comes looked at, "Oh, it's a DOT problem." And I get the runaround. I my office gets the runaround. And that was before I got elected. All right. So uh uh what what what is your solution to that? Because uh we have several of these in my district. >> Okay. So, when it's a pretty simple matter of changing the bulb in a street light, that gets done pretty quickly. The more tricky situation is when we have a problem. Sometimes we have no current, meaning there is no electricity coming to that light, or there could be something more problematic at the base of the street light, which might mean we need to swap out the street light and bring in a new one. Um, we do not want you to ever be getting the runaround, you or any member of the public or anybody. Um, so if you do see that condition, what what we do is we will call KED. We will um stay on top of those discussions with them and make sure if it is a problem with the current with the electrical current coming in that we do have it done in a timely fashion and then we can get it back on for you, Commissioner. >> Yeah, I just want to add kind of bigger picture. Um, I definitely I'll say in almost every meeting I think I've had since being appointed, I've heard about frustrations with street lighting. So, I definitely hear that and I and I hear that frustration. Uh, we know that it's really such a breadandbut issue for a lot of communities and uh it's something that I'll be personally taking a close look at. >> Okay, I'll reach out for these runarounds that I've been dealing with six, seven months. >> Council, >> thank you. >> You're right. Wrapped up. Council member Hanife. >> Hi, everyone. So, I'd like to first start by thanking you for finally closing the concrete recycling facility in the Columbia Waterfront District in my neighborhood. And of course, going back to what you shared about paving and milling and using our city's concrete and putting it back into our streets and wherever else is a a valid and like that's what we should be doing. It's a it's an environmental justice issue. However, at the same time, I know that the uh space to do that work is limited for DOT. Now with the concrete recycling facility shut down for that specific work, what what are you all thinking in terms of the future of ensuring that this really dusty and uh health risk uh project projects are not happening in residential communities. >> Yeah, thanks council member. Um we always want to be good neighbors. We do have a lot of facilities across the city. Um, you're talking about the concrete recycling operation. We were I'll just give a little history. We moved there on a temporary basis due to the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal wind turbine project. Um, we did find a a permanent home in an industrial area. Um, so we expect to resume recycling, the concrete recycling operation very soon. And just to clarify, the concrete recycling is all of the work that we do in our um in our in our sidewalk work. Um the recycling of the asphalt is something a little different. We also recycle that, but the the facility you were referring to is the um concrete recycling. Um and we're very excited to be able to turn down that machine. >> And so for the future of this work, where is there a dedicated site that DOT has or >> Yes. Yes. It's in Metropolitan Avenue in a pretty industrial area in between um Queens and Brooklyn. >> Okay. Great. Great to hear that. Uh want to talk about uh delivery workers um and the specifically the ebike tradein program. How many delivery workers does DOT expect the 1.4 million ebike tradein allocation to serve and what is the estimated cost per participant? >> We'll talk about the cost and then I can turn it over to the commissioner about the the policy. um the cost that you see in the preliminary budget was something that we were um that we already spent last um fiscal year. Okay. And so this is just a repayment um from that amount. But we were very excited about the program. I think it helped uh over 400 um delivery workers to pro to get brand new ebikes, but it also provided a lot of training um for delivery workers. Not just the ones that got the ebikes, but more delivery workers. So I I can turn it over to Commissioner if he wants to add anything else. >> Uh sure. I'll just say, you know, in the on the general topic of uh ebikes safety and and delivery worker safety, um I think as the mayor said, we're taking kind of a worker forward approach. Um it's a tough job. We're working closely with our sister agencies like uh DCWP to promote safe operation. Uh we had created our sustainable delivery unit last year and they've really been deeply engaged in this issue. We're looking at potential legislation. Uh but I think we're you know we're and we're doing quite a bit of education as well to the workers and talk >> absolutely which is greatly appreciated and I've been able to partner with the DOT to do some work in my district and really grateful. Now coming to bike storage and parking. Uh in my district, the Kensington community is where uh large swats of delivery workers live and they serve the Fifth Avenue and 7th Avenue corridors, restaurant corridors, um local commercial uh corridor. Um and in all of those areas there is insufficient placement for their bikes. Now that creates a risk for these workers to get fines um or to just be be situated in an unsafe space. So, I'd like to know what the plan is uh to address to make sure that they have safe parking space and that that even if they I mean I don't think anyone should be putting their ebikes in their homes. Uh the city must have a plan for this. I'd like to know what is the cost or what funding are you allocating towards this specific important urgent need. >> Thank you, council member. Yeah, we we completely agree. you know, um when you hear about the challenges that cyclists face, having a secure, safe place to park it is is at towards the top of the list, right? Um and that's why we're really excited that we finally got the funding in the January budget to launch a secure bike parking program. Uh that's going to allow us to uh uh install and maintain 500 locations over the next five years. And that's actually on top of the over 2,000 standard bike racks we do every year. So, I think you're going to see a real sea change in how we're providing safe bike parking, but you know, we're we're we'd love to work with the council to identify other ways that we can increase by parking. >> Thank you, council member. One, I'll turn over to the topic of potholes. Maintaining the quality of the city's roads, thoroughares, and highways during the winter season are integral to motorists, cyclists, and public transportation riders. Despite this, in the first four months of fiscal of this fiscal year, DOT crews repaired 5.1% fewer potholes on local streets and the arterial highway system when compared to the same period in fiscal 2025. Additionally, the PMMR also shows in fiscal 2024, DOT repaired a total of 154,898 potholes on local streets and arterials, which reflected a 12.4% decrease from fiscal 23. This reflects another downward trend that DOT is falling behind on. More recently, this failure has turned deadly. A 46-year-old man was thrown to his death after hitting a pothole while reading while riding a motorized scooter in Ozone Park, Queens last week. It was only after he was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital, DOT crews came by and filled the pothole. I assume after the winter we had I assume after the winter we had the roads are in desperate needs of maintenance. What is the reason for the decline in repairing potholes? >> I'll start and feel free uh first deputy commissioner. So I think I think as uh first deputy commissioner for said filling potholes is there there's a lot of um there's a lot of um it's dynamic right it's it's it depends on the specific weather conditions of that winter. We can't fill potholes when there's snow on the ground or the ground is frozen. But even bigger picture, uh, potholes are kind of a symptom. And what we really want to do is try to address the underlying problem. But when there are potholes, we respond to them very quickly, uh, typically under two days. Uh, and you know, when when we see kind of a proliferation of potholes after a winter weather, uh, then we do a blitz like we did on Saturday. >> We we'll get into the blitz shortly. I have a set of questions on that. Um, is your staffing equal to with within the pothole the division? Is your staff equal to your ratio of work? Joe Pulio, president of Local 983 of District Council 37 recently said in regards to fixing potholes, quote, "We just don't have the manpower to do the job in a timely manner." Do you agree with Mr. Puo? If not, why not? >> Jump in. >> Um, no, we do not agree. We we have not reduced um any staffing within this division for many years. We have adequate staffing to address these conditions. We have both dedicated crews and then I know we'll talk about it in a moment. We also have crews um that will take off resurfacing and do things on the weekends for a pothole blitz when necessary. >> So it seems that the administration disagrees with DC37 then on this. Is that correct? >> We do not have a lack of staff in this area. So there's a disagreement with DC37. Okay. DOT has enough. So is it fair to say that DOT has enough manpower to finish a job efficiently and in a timely manner? Uh so why isn't the department doing that? >> Um I disagree with you chair with all respect. We are doing that. Last weekend we had almost 90 crews out. We had um all of our equipment that we have in order to perform pothole repair. Um we took out about 7,000 potholes. we dramatically reduce the number that are out there. As I mentioned earlier, potholes are going to continue to form in the coming weeks. It's just the nature of the weather in that time of year and we're well poised to take care of those as well. >> You you may disagree with me, but the PMMR shows that in fiscal 2024, DOT repaired a total of 154 898 potholes on local streets and arterials, which reflected a 12.4% decrease from fiscal 2023. who prepares the PMMR? >> Um, chair, at times when there are fewer potholes, we do fix fewer potholes. So, those numbers are more reflective of what's happening in the street. It's not reflective of the work assignments. >> Again, you may disagree with me, but also there's a 5.1% fewer potholes on local streets. >> That's correct. >> Compared to the same period in fiscal 25 that >> because there were fewer potholes out there. >> Yeah. It's not what people are saying. Um, the city can cannot afford to wait until warmer weather in April or May to routinely fill potholes. What can DOT do in the future to make sure that they are filling potholes in a timely manner during snowy winters? And are you considering any solutions to this? What solutions have you been considering to fix this? >> Yeah, just as a reminder, we had an unusually bad winter. Um, what we are now seeing out there is not indicative of many winters that we've had to date. So yes, it is a very difficult pothole season. Um we are out there and we will continue to be out there. We will be addressing all of these conditions in a timely manner. >> It's it I I think I mean from what I'm what I'm hearing on the ground a lot of folks feel that there's a lot of potholes uh and and a lot of it is yes attributed to weather conditions which we should be expecting to happen to happen on a more reoccurring basis. So, I think our budget needs to reflect also climate change. Um, on Friday, uh, March 13th, the mayor announced that the city would be launching a pothole repair blitz that would send out more than 80 DOT teams that would be spread across the five burrows to fill thousands of potholes in one single day. More than 11,300 pothole reports have been made by New Yorkers this year to date, which make a 33% jump in reports from the same time in 2025, according to 311 311 data. Does DOT require additional funding to perform this basic function of the agency? >> Um, no, council member, we have um we use the same staff. If we do require overtime, that is something that we spend and we make sure that OMB knows about it, but we do not require more funding. And I would just like to state for the record that of all the divisions in the um agency, RM has a negative vacancy rate, which just means that they have they're actually borrowing headcount from other divisions. That's how fully staffed they are. How many crews were assigned to each borrow for pothole repair? Please provide a breakdown. >> Um I don't know if I have that with me. We can see if we can get it while we're um sitting here. >> Do you believe that you have the manpower necessary to fill uh the number of potholes in our city at the moment? >> We do. Yes. By when should we expect the maj vast majority of the potholes to be completed? >> Okay, what I can tell you is that um we are in the middle of pothole season. It's actually April. We expect to um see a bit of a resurgence as the freeze and thaw cycles have completed. We will stay on these potholes until they're all taken care of. >> How did DOT determine which potholes to repair? Were 311 complaints used as a as a means of identifying them? >> Yes, that's a great question. So, yes, 311 was used as a means, but um for obvious reasons, our policy is that as a crew is heading out to address pothole conditions, any other potholes they see on the way to that complaint and leaving that complaint, going to the next site, they also repair on their way um for to be most efficient. So, we catch a lot of potholes besides the 311s as well. Thank you for that, Commissioner. The PMMR data shows that DOT is fixing less and less and that 311 shows more potholes than ever. How do you reconcile that? >> Um, I'd have to look at that data, but if we're seeing more 311s right now, that is understandable. >> Now, going to turn over to Sammy's law. I have to say I'm very uh delighted to hear yesterday's announcement by the administration on Sammy's law. Mayor Mandani will reduce bus speeds speed limits on streets in front of 800 public school buildings by the end of the year, bringing the citywide total to,300 15 mileph school streets. How did DOT choose these 800 locations for the initial round of reduced speed limits? And what was the selection criteria? >> Thank you for the question, chair. So, just to break it down, um there's 5 around 500 existing school uh slow zones that already have a 15 mile per hour speed limit. Then on top of that, so those are those are already taken care of, right? Then there's 700 that have a 20 mph speed limit and it's, you know, it's it's uh we can rapidly update those since the signage is already out there. Uh and then this year we're going to do a hundred uh new ones basically in addition to that which we're currently planning out. >> Can you speak to the rationale on why the administration decided to roll out these speed limit reductions over the course of three years and and not sooner? >> Sure. And obviously we take uh safety for children safety in front of schools very seriously. So it's it's not an indication of being uninterested in it. Just we fit into our program with making sure we're doing the right treatment in the right places. If there's a more dangerous location, we want to make sure that we're we're building a more robust solution for them and not just putting up a speed limit sign as quickly as we can and moving on. So, it really follows from being taking a hard look at the data and then making sure that the the the Sami's law, the school speed limit is not the only thing we're doing, but that we're taking more dangerous locations and implementing more robust treatments. >> Thank you for that. And I recognize that yesterday's announcement was was very very meaningful. I do uh have questions though. Theoretically, why couldn't you do it sooner? Is it because of is it is it a resource question? Um, I think as Deputy Commissioner Beaton said, you know, we we have a large work program going on every year. And so it it's basically about how we can uh most effectively roll these kinds of things out along with all of the other things that we're doing every year. As I ask you these questions, my mind turns to keeping all community members safe as they go to gathering locations in my own district like Manhattanville Community Center, Hamilton Graange Library, City College, and Riverside Park. At the last hearing, there was a gentleman who testified that, you know, we he lost his daughter uh to to to traffic violence on 110th Manhattan Avenue, you know, we've we've sent in requests, for instance, of Manhattan Avenue to be included as part of Sammy's law a few years ago. Um, so outside of the school zones, which obviously our school zones are are a priority and they should be, how do how is the energy taking into account these requests that come in from community boards or council member offices and just, you know, regular members of the public? >> Yeah, I I appreciate that question, Chair. Um, so yesterday's announcement is a big step towards dramatically expanding the rollout of Sammy's law, but it's by no means the end of the story. Uh, we're keenly interested. I'm personally very interested in other datadriven and communitydriven strategies to expand u lower speed limits across the city and that's something that we're currently looking at. >> Thank you. I'm now going to turn over to street light repairs and then I'm going ask my colleagues for a second round of questions. In fiscal 2025, it took DOT an average of 5.3 calendar days to repair street lights which is a 20.5% increase from 4.4 4 days in fiscal 2024 and 76.7% slower than the 3 days in fiscal 2021. It took KED 22 calendar days on average to repair street lights which is 17.6% slower than the 18.7 days in fiscal 2024 and 45.7% slower than the 15.1 days in fiscal 2021. The MMR indicates that the DT delays were due to weather related out outages and coordination issues with utilities during underground infrastructure work. No explanation of the KNED performance decline was included given the vital role that illumination from street light plays in the safety of both drivers and pedestrians. The extended time it took for repairs in fiscal 25 is is concerning. uh we see this obviously as a basic and essential function of the department. What is DOT doing to address this concerning trend? >> And I'll just start, you know, by saying I think like I mentioned earlier that this is definitely something on my radar and we know how important it is for communities. I don't know, first deputy commissioner, if you'd like to add something. >> Right. So um I'm glad you raised it. It is something that we want to improve upon and something that we're digging into much more carefully. Um if we are seeing an increase which um we have we've seen an increase in outages in recent months and the last few years we need to make sure that we're well poised to address those outages. So we we'll be working on this further. >> Is it would you say is like contractual issues? Can you can you expound more about what's contributing to the delay? Just the general speak to the general factors. >> Right. So we have a number of contractors that um work on street light repairs. um they have a certain requirement of number of days to respond to these repairs. Um by and large we do get any bulb that's burnt back out, you know, um within 10 days, we have a good rate on that. As we discussed a moment ago, when we do have a deeper problem where we have electrical connection issue, um a problem in the panel of the street light base, those things are taking longer. um they always would take longer and there is a certain amount of coordination required back and forth. So those are all areas we're going to be looking into a little further. Do we need more resources on it? Do we need um a tighter um system with contractors? I would >> like to say acknowledge we've been joined by council member Justin Sanchez. Um what is the OT doing to coordinate with KED on street light repair? Yes, we have monthly meetings with KED and we have a very close working relationship with them. Um, we share issues as we see them and we have found them to be very responsive. >> Does DOT have enough funding to adequately address street light repair? >> We do. So, so, so then the the issue of why it's why the timing is is is increasing for street light repair is not attributed to to financial resources. Is that fair? >> So, as I mentioned, we're we're going to be digging into every aspect of of where we can do better and where we can be more responsive for New Yorkers and if there is something that we need more funding for, we will ask for that additional funding. So, it's fair to say that it's unclear whether or not resources or the lack thereof rather is contributing to the increased time on street light repairs. >> Yeah, chair. We're also looking at the street lights themselves um the date that some new um new bulbs, the new LED bulbs were put in um and what the life cycle is of those bulbs. We're looking at whether or not there's some more um systemwide issues that we have to address and we'll be making sure that if we need resources for that, we're going to be asking for that. We we would like to get answers on the funding questions. Obviously, this is, you know, a budget hearing. So having the the breakdown on what is necessary, you know, and to the extent that resources is not an issue, I mean, and we can find savings there, that's great. But if resources are an issue and is contributing to the decline in repair time speeds, we ought to know that as soon as possible. I'll turn it over to Council Member Farah Lewis for questions. >> Thank you, Chair. Um earlier uh in your testimony you mentioned there was 36 positions available for for roadway repair. So just have a couple of questions around that. Uh DOT's roadway repair maintenance and inspection program shows over 151 million in OTPS spending in FY27. How much of this funding is used to remediate failed street restorations performed by contractors? And does the agency track those costs separately? Um uh council member, let me just clarify the 36 number. I just said that um chair Lee was asking about the vacancies and okay for every vacant posting we have about 36 applicants. So we do not have a vacancy rate. So just wanted to clarify that we do not have any vacancies. >> Okay. >> Um >> yeah and I can turn it over for deputy commissioner to answer the other question. >> Okay. >> Yes. We don't allocate any resources to repairing failed street cuts by contractors or utilities. Instead, we have a a unit called highway inspection quality assurance, and they um inspect and issue violations to any of those entities who have not correctly backfilled and topped off and repaired a street and then they need to come back and do it themselves. >> Got it. Uh >> and and council member, um this goes to council member Wong's question. This is precisely why we leave the streets open for as long as we can because we want that work to be done while the street is mil and not afterward. So it's it's really that is the reason why we want utilities to come in after milling um and not after paving because we we hate those um curb cuts. >> All right. Uh what budgetary mechanisms uh does DOT use to enforce compliance and recover costs from contractors responsible for defective road work? Is that back to the the response you gave me on issuing violations? >> Yes, that's right. >> All right. So, during the recent winter weather, we have we have seen an extreme uptick in traffic and street lighting outages. Does DOT have its own budget and manpower to address these outages on more on a more timely manner than simply waiting for KED? >> Okay. Um, we have during the the recent weather when we had a lot of water sitting for long periods of time, we had salt as well seeping into the roadway. We did see a few more traffic signal outages. Okay. >> Um, we have contractors who have a time requirement, a very strict time requirement to get out and repair any signal issues, um, which they generally comply with very well. All of those were addressed and we do have funding for those contracts. Okay, they were severely delayed, but we could talk about that in the time. Uh, in corridors experiencing heavy development activities such as Farragate Road, New York Avenue, Brooklyn Avenue, and Foster Avenue, how is DOT prioritizing inspection resources and funding to prevent repeated patch failures? And is there a dedicated allocation to increase enforcement in high impact areas? Okay. If you have areas that are hotspots and everybody's working there, everyone's digging them up, we're happy to work through our burough commissioner's office to have a periodic meeting with you um and to make sure we have consistent inspection on those corridors. There's no reason we can't focus on them. I just want to make sure we're clear on exactly which corridors you're concerned about. >> And just so you know, we have sent that, but there's been a delay. And just I think I have a couple of seconds left. Um you stated earlier that you have sufficient funds for street light repairs. Uh is that only for FY26 or is that including FY27? >> Yeah, the that funding continues. >> Okay. Thank you, Chair. >> Council member Nurse. >> Thank you, Chair. Um I just have a few questions. Uh one is um a status update on the cool pavement pilot that we passed last year. Yes. Um yes, we have been um taking preparations um for the um local law that you passed um as you know better than I know um in September. We need to start that work. We've been working with city college and with DP to put everything in place um in order to select locations in every bureau and then have um a method to measure the temperatures both before implementation and then after implementation. So, we're on target to do that in September. >> That's awesome. Thank you for that update. Um and then I I I couldn't not come and advocate for um the Broadway corridor in my district. It overlaps my district. Council member Gutierrez, Oay and Mey, it is, I guess, concrete and it needs to be pulled up and resurfaced. It is, you all try to fill weird holes with black top and it looks crazy. Um, and we I mean it is it's it's killing everybody's shocks on our cars. So, if you have an update, um, I know we've spoken repeatedly on this. would love to get a sense of what that project update might cost and and if the city's committed to to addressing that very long strip of um horrible road conditions. >> Thank you, council member. Uh definitely uh that corridor is on our radar and and hear you loud and clear that that's a top priority. Uh I'll say I live in the vicinity and know it well. Um, so, uh, you know, we're we're happy to, uh, take a close look at that as we, uh, develop the capital program and and talk with OM and city hall about that. >> Yeah, would really really appreciate it being prioritized. Um, because it's it's been on your radar for a long time. Um, and hopefully this is the year we can get it done. Um, I mean, that's what we got to do here. So really appreciate it and and thank you chair >> council member Wong followed by Hanife. >> Um thank you chair. Um a question about the do uh conditions of DOT infrastructure and particularly overpasses and uh uh trash along medians and highways. I'll stop with the overpasses because we get a lot of railroads cutting through at my district CSX Conrail, you know, so we have a lot of these overpasses and those bridges uh need to be maintained like in in severe weathers uh um and they have to be clean including weeds and debris. My question is uh uh uh what is the maintenance schedule for DOT regarding these medians uh uh overpasses and and and other DOT properties? How often do you clean them? >> Okay, so we have um we always have more work out there in cleaning these locations um than we can get to on a constant basis. So we do have them on a rotation. We also supplement the work that our in-house forces do with um a bunch of different work forces that we work with. For example, right now we're working with the DOE fund and several others in order to get them out at that those locations. So, those are the types of um additional workforce that we would like to put on them. And if you let me know of any specific locations that you um think need a little bit more attention, we'll do our best to get out there. Um, in my district, the most serious issues are graffitis and overpasses. >> So, I How often do you do you address that? Because >> Uhhuh. >> Um, we get weekly calls regarding >> We do have some, um, bridge painters that handle graffiti. If you get me those locations, we'll get them done as well. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, city bikes. Um my uh in the when when I brought this up in the last uh hearing uh I had a question. Uh I don't think I got a a very clear answer. Is there flexibility within the city bike or lift contract to place stations based on actual demand rather than a fixed grid? Because we I can tell you which which stations are just not used at all. and then the the residents in in the neighborhood wants it moved and while you go to the other side my district the racks are always empty and they want more racks. So is there something we could do to to do to to change to fix that? >> Um right. So I understand exactly what you're saying. Our philosophy and our feeling working closely with our bike share provider is that it's very important to have a presence of a station within a certain distance. And if we start and it's roughly like four blocks um sort of grid blocks. If we start removing stations then all of a sudden the bigger system will break down um and it won't be successful because people just will know they have to go too far to pick up a bike or drop off a bike or it's very hard for them to go into the neighborhoods they're trying to go into. So we would not want to remove any stations. However, what we would want to do in locations that you said there's so much of a demand is two things. One, talk to um Lyft about adding more docks potentially and more bikes, but then two, also look at rebalancing. If there are certain parts of the day, times of the day where all the bikes are gone or there are too many bikes trying to dock, that's the kind of um issue that we like to work with Lyft in order to see what we can do about that. But can the contract be revised or no that that's set in stone that this is a grid base? >> Yeah, council member, we we do believe in the grid-based contract >> and that's being this is what it was signed right? >> Um I have to go back and understand exactly what we signed in in our agreement. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, chair. >> No, thank you, council member. >> Yeah, >> council member Hanife. >> Thank you. I want to go back to bike parking. really wonderful to hear about the 500 um goal. Where where will they be and how will that be determined and then what's the timeline? >> So where for the secure bike parking program that's uh that's still in development. Um the uh you know I think we want to look at locations where it can have the greatest benefit. you you mentioned a few of those situations, council member, whether it's folks who live in walk up apartments, you know, or um maybe uh um further from transit or things like that where it can be kind of a helpful first and last mile connection. >> You want to add anything? >> Got it. So, it this hasn't been rolled out yet that we're still in the preliminary. >> That's right. We're still finishing up the procurement with the contractor, but then we do expect it to be a public engagement process, too, where they don't just start appearing on the street. We'll we'll work with electeds and and community boards to say, "Here's some types of locations where where it could be. Do you have preferences? Are there things we should be looking at?" You know, we'll try to have some smaller ones in residential areas, some larger ones near transit. It will not be a secret in the night process, right? We'll be about it. >> I I'm I'm happy about that. I'll just say that for my district, please feel free. I don't you don't have to ask me for permission. Um for um accessibility, does the DOT have a specific um budget for making ramps or uh intersections accessible? >> Yeah, I can take it. Um the obviously accessibility is a core priority for us. Um, a lot of the work we do is uh ADA compliant, if not every single piece of work we do is ADA compliant. A good chunk of the sidewalk sidewalk inspection management budget is about pet ramps and accessibility. Um, but also traffic operations. Traffic operations has accessible pedestrian signals as well. So, every work um and every division that touches uh the street is um has an accessibility component. I'm happy to break it down um if you want by >> is there there is there a separate cost or is it included in the cost of the specific project? >> Like a capital project for example would be baked in. All the accessibility components would be baked into the capital project but for specific accessibility issues like in sidewalk inspection management we we have a budget for um the pet ramps for the pet ramp program for example. Same with traffic operations. It's the one of the biggest divisions that we have and we have a budget for accessible pedestrian signals. Um >> what's that? What's that the budget for that? >> Yeah, I can um let me try to find it. Um but if I don't, I'm happy to follow up with you >> because those aren't yet installed all across the city, right? >> That's right. Yeah, they're on rolling bases. And then if you could share what the current backlog of intersections without ADA compliant uh ped ramps and how long it'll take to eliminate it at the current funding level. >> It's actually not just a a funding question. It's also a capacity question. We do inhouse um the the pedestrian rams that are that we call simple pedestrian rams which means there's no underlying capital work beneath them. we do in house the complex pedestrian ramps that have some underlying uh infrastructure work that needs to happen is they're done by DDC and so it's a partnership between DOT and DDC to make sure that we get to every single corner or intersection in the city. >> So right now there isn't a sort of list where you're like >> we have the entire universe we're happy to provide it's literally a map and it follows the resurfacing schedule. So whenever we go to a street that needs to be resurfaced, we check every ped ramp along the way. And then the simple uh pet ramps we do as the resurfacing schedule gets done, the complex one we let DDC do. >> Got it. And if you could also share the uh the funding uh level for that would be great, too. And how does DOT coordinate ramp installation with other street redesigns such as west bus bus lanes, bike lanes, and other road safety measures? >> Sure. So, as Paul mentioned, we have a program where we specifically do pedestrian ramps following resurfacing, but also when we're out doing other work, we we make those accessibility upgrades at the same time. So, if we're building a an extended corner for pedestrian safety, it gets updated ramps and not just at the corner that we're doing, we do all the ramps at that intersection. If we're moving a light pole as part of a bike lan project, the entire intersection gets the APS's. And that's both that's efficient work, right? we're at a location, we want to do the work. And it also makes sure that when we're bringing these these intersections up to what we consider our standard, that it is for everyone, that that it's not just for cyclists, it's for people who use the intersection however they use it. >> Thank you, Council Member. I'm going to ask questions on behalf of Council Member Krishnan, who was here earlier, but had to step out. Other cities have been implementing lowtra neighborhoods. What are DOT's plans to doing so here? I think it's a really interesting idea. Um, and it's something that we're uh we're certainly taking a look at in the context of um, you know, we're always thinking about how we can uh, level up what we're working on. >> Great. And on behalf of Sina Brooks Powers, I have Council Member Brooks Powers, I have questions. She says, "My office has asked for a briefing regarding the New York City truck route redesign for several months now in partnership with our community stakeholders. Given that our district has one of the highest rates of illegal truck activity given our proximity to JFK airport, it is absolutely critical that our community is engaged on the significant changes to the city's truck route network. Can you commit to setting up this briefing in the next two weeks? >> Yeah, we we we've we're very happy that we put out the report last year. We've got a lot of feedback from the the council member and others and yes, we're happy to have the meeting. >> Furthermore, this is still along her line of questioning. Furthermore, our community has been vocal about the need to include overnight truck parking locations in southeast southeast Queens as part of local law 96 of 2025. Can the agency provide an update on what locations in southeast Queens have been identified for overnight parking per this law? So, we we've had a number of walkthroughs with with the council member and and we're working on the specific locations. We think that the three pilots that we've had in in Flatlands, in Mass, and in the South Bronx have all been working well. They they they appear to be used more or less appropriately. And so, we are looking for more locations in and around other IBZs in the city as per the law. So, we it's it's underway and we'll have more to report. >> Great. Can DOT provide an update regard, This is still along her line of questioning. Can DOT provide an update regarding the street lighting along Rockaway Beach Boulevard from Beach 62nd to Beach 73rd Street? These street lights remain out and cause a major public safety hazard to local residents. >> We can get that to her um today or tomorrow. I don't have it with me right now. >> That would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Commissioner. All right, back to my round of questioning. It's on bus speeds and on-time performance. A city controller report from September 2025 found that a majority of buses are performing at below average standards. 56% of bus lines, 186 out of 332, received a grade of D or lower, meaning that they run at speed significantly below the barwide average, are more likely to experience bunching, and consistently fail to arrive at scheduled stops on time. By comparison, only 27 lines, 8% received a grade B or higher. Only seven lines received an A grade, which was consistent with January 2019 speeds at 7.8 miles per hour. What is DOT doing to improve bus speeds throughout the city? >> Well, we're leaving no stone unturned and there's, you know, multiple causes of uh bus delay. It could be, you know, at busy stops, folks queuing to get on the bus. It can be due to waiting at traffic signals. It could be due to traffic congestion. Uh and there's really a whole range of things we can do to uh to speed them up. And actually, we're working very closely with our partners at the MTA right now uh to do a a comprehensive look at how we can uh significantly increase bus speeds. >> I would also add I think that the satisfying the streets plan would be very helpful with that. Where will DOT prioritize new bus lanes? which routes and how will DOT determine which routes require new protected bus lanes? >> Sure. And and a number of of the lanes for this year have been announced, including restarting projects like Madison Avenue and Forom Road that have been on put on hold last year, which obviously is not helpful to to bus speeds, but it's something we work in very close partnership with the MTA. We look at places where buses are slow and unreliable. We look at places where traffic congestion is the main issue. As the commissioner said, sometimes it's people boarding the bus, sometimes it's traffic signals, but we want to address the busiest parts of routes. So, we it's a very close partnership between us and the MTA to make sure we're delivering all those different aspects of making the buses faster and a and bus lanes and busways are a big piece of that and something that the mayor has been very committed to. >> Is camera enforcement of track traffic violations working in your view? >> Yes. >> All right. All right, I'm now going to turn over to questions on bus rapid transit. Bus rapid transit is a high-capacity bus-based urban transit system designed to combine the speed and efficiency of rail transit with the flexibility and lower cost of buses. I was recently in Argentina and I was impressed with the bus rapid transit system in Buenocidis. Their BRT system known as Metro Bus has been developed to enhance public transportation efficiency across the city. The average speed of their BRT was 15 miles per hour and covered almost 40 miles. I like to explore bringing BRT to New York specifically along the 125th Street corridor. Can you walk us through what scope of that project would entail and how much it would cost? >> Well, I I'll just start by saying thank you, speaker. You know, I think we're uh sometimes we think, you know, uh there's an idea that New York can't learn from other cities or that we're unique. And I I don't agree with that. I think there's so much we can learn and get inspired by what other cities are doing. And BRT is a great example of that. And it's definitely something that we'd like to uh you know, figure out how we can apply that here. Um we're very open to uh recommendations and ideas about corridors that could be a good fit for that. Um and uh yeah, I guess maybe uh Eric if you want to talk a little about the components. >> Sure. So, so we it's it's simple to start, right? It's about dedicated right of way. It's about quality stations. It's about uh being able to board the bus through all doors. You know, all things that make the bus work more like the subway system does. Now, how you do that on an individual street is of course the tricky part. And as we've seen in Europe and we've seen in Latin America and we've seen, you know, places like 14th Street, there are places where we can do things like busways where it's about removing other traffic from the street. There's also projects like what we're doing on Flatbush Avenue where we create a dedicated space in the middle of the street protected from traffic. So, we want to look at any individual street before saying it costs exactly this much. >> Certainly. But it's but it's a good conversation. We're happy. I I would like to have that conversation and uh when you do if when you do get you know the the cost estimates or you got or if DOT does explore I would like to be part of that conversation understand how much it would cost and whether if it's feasible. Um I would also like to add that the Uniform Services and Transportation Committee of Manhattan Community Board 9 passed a resolution March of 2025 calling on the Department of Transportation to consider a bus lane project on 145th Street in Upper Manhattan as well. Um, this is something I'm also interested in exploring. I think we can go even bigger than that. And I I would to the extent it's feasible. I would like to know whether or not BRT would be feasible along that corridor as well. >> Uh, thank you, Chad. I think we would love to sit down with you and your stakeholders and uh look at that. >> Some of the stakeholders may not be happy with it, but I it doesn't matter to me. Um, like to add that. Um, is this something DOT is considering implementing along the newly redesigned 14th Street corridor? If not, why not? >> So, yes, and and we're very excited about 14th Street, right? It's it's a street that we did upgrades in 2019, but we we know it's not fulfilling the the full vision of that street. So, it has a lot of the pieces in place. It has the dedicated rightway. It has the Aldoor boarding, but we want to look at the the streetscape as a whole. Can the stations be better? Can the the street be friendlier to pedestrians? Can we create better loading zones so that trucks aren't interfering with the buses as much? We want this to be a street that's a great street not just for buses going fast, but for the the businesses, for the community, for all the uses of that street. So, it's certainly it's included in the things we'll look at. But I think we want to go beyond that, too. >> Clearly, I think BRT would be very transformative and would really hope that that this administration takes it very seriously. I I understand it's something that the mayor also cares about uh regarding the World Cup and this is my last line of questions. This summer of New York City, this summer the New York City region will play a host to a round of group matches and the final match of the World Cup. It's been reported uh that the mayor is asking Albany to sign off on five weeks of free bus service across the five burrows while the region hosts matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. I do know that uh chairman Lee chair chairman Jano Liieber this morning said that he has not received any advocacy either from the from the state or the city regarding this. But does the administration have an update on this proposal or how much it would cost or I don't know if this is something that you guys are are advocating for? >> Uh, no, not at this time. >> Okay. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on March 3rd the the Federal Transit Administration is investing 100.3 million into public transit systems within host cities preparing to welcome millions of fans during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Is DOT receiving any of this money? Those are um conversations are ongoing. Um that that $und00 million was uh meant for direct transit agencies, but we are going to be making a case um for us to tap into those that grant as well >> and to be used for what purpose? >> Uh staffing mostly >> uh for the World Cup. >> Correct. Yeah. So, we we're going to need a lot of staffing uh mostly overtime for folks um you know, setting up cones, taking down cones, but also flowing the flow of traffic in the same way that we do summer streets. For example, has the administration outlined to DOT what their role will be in the upcoming World Cup? What is the scope of that involvement entail? I know there's been entertainment zones proposals among other things. Would like to know the breadth of that involvement? >> Yeah, we're working closely uh with the city hall's World Cup lead and other agencies to uh contribute to an overall plan. We definitely see the huge economic and and social potential of the World Cup and we know um you know especially a lot of New Yorkers can't afford those tickets uh and to the matches and we want to make sure that all New Yorkers can benefit in some way and feel like they're a part of this World Cup. So we're really um we're thinking through a lot of big ideas right now and we'll have more to share in the near future. >> Thank you so much commissioner and your entire uh team for testifying today. This hearing is excused. This panel is excused. >> Thank you, chair. >> You too. >> Jesus. Folks, please find your seats. We're going to start momentarily. >> Okay. Which way is on? Great. >> So it just stays on. Okay. >> Oh, yes, please. All right, we are back. I am now turning it over to committee council Mark Chen to administer the oath. >> Thank you. Uh, our next panel will be from the taxi and limousine commission. Evan Hines, acting commissioner and deputy commissioner for operations, people and innovation. Cheryl Aludo, general counsel, and James DGI, Deputy Commissioner for Policy and Community Affairs. I will now administer those. Please raise your right hands. Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee and to respond honestly to council member questions? >> I do. >> Thank you. You may begin when ready. is a close. >> Good afternoon, Majority Leader Abrau and members of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. It is a pleasure to deliver an update on the fiscal state of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. My name is Evan Hines and I am TLC's acting commissioner and deputy commissioner for operations, people, and innovation. With me is Cheryl Ludo, the AY's general counsel, and James Digioani, the AY's deputy commissioner for policy and community affairs. TLC's regulated industries encompass nearly 300,000 licenses, including taxi, for hire vehicle, and commuter van drivers, as well as vehicle owners, bases, and other related businesses. Although TLC is a relatively small agency of about 500 team members, we have a large role to play within our city's transportation ecosystem. As we move into fiscal year 2027, I look forward to continuing our partnership with the council to ensure that all New Yorkers receive the services that they need and deserve. The data from calendar year 2025 continues to indicate stability within the TLC's regulated industries. Across all vehicle markets, there were over 320 million trips completed. Overall trips have increased by 6%. Each sector of our regulated industries is unique and there is some variation across each type. Taxi trips have increased by 16% from 24 to 25, but have still only recovered 57% from 2019. The agency estimates that between 60 to 65% of yellow taxi drivers are currently full-time drivers, and the median gross hourly pay for this group is around $60 an hour compared to $50 an hour in 2019. Earnings after expenses are unique to each driver, but expenses sharply reduce take-home pay. A typical Medallion owner pays around $25,000 per year toward vehicle payments and medallion loan service, and that's before fuel, maintenance, and insurance. The high volume for higher vehicle sector, which includes Lyft and Uber and is the largest segment of our regulated industries, completed over 243 million trips in 2025. That is up from 239 million in 2024, a 1.7% increase. We also saw earnings increases for drivers in the sector as well. The median pay for full-time drivers before taxes and expenses is approximately $61 an hour in comparison to $46 an hour in 2019. This reflects the impact of the driver payrolls authorized by local law 150 of 2018 and the amendments TLC adopted last year. Other sectors are also showing progress. Non high volume for higher vehicles completed 28 million trips in 2025, a 4% increase from 2024. Although trips are largely recovered since the COVID pandemic, we know challenges exist in the industry as well, such as congestion, insurance costs, and more recently increases in gas prices. The commuter van recovery extended through this year with 56 vans in service compared to 34 at the beginning of 2024 in part due to Empire State Development's commuter van stabilization program. Through this program, eligible applicants can receive up to $40,000 to help offset the cost of annual commuter van auto insurance policies, as well as receive reimbursements for specific vehicle safety upgrades, including advanced driver assistance, dash cams, and GPS tracking. While we see stability across the TLC's regulated industries, we continue to see and address unlicensed activity, which is which not only siphons off trips from licensed drivers and bases who follow city rules, but also endangers and exploits passengers. Illegal rides may not be insured. Dispatches may overcharge passengers. Vehicles are not inspected for safety by TLC. And drivers may not even have a valid DMV license. This is an issue that TLC has consistently been addressing and the newly nominated chair and chief executive officer made a commitment to stop these scaff laws in her testimony before the council. Moreover, we are working with our city and state partners to identify additional tools that could be used to halt the operations of these bad actors. I would like to thank the council for passing local law 35 of 2026, which through a DOT study will help gather data to assist the agency with unlicensed commuter van enforcement. TLC continues to support and ensure compliance with several key pieces of legislation which were passed last year. Local laws 78 of 2025 requires taxis and for hired vehicles to display a decal to warn passengers to look for cyclists when opening the door. The agency voted to adopt rules to implement this requirement at our September 17th commission meeting and we stocked up on our decal supply. TLC will distribute decals during vehicle inspections at the Woodside facility if needed and decals are available to licences for free at both our Woodside and Long Island City facilities. Local law 84 of 2025 requires the TLC to conduct a new study on the challenges and opportunities related to increasing the use of electric for higher vehicles and installing new charging infrastructure by the end of this year. In addition, it requires the agency to include data on electric for hire uh uh incentive program, I'm sorry, include data on electric for hire vehicles, the infrastructure necessary to support them, incentive programs, and overall progress towards the electrification of the four higher vehicle fleet and its annual for higher vehicle license review report, which will be released in the next few weeks. I am pleased to announce that 978 new level two and three charges have come online since the AY's green rides rules were adopted. According to these rules, by this year, 25% of all high volume for higher vehicle trips must be dispatched to electric or wheelchair accessible vehicles. Our newly nominated chair and chief executive officer highlighted in her testimony before the council that the cost associated with this public good has largely been borne by drivers and small businesses and is something that TLC should further review. We fully expect to the companies to meet these requirements and they are on track with a current industry average of 22.7%. Also in September, TLC completed rulemaking to implement local law 90 of 2025 to reduce TLC's insurance requirements for licensed vehicles. TLC now limits the amount of personal injury protection insurance coverage for licensed vehicles to an amount no greater than 200% of the amount required by state law. This change will help drivers and vehicle owners save money while still requiring the highest personal injury protection insurance coverage in the state. Accessibility remains a top priority for TLC and we are excited to report that as of today over 58% of the city's active taxi fleet is wheelchair accessible. Currently, there are more than 6,300 accessible taxis, bringing us closer to our next goal of 50% accessibility of the authorized fleet. Notably, TLC thoroughly reviewed its accessible taxi programs last year to keep the taxi improvement fund solvent in anticipation of the increase in wheelchair accessible vehicle hackups. Leaving the TIFF program as it was with grants for hackups, quarterly operational payments, $1 per trip payments for all trips in a wheelchair accessible vehicle, and funding the accessible dispatch program was not possible. Our amended rules increased the accessible vehicle hackup grant for medallion owners from 14,000 to 20,000 and capped operational payments at a maximum of $10,000 for a period of four years for eligible participants for a total of 33 thou $30,000 in grants to owners. As part of these changes, TLC shifted from a single vendor accessible dispatch model that costs the TIFF $6 million annually to a multi-provider models serviced by individually licensed e-hel apps at no cost to the fund. Redirecting these funds afforded us the opportunity to add an additional 200 waves to the medallion fleet as well as offer a $10 bonus incentive for drivers dispatched by the e-hel company's call centers. TLC maintained the 247 call center requirement and established more stringent service standards such as requiring call agents to receive disability etiquette and sensitivity training. Throughout this process, TLC engaged members of the disability community and continues to listen to feedback and perform service audits. We are committed to good service for the disability community, and we are committed to monitoring and pivoting as needed. TLC authorized the Atlas pilot program, which helps owners qualify for lowcost financing for accessible vehicle purchases. The program will provide assistance to 100 small business medallion owners to purchase a wheelchair accessible Toyota Sienna in partnership with Empire State Development, the Disability Opportunity Fund, Hillside Toyota, and the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. The fund can provide a low interest loan due to the upfront TIFF grant of $30,000, thereby reducing the loan amount from $80,000 to $50,000. So far, 16 medallions have received funding, passed inspection, are and are in revenue service. Next, I would like to preview TLC's preliminary budget for fiscal year 2027, which is projected to be approximately 57.9 million, broken down into 45.5 million in personnel services and 12.4 million in other than personal services. This is an overall decrease of $4.2 million or 6.6% 6% from the current modified budget. This dis this decrease is the result of less funding for MRP from the Medallion Relief Program needs. Last fiscal year, we had received an additional 4.2 million that was added to the budget for those costs. Currently, the TLC's authorized headcount is 546 for fiscal year 2027. Our at our budget hearing last year, we reported that we hired the first of several cadet classes to fill 100 new vacancies given to us to backfill high attrition positions. Since then, we have filled all of these new lines. Although we continue to see high attrition amongst our uniform services bureau, we've made great progress in reducing our vacancy rates since the 2025 uh 2026 uh preliminary budget hearing. Uh last year our vacancy rate at this time was 30%. Whereas I'm happy to report our current rate is 13%. As is customary, I want to ensure that the new committee members are aware of one of TLC's major capital projects. Our safety and emissions inspection facility in Woodside, Queens is currently entering the second phase of a $180 million reconstruction. This project is being managed by the Department of Design and Construction and is expected to be substantially complete by the end of 2028. The project is needed to mitigate structural degradation as well as to meet an increasing demand for inspection services. Once completed, the new facility will increase inspection capacity and reduce street congestion associated with entering and exiting vehicles. The original scope of the project was expected to the original uh was expanded to include 70 new electric vehicle charges including 30 level three fast charges to support TLC's green rides initiatives for TLC employees. There will also be a new administrative building, a parking garage, and vehicle testing equipment. The current inspection facility remains operational while construction is underway. Across all of TLC's projects, the agency is committed to ensuring that vendors, our vendors reflect the diversity of New York City. The minority and womenowned business enterprises program expands opportunities for local entrepreneurs to access government contracts and grow their businesses. TLC's current fiscal year 2026 MWBE utilization rate is 40.9% or $1.4 million in MWBE contracts, nearly 11 11 percentage points greater than the citywide goal of 30%. We are incredibly proud of this achievement. For six consecutive years, TLC has exceeded the citywide MWBE participation goals and remains committed to closing the fiscal year on June 30th above New York City's 30% requirement. This number reflects utilization for eligible contracts which do not include intergovernmental contracts or requirement contracts. MWBE vendors were procured for services required to revise our educational course curriculum, provide translation services, cloud security, and quality assurance services. Through all these contracts, we are contributing to advancing equity in our city. As we prepare for the upcoming fiscal year, I want to thank the dedicated staff at TLC for their efforts to ensure that agency initiatives are successful. I look forward to the opportunity to work with Commission continues to support a fair and equitable industry for licences, passengers, and all New Yorkers. I am now happy to answer any questions you may have about the TLC's budget or regulated industries. >> Thank you, Commissioner. According to numerous studies, compared to the general population, professional drivers have higher rates of depression, diabetes hypertension stress and anxiety. In May 2024, an outreach campaign by Health and Hospitals launched to help provide and connect drivers to health and well-being resources. Can you please tell us about the status of this program? >> So, um so we actually um are part are partnering with H&H actually for that program. Um it provides um both physical and behavioral health services um using um for drivers and their families using um uh insurance if they have insurance. If they don't have insurance, it helps them to um get insurance and fees are on a sliding scale. Um we uh have installed there's a kiosk at our licensing facility that's available for drivers um as well as we've referred drivers from the owner driver resource center if they came in and needed assistance. Um the response the number of people um that have been availing themselves of these services is not is not high. Um and um we um one of our assistant commissioners for programs did actually um have a check-in with H&H last week. Um I believe there was some turnover in the people responsible for the program at H&H. Um but she has spoken with them last week to strategize to come up with um more ways of communicating out that these services are available to um to increase. Do you have any idea how many people have been served and what is the funding level in fiscal 27 for this program? >> The funding level I wouldn't know because it's funded through H&H provides the services. Um the number of people I would actually have to get back to you but it's it's not a large number. I could tell you that >> is it under 100? I mean do you have any idea? >> Definitely. Definitely. >> Okay. Uh if you can get us that information when you have it that'll be greatly appreciated. How many drivers have I already asked that question. My apologies. All right. Turning now over to just rider safety. The PMMR shows that there has been an increase in complaints lodged against TLC drivers with 9,965 in fiscal 2026, 9,220 in the first four months of fiscal 2025 as compared to 8,356 in the first four months of fiscal 2024. A 16% increase. Over the last 3 years, the number of complaints has been steadily increasing. Why have these metrics been going in a negative direction? >> So, um we actually have a lot more vehicles uh that are come that have come out of storage over the last few years. Um I believe just this year 2,000 um vehicles came out of storage. So, there's more vehicles on the street. um trips. There's more trips uh quite a bit uh quite um a large number is it 10 million more trips a year than two years ago. Yeah. So in the last couple of years the number of trips um that the that uh uh vehicles are uh experienced went from 3,400 on average per vehicle to 4500 I think now annually. Um, so I believe it's because of the additional activity of vehicles on the street. Um, it I think if you're looking at the MMR, it's also important to note um that our response time for addressing those consumer complaints um has gone down significantly um due to um operational changes with how we handle those complaints. Um because we found that the longer it takes to get to a complaint uh the less likely that the person filing the complaint is interested in going through with it to take some sort of action. Um so we are going through them faster. >> Do you find that TLC has enough funding and staff to meet the needs for enforcement, driver support and case management for >> Repeat that again. Enforcement >> driver support and case management. >> Yeah. Yes, we do. >> What is TLC doing to address this decline in customer satisfaction? >> Um, what metric are you referring to? >> Give me one second. >> Sure. >> The complaints lodged >> the the they're not lodged against TLC. They're lodged against drivers. Right. >> Yes. So, is DOT doing anything to >> is TLC doing anything to address this decline lodged against drivers? >> Well, I we have a robust education program. Um we actually um have just updated our education curriculum. Um we've changed some rules that um require um drivers to retake a course um if they're found like you know and violating any if if a certain number of complaints are found to be valid. >> Yes. >> Yes. We amended our rules last year so that more drivers are racking up. um >> I'm sorry that racking up more points um for stationary traffic violations. So they're required to take education in addition to just paying a penalty. We also have education at renewal time for the lency. All right, I'm now going to turn to questions on accessibility. In the past, TLC emphasized that improving accessible and equitable service was a top priority for the commission. According to the most recent PMMR, there are only 5,911 wheelchair accessible vehicles. Additionally, in the first four months of fiscal 2026, there were 7,488 accessible FHVS, a marginal decrease from the 7,642 during the same period of fiscal 2025. How is TLC ensuring that the yellow cab and FHV industry increases the number of wheelchair accessible vehicles in the fleet? With regards to uh our yellow taxis or medallions, um there is a 100 right now 100% of any vehicle that is coming into service, whether it's a new vehicle because the a former vehicle has to be retired or if it's someone coming out of storage, they could only put they could only put a wheelchair accessible vehicle on the street. Um the number with with that is already up to over 6,300 um from the numbers that you're looking at. Um because that rule went into effect in was it summer 24? Octo octo October of 24 is when we put that um rule into effect. Um and um and we've also increased the hackup fee grants uh to help with all those um the costs associated with that. >> What about with FHV industry? >> So the decline >> there's probably a bit of fluctuation in the FHV numbers over time. We've seen the general trend has been very positive. Uh, and in part that's because if you want to license a new four hire vehicle, the only way that you've been able to do that since 2018 consistently is with a wheelchair accessible vehicle. So right now, for example, if you want to enter the industry, you want to get a vehicle license. The only way to do that is with a wave. So that will ensure that the numbers continue to go up over time. >> What kinds of assistance does TLC provide to drivers who are converting to accessible vehicles? So upon hackup once they convert the vehicle uh to wheelchair accessible um and get you know um the the all the other um like the TSP equipment into the vehicle once they put it into service um they are eligible for a $20,000 grant um which many have been taking us up on that. I think uh in this last year there's been $40 million of grants paid out um for hackups. Um and then they are eligible for up to $10,000 over the first four years um in quarterly payments. um if they uh if they hit a milestone of 750 accessible trips uh trips in within that accessible vehicle um for the quarter overall we have seen a faster adoption of accessible vehicles in for higher vehicles than yellow cabs. What do you believe is the cause of this disparity and what problems do yellow cab owners encounter when converting to wheelchair accessible vehicles? I'm not sure about the as far as adoption with FHV. I mean the the requirement um once we had the cap in place, right, wheelchair accessible vehicles were the only vehicles that are able to enter the market on the FHV side. Um the um on the medallion side, a lot of vehicles were medallions were in storage which are now coming out of storage. So over the last couple years, that's what would be impacting it. >> How many taxis and four hire vehicles were dispatched under TLC's accessible dispatch program broken down by license type? >> So the um the accessible dispatch program dispatches to yellow taxis only, not to FHVS. Um, I don't have the numbers with me, but I could get that back to you. I could get back to you with that. Um, let me just see what I have. >> Yeah. I mean, you can come back to it. >> Yeah, I could get back to you with exact numbers, but it was uh the monthly average this past year um was just under 4,000. >> Okay. And >> and and we're seeing a correlation that those are going down, but um trips um requested through wave for a wave through the e-hals are going up. What is the current citywide average wait time for accessible dispatches for yellow cabs when compared to for higher vehicles? Let me see if I have that number. The accessible dispatch median wait time. um for the first four months of fiscal 26 was 12 minutes and 6 seconds. >> Take your time. >> Right. So 12 minutes and 6 seconds and compared to FHV in general. >> Sorry. So the question is what is the current citywide average weight time for accessible dispatches for yellow cabs when compared to for higher vehicles? Do you know? >> Yeah. Um, I'll have to get back to you. I only have in front of me the accessible dispatch uh for the first four months of the year. The numbers >> by when can you get us that information? >> I can get that to you tomorrow. >> All right. Thank you. And just letting the committee staff to make sure we we we we get that information as soon as possible. Turning over to electrification. According to TLC's electrification and motion report released in September 2024, most EV trips happen in Manhattan, where the most trips overall occur. However, Queen sees a higher proportion of EV trips. 24% of the city's EV trips are in Queens, while only 20% of trips in all other vehicles occur in Queens. The Bronx, on the other hand, sees 12.4% 4% of trips of gas powered for higher vehicle trips but only 10.5% of trips in electric for higher vehicles. What is the reason for this discrepancy? >> So as far as we can tell the discrepancy is likely because there has been a lot of investment in charging infrastructure in Queens. Um, and there may also be some things happening outside of the city. Like if there's a lot of charging accessibility in Nassau, maybe that explains some drivers going across the border or who live across the border. Maybe they are TLC licensed drivers who live in Nassau charge at home and do a bit more trips in Queens. On the flip side, the Bronx has definitely lagged behind uh in charging infrastructure. So that's probably why we're seeing the trip counts lower there. >> Which brings me to my next question. Does DOT have any Sorry, I keep saying DT. Does TLC have any plans to expand electric charging capacity and borrows other than Queens? >> So, we do not uh operate any infrastructure ourselves. So, we would not be the ones, you know, shovels in the ground uh actually installing the charging infrastructure. We work a lot and very closely with city DOT, other city agencies, and the private sector. We like to say and you know other agencies say this as well that the city did not install every gas pump in New York City. So the city is also not going to install every EV charger. So the private sector plays a large part as well. But we're definitely working with other agencies. >> How many electric for higher vehicles are currently licensed by TLC? So as of January 2026, there were 13,115 EV FHVS. >> And what has been the reception to the green rides initiative and how has the program been implemented by TLC? >> So it's been generally positive. There were definitely admittedly uh some learning curves at the beginning. I think people who first get an EV from uh what we've learned from drivers, there is a bit of a learning curve. you know, you have to figure out what your charging plan is going to be. You have to know things like don't charge past 90% because that last 10% can take a very long time. So, um there were definitely some lines when we issued a large number of EV licenses at the beginning of the green rides initiative um where people were still kind of feeling things out, but it's been fairly smooth since then. There's been a lot more investment in charging infrastructure and more installations of chargers citywide in the last couple of years. We think that's in part because of the green rides initiative that we've created a large demand for it. Um so the industry has adjusted and it seems to be going fairly well. Taxi licenses which are TLC's largest source of revenue generation have declined from 49.3 million in fiscal 2024 to an anticipated 38.7 million in fiscal 2027 representing a decrease of 21.5%. Why has there been such a decrease in revenue due to taxi licenses? Are fewer drivers applying to obtain licenses? >> I believe that fluctuation is due to cycles, renewal cycles. Um, and so a driver's license uh is valid for two years. Um and so depending on when people got their license like like uh this year um we are seeing um our target uh for actually I was talking about vehicle uh licenses uh driver licenses are for 3 years. Um what in 2024 there was a large uptick in the number of driver licenses um associated with the um FHV the EV licenses that we gave out to vehicles. >> So is it fair to expect increased revenue next year then? >> I'm sorry, could you repeat that? >> Is it fair to expect that there will be increased revenue next year? Uh >> because of the three-year cycle. >> Uh it's um no not next year. The following year would be the increase. >> Okay. Thank you. Has TLC seen a decline in overall drivers? >> No. No, we have not. >> Have you seen an increase? >> Yes. >> All right. And my last set of questions are on headcount vacancies. As of January 2026, TLC has an actual headcount of 441 and is operating with a 24% vacancy rate. Furthermore, TLC operated with a 23% vacancy rate in fiscal 24 and 15% in fiscal 23. TLC has been operating with a high vacancy rate for quite some time now. What budgeted positions have remained open? So we actually this past year we made a lot of progress with hiring and um as of the end of February our vacancy rate is down to 13%. Um where most of those most of the hiring happened um was in our uniform services bureau which a few years ago um 100 additional headcount was added to our budget. Uh and so we were having challenges hiring for those positions. Um so we have hard several classes um over the last couple of years um attributing uh to the decrease. Um we still have the highest vacancies I'd say are in our uniform services bureau as well as our prosecution our prose prosecution unit attorneys. >> So as of February of 2026 there's now a 13% vacancy. >> Yes. >> Kudos to you on that. And how do we how do we keep that up? How do we keep that trend going? Um it's well a a good start is OM uh relaxed their rules as far as uh in the last administration there was a 241 rule where for every two uh people that left the agency we could only hire one um they have since removed that um just just I believe a few weeks ago um so there isn't that restriction on hiring so that would help us to f to um take care of attrition Are the vacancies still in the prosecution division? >> Uh vacancies uh the most vacancies are in prosecution and uniform services bureau. So enforcement and safeties and inspection. So there were 16,629 complaints made against COC drivers in fiscal 2022, 24,131 in fiscal 23 and 28,025 in fiscal 2024. Additionally, the number of drivers eligible for prosecution has been increasing with 9,290 in fiscal 22, 13,87 in fiscal 23, and 15,471 in fiscal 24. In the first four months of fiscal 25, there were 6,914 complaints eligible for prosecution, an increase of 61.6% compared to the same period in fiscal 24. This brings to light a serious concern that passengers in TLC operated vehicles may be feeling less safe. Why have why have these metrics been going in a negative direction? Obviously, we don't love to see complaints go up by that kind of rate, but one uh important thing to note is that it seems like passengers and members of the public do feel like TLC takes these complaints seriously and actually prosecutes them. Um there are websites and apps set up to make it easy to submit 311 complaints because the public knows that TLC will look at these complaints, take them seriously, reach out, prosecute these cases. Um, so I think some of the increase in complaints, there's actually a bit of a silver lining there. Um, that people feel like they, you know, the the word is out that if you submit complaints to TLC, the complaint will be taken seriously. Um, and the increase may be partially at least related to that. >> And the um the indicator or the stats that you're quoting with regards to eligible to prosecute um that actually is due to um a large factor. It's due to, as I said earlier, our prosecution team has revamped their proc their process for addressing these complaints and they're addressing them and getting in touch with the complaintant um much quicker uh than they had been in the past. I mean, I think it's less than half the time they're taking. and the sooner they get to the complaint um the without the without the person who filed the complaint being willing to you know attend a hearing um they have to throw out the case. So um so the eligible for prosecution I believe is is increasing because of that. >> So there have been improvements on vacancies in other places but it remains it's clear that there's still a big need for addressing the vacancies here. What is the administration's plan on this? >> So, we actually have, you know, we just onboarded a cadet class uh in January um which is which uh filled a lot of our vacancies um in the enforce enforcement and safety and emissions um of uniform services bureau um which is again what's attributing to our vacancy rate now only being at 13%. We want to get that down to under 10%. >> Thank you very much, Commissioner. I'm now going to turn it over to Council Member Phil Walt. >> Thank you, Chair. Um I I see in your statement here that uh 58% of the city's active taxi fleet is wheelchair accessible. Does that includes yellow taxis only or includes the greens and the yellows and all the like Lift and Ubers? >> That's only yellow. >> It's only yellow. Okay. Um, is there do you have some figures like the green taxis or the Ubers? And then and I'm going to explain why I'm asking because in my districts uh seniors uh uh often uh uh they are either on a cane on a walker or wheelchair bound and uh they they get very frustrated when they call for car service and it's not wheelchair accessible. They they have to call self-help or they have to call the neighbors down the block to to take them to their medical appointments. So my question to you is uh uh one um what percentage of your green taxi is wheelchair accessible and what about the Ubers and lifts? >> So Uber and Lift which falls under our four higher vehicles FHVS uh there's over 7700 uh wheelchair accessible vehicles FHV vehicles um in addition to the 6,300 medallions that are in service. Um um is it required that uh a certain percentage of these Uber and Lift vehicles are handicap wheelchair accessible or it's up to the driver? >> So there's no direct requirement for drivers or vehicle owners to get a wheelchair accessible vehicle on the four hire vehicle side. As I mentioned earlier, if you want to license a new vehicle, you're required to make that wheelchair accessible. So current drivers don't have to convert, but a newly entering driver. the only option would be for a wheelchair accessible vehicle. I want to add too that we do have on a little different from the taxi side. On the Uber and Lift side, we have dispatch requirements on the companies. So, they have to respond to wheelchair accessible vehicle requests in a certain amount of time. So, 90% of trips that are requested as a wheelchair accessible vehicle for Uber and Lift, they have to respond in 10 minutes or less. So, it's more on that side of a service requirement rather than a vehicle requirement. >> Okay. So, you're saying is that if I'm a new driver, my only option to get a license is to get like a a Sienna where where it's wheelchair accessible. Is that right? >> That's right. Yeah. If you wanted to be like an Uber or Lift driver, drive for a smaller livery base, that would be your only option. >> Okay. Um I just don't see you have any data on the green taxis and there there's a lot of them out there. Uh uh do you agree? Um >> well, there actually aren't that many, but there are a lot in your district, coincidentally. So there's a high prevalence of green cabs, you know, that service your area. I'm not sure if we have those numbers. >> Yeah. Um I'm just interested how how what's the percentage of green taxis that are wheelchair accessible before I go on my next question. Thank you. >> Um I need a minute to find the number of green taxis that that are that that in total. Do you have >> I don't think um but you can get back to me. There are only 19 that are wheelchair accessible of the fleet of >> perhaps something you can work on to to get them to convert their cars to wheelchair accessible or get more drivers. >> Well, there's there's um the the trend is that there's less and less um green taxis each year. >> Um they're not renewing whether they're, you know, moving over to be an FHV >> um like you know uh is part of it. Yeah, there are 652 green cabs total city. >> I see. Okay, thank you. Uh my next question is about the drivers. Let's say uh commissioner, you're the driver and where would you in any part of the New York City, where can you go if you need to go to the bathroom? >> Not a lot of places. Um, we do work um closely with DOT uh for uh taxi relief stands to try to coordinate to where they're putting taxi relief stands so that um they're close to places that would have a restroom that would be available. Um I have that somewhere. Um there's over 100 taxi relief stands across the city and we do coordinate with DOT to um try to have them put them some. >> Are there 100 bathrooms near these taxi relief stands >> that >> so most of the relief stands are located in areas where there are private businesses that the or houses of worship or other places that drivers congregate. Um, so for example in Manhattan there might be a taxi relief stand near a lot of restaurants that drivers go to and >> yeah I get it. I get it. They will go into the restaurants or or businesses and ask may I use the bathroom? This is closely tied to the public bathroom problem of New York City that go back when I was a kid. My my my they are there are plans to build more bathrooms. Is that right? >> Yes. The mayor's committed um $4 million for public restroom floor. >> Yeah. And my suggestion to you is that it's something you could look into. Reach out to Uber and Lyft because they're drivers, right? And then you work with them and have them maintain some of these bathrooms. >> I'll take that back. But >> you you can keep asking questions. Yeah. >> Oh. Huh. >> You can keep asking questions. >> Oh, sure. Yeah. So, this is something something actually came from drivers in my district. They actually make that recommendation. You know, you want to If budget is budget is a problem, >> reach out. Hey, it's your drivers, you know, why don't you contribute in maintaining the bathrooms, you know? Right. We we do understand we we do agree that that's a problem for drivers that there needs to be more access to restrooms um and between uh the mayor's commitment to put more public restrooms on the street um our work with DOT um that uh to work with the industry um that's a that's a new one that I don't know of us considering. >> I think they would love the idea. I think they would love the idea. Better yet, reach out to the other drivers. You know, FedEx, UPS, you know, they need to go too. Yeah, that Yeah, that's right. Thank you. Thank you, chair. Oh, actually, I have one more. Thank you. >> Please go ahead. Sure. >> Yeah. Um, my in my district, most of the complaints uh about uh uh appbased drivers have to do with uh aggressive driving. And the answer they often get is oh reach out to Uber or Lift you know if you have a problem with the driver or if they deny your service once they see you oh you know I don't want you know I don't want to do this you know um does TLC keep track of these uh uh bad apples you know and and what is being done uh uh as as a matter of uh discipline >> we we encourage anyone any passenger in any type of TLC regulated vehicle if they have any issue whatsoever whether it's about fair, whether it's about uh driver courtesy, whether it's about the drive, the quality of the driving, that they file a consumer complaint with 311. And we do take those very seriously. Um and people are u filing complaints um which is what we want them to do so that we can address the where there's bad apples. >> And uh what is the disciplinary action for for these like repeated violations like >> it? Uh it it varies like speed like most in my district. So speeding >> running red lights, running stop signs. Yeah. >> Sure. Um >> what's of value besides the fines are the points on the license. If they reach six points on their license. So you're combining the DMV points and the TLC points. You could be suspended. At 10 points, you could be revoked. >> I see. All right. And and do you get more complaints from the from the yellow taxis or you get more complaints on on these app-based uh drivers? >> Do you have figures? >> I don't know, but I could certainly get a breakdown and share that with you. >> Okay, please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. No more questions. >> You sure? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> All right. Um I just want to thank you, uh Council Member Wong. You've been here since the very early morning and appreciate your commitment to your constituents. I will now excuse this panel. I want to thank you so much for testifying >> and if you can get back to us on the things you said you would get us, that would be great. >> Take care. >> And that one by tomorrow. >> Sounds good. Great job. Appreciate that. Are you talking to Uber drivers. What's been going on? How's it going? >> Came out over the top. What are you doing? Everyone have a seat. We're about to begin. Chair, you may begin. Hello. Hello. Good afternoon. I'm now going to turn it over to our committee council, Theodor Miller, to administer the oath. >> Thank you. Our next panel will be from the Department of Design and Construction, Edward Devay, acting commissioner. Eric McFarland, first deputy commissioner, and Nathan Toth, chief financial officer. I will now administer the oath. Please raise your right hands. Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee and to respond honestly to council member questions? >> I do. >> I do. >> Thank you. You may now begin. >> You may read your opening. Good afternoon, Sher Abrao and members of the committee. I'm Eduardo Dev, the acting uh commissioner for the New York City Department of Design and Construction, and I'm very pleased to appear before you before you today. I will first deputy commissioner McFarland will shortly join us. Uh in fact, there he is. um as well as chief financial officer Nathan Toth and other members of the DDC leadership team. Fiscal year 2026 has been a period of growth and improvements at DDC as well as opportunity to demonstrate that many of the construction reforms that we have been advocating for the city and in Albany are working and delivering the benefits we anticipated. DDC continues to grow its portfolio and take on the city's largest design and construction challenges. In that spirit, I'll share how this year marked a significant step in realizing the benefits of alternate project delivery as compared to the traditional system of low bid contracting. We've also made progress on other major programs including borrowbased jails, coastal resiliency, and green infrastructure. We are improving the way we pay our vendors and the way the city plans its capital improvements. We detail our work in a new addition of the strategic blueprint which was published back in August. I will talk about those developments in a moment. But first, I will share our budget overview for this year. DDC bills on behalf of more than 25 city agencies plus numerous museums, cultural organizations, and other nonp nonprofits that receive funding from the city. The January capital commitment plan for 2020 FY26 contains 5.8 billion in new plan investments. The figure includes over two billion for infrastructure projects as close to 1.6 6 billion for public buildings and support portfolio and 2.2 billion for the borrowbased sales program. Capital spending for DDC varies yearover-year as it is dictated by the agencies that sponsor our projects and the funding we received from them. We advise sponsors as to scope and cost but ultimately we rely on the on our agencies to dictate policies and priorities. DC DDC's FY2027 operating budget is 163 million. This includes 132 million of personnel services and 31 million of other than personnel services. Our budget head count is 1,27. Our total operating budget includes 143 million in IFA funding and 20 million in city tax levy funding. In public buildings, we have 21 projects in the initiation phase, 62 projects in active design, 38 in procurement, and 118 in construction. With a total value of these projects at approximately 15.6 billion and infrastructure, we have 22 projects in initiation phase, 126 in active design, 46 in procurement, and 91 in construction with a total value of about 13.11 billion. I'm very pleased to report that we have reached a significant milestone in our design bill portfolio. For years, we have advocated for design bill so that we could build more quickly. And thanks to our partners in both the city and the state, we are celebrating a new era of construction efficiency. Last month, we opened the Shirley Shism Recreation Center among the city's first fully public design built projects. It was completed in just three years which is half the time for similar public building projects using lowest bidder contracting method on a typical timeline. This $141 million project was delivered on time and also on budget with an anticipated cost savings as a matter of fact of about 10%. With lowest bidder contract and this project would not have been completed any sooner than 2028. The recreation center was designed by the worldrenowned architectural firm Studio Gang and a review of the building last month in New York magazine called architectural quote that invites to come stay and enjoy. The building is also one of only three citywide to achieve lead platinum for environmental sustainability under version four of the lead program. These results will demonstrate the benefit that design build and other alternative delivery methods can provide. It's faster, it's more efficient, mitigates delays, and it still provides for superior designs through a comprehensive public review process. All six of our original design build pilot projects will be completed by the end of this year. Other design build projects nearing completion include Marbor Greenhouse in Brooklyn, which will be completed this summer, and the Brownsville multi-service center, which would also be completed this summer. We're we're hard at work building our CM build pilot program as well. We were clear to use CM build by the state for library and cultural projects. We already have five projects in our pilot program, including the renovation of 70 Malbury Street in Chinatown. Last year, at this hearing, DDC informed this committee about our advanced capital planning effort. We have completed our advanced capital planning program data portal and we are starting on the building assessment tool to augment this the data the city already gathers about its own properties. A comprehensive planning program is in the works. We currently have pilot programs with the Queens and Brooklyn public library systems and we will continue to grow the overall program. We've also made progress in how we process payments for our construction vendors with a goal of reducing the administrative burden and making DDC a more desirable partner to work with. We've standardized our forms. We've removed numerous redundant and honorous paperwork requirements. We also work with a payment task force to assess on an ongoing basis what works and what doesn't work. We're also developing similar reforms for payments to consultants. The borrowbased jails program continues to be our largest overall program as well alternative delivery program since we last appeared before this committee. Site preparation for Manhattan, the last of the of our early works sites, has been completed, and we intend to start early works construction on that site this spring. The Brooklyn facility remains furthest along with top out scheduled to be achieved next month. We continue to seek design input from local communities with design workshops in Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan, which are scheduled for the rest of this month and into April. All four sites have been have benefited greatly from the use of design build contracting and would have taken several additional years to design and construct if we had used the lowest bidder contracting method. As we reported in the new PMMR, DDC remains a leading agency in contract awards and payments to minority and womenowned business enterprises. In fiscal year 2025, DDC's MWBE participation was 33.6%. 6% of of all contracts subject to local local law one of 2013. There were over 1 billion in awards to city certified NWBees nearly have the 2.2 billion awarded to MWBE citywide. As reported in the latest one new NYC MWBE bulletin fiscal year 15 through fiscal year 25, DDC remains the leading city agency in awards to MWBEs with over 6.8 billion awarded to MWBEs since the start of the 1NYCMWBE program back in fiscal year 2015. We're very proud of these accomplishments. We're growing our our MWBE uh participation in the alternative delivery program as well. We continue to set ambitious and disegregated MWBE goals in both design and construction portions of our design build contracts and we are seeing the result of these efforts. Also, it's worth noting that the DC capital projects have begun using the new community hiring goals, which aim for 30% of construction trade labor hours to be completed by Nisha residents or individuals who live in lowincome communities defined by zip code. At the Shirley Chisum Recreation Center, we had 36% overall NWB utilization and 37% of the total work hours were performed by people hired through hire NYC. Our coastal resiliency efforts expand expanded in September when we began a new $218 million project in Red Hook, Brooklyn. That project includes public space improvements and is expected to be completed by the summer of 28. We continue to make progress on the east uh east side coastal resil resiliency escar and Brooklyn Bridge Montgomery coastal resil resilience BMCR in lower Manhattan and expect to have BMCR completed before the end of the year with Escer several months after that. In all, we intend to build 5,750 linear feet of coastal flood protection in the current fiscal year. We're also expanding our green infrastructure program to help meet the challenges presented by intense storms and rainfall and climate change. And in the first four months of the current fiscal year, we installed almost 30,000 square feet of porous pavement with another 70,000 planned for this for this fiscal year. In closing, as DDC's responsibilities and portfolio expand, it remains critical that we find new ways to be faster and more efficient. We also recognize that delivering capital projects in New York City remain complex and challenging. And we continue to work with our partner agencies to shorten project timelines whenever possible. We continue to deliver additional public buildings like libraries, cultural institutions for DCLA, firehouses and EMS stations for FDNY, plus new plazas, streets, and enhanced pedestrian safety measures and new water manes for our sponsors, DOT and D. We have proven that cities that the city's construction process can be improved and we have the opportunity to take our progress even further and expand it to other types of projects. We will continue to advocate for New Yorkers and to build on these efforts in the future. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today. >> Thank you very much, Deputy Commissioner. Going to ask questions on the pedestrian ramp upgrades. In the fiscal 2026 2030 preliminary capital plan, there is 107.7 million across the plan added for simple upgrades to pedestrian ramps throughout the city. What is the scope of the project? So the uh pedestrian uh uh the scope of that project uh includes um a um uh about I think it was let's see I want to get you the number exactly but um so the the scope includes uh at this point. We have nine active projects in the initial phase with approximate value of 158 million. 37 active projects in the design phase with a value of 528 million and 28 active projects with a value of 478 million for a total of 81 active projects. And obviously these are to bring the the u the corners and in compliance with federal ADA requirements. We're also improving drainage at these corners as well. >> I'm now turn over to committee council to administer the oath of the Mr. McFallen. >> Yes. Sorry, just because you came in late. Um, do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee and to respond honestly to council member questions? >> I do. Okay. >> Thanks. >> All right. Getting back to pedestrian ramp upgrades. Why was funding increased so significantly since the adopted capital plan? Um I believe that uh initially assumptions were made on the conditions as they were known at the time. As engineering and design progressed and um actual field conditions were identified the scope uh was adjusted accordingly. >> And what is the status of this project and what is the updated timeline for completion? So would you like to take that Eric? So Eric McFarland, first deputy commissioner of DDC. Uh this project is the involve the upgrading of over 6,000 600,000 corners in the city. Each corner has about eight average eight eight bedrooms. So you can imagine how much what we're talking about. And and some of these uh as commissioner Devali mentioned some of them are complex meaning that we have to relocate catch based in order to provide the drainage proper drainage you have to locate catch basing what you involve when you start digging the street you're involved with the utilities and all kind of complexities that's all traffic signal has to be removed so that's a complex there are simple program where you just go and just replace them right so initially when we established that program I was around uh it was a 29 year uh uh duration you're talking about because it's a long-term project almost $5 billion more than 15 year 29 years we are shortening a little bit more. So what we are trying to do right now is is is we realize that that's a long time. So we sort of increase the amount of contract that put it out to a reasonable degree because let's say we put two contracts per b talk about 10 contract over $21 million each. So it's a so the the constraints are not only the capacity of the industry to to respond to this but also the amount of budget involved the budget involved. So, we're making every effort to sort of increase try to shorten the duration as much as we can, but it's a long-term project. >> And of course, we we we uh execute these projects as the sponsors provide us with with the required funding and and and the uh and the scope. >> Thank you for that. Now, I want to turn her to the topic of reconstructed road miles. According to the PMMR, DDC completed 7.8 miles of roadway lane mile construction in the first four months of fiscal 2026 compared to 10.6 miles that were completed in the first four months of fiscal 2024. In fiscal 2024, DDC completed only 20.3 lane miles, much less when compared to fiscal 2023 when they constructed a total of 33.6 roadway lane miles and significantly less than the 60.6 six lane miles that were completed in fiscal 2021. Why has roadway lane mile reconstruction been declining over the past few years and why have they declined in recent months? So um as alluded to earlier, we um we build the projects that are originated by the sponsor agencies. We we do not determine um the the scope uh the timing or the budget. So in this case we uh we work uh with the OT and and they provide us with the magnitude of of the work that they desire to do on any given year. >> Does DDC need additional headcount to operate at higher capacity? And what other resources are needed? >> No, >> you don't need anything else. Come on now. >> We we we're fine. Um we as and we're moving forward in in terms of backfilling the many vacancies that we have. >> I'll fight for more. I'll try to fight for more. >> Appreciate that. >> Um I'm not going to turn over to borrowbased jails. DDC manages the project to build the borrowbased jails. It is currently the largest project in DDC's portfolio totaling 11.84 billion across the preliminary capital commitment plan. DDC is awarding separate design build contracts for each of the four new facilities as well as early works packages for each of the facilities for a total of nine contracts. What is the current status of the borrowbased jails project? So currently um as you may know all of the early projects the five have been completed um and and we have at this point uh closed out uh all of those projects. With regards to the new facilities, we uh we have awarded all of the all of those contracts as well. And uh we are looking to complete the Brooklyn facility, which is the one that's furthest along by the first quarter of 29. Uh the Queens facilities uh is scheduled to be completed by the third quarter of 31. The Bronx facility will complete by the first quarter of 31. and the Manhattan facility will complete by the first quarter of 32. At this point, as I pointed out earlier, we are um uh we'll be ready to to top off Brooklyn, uh meaning we will reach the very last level of of that high-rise jail in April. >> All right. Well, that was pretty detailed. Thank you for that. Why have there been consistent delays? So the the procurement process for the new facilities uh was launched just prior to the start of the pandemic and in addition to delays associated with this crisis, the initial pool of qualified and financially viable design builders interested in participating in the procurement of these mega project was actually very limited with one eventually dropping out in the middle of the procurement process, leaving us with an even shallower pool of potential proposals. It was decided in early 21 to reset the procurement process. We engaged the industry to identify the reasons for the lack of interest in the previous procurement process. Coming out of these industry outreach efforts, we calibrated our procurement strategy. The most significant change was switching from lumpsum to guarantee maximum price or GMP and this pivot was better suited for the mega projects and so it generated a much higher level of interest among the larger design builders. From that point on, and it's important to understand that from that point on, we have stayed on schedule for the procurement and the inmarket phase and awarded all contracts as per schedule. Uh, and upon issuance the NTP for each one of these design builders, uh, we have stayed on schedule delivering design and construction work in accordance with the contract delivery requirements for each one of these projects. What is the plan to ensure that the jails can handle the full capacity of the current system? >> So, um we are designing uh these jails to house 1,040 uh persons in custody per facility and for for a total of 4160 4,160. That was a number that uh was arrived at by or in consultation with MOJ and DOC and city hall. um a few a few years back and uh I cannot speak as to uh the capacity seizures associated with operations for DLC uh or how it was anticipated by by Makay but um we are building for 4,160 as dictated by scope the timing of this work behind this window is not a good it's not a good one Um uh given that the last jail will be built by 2032, is it fair to say that Rikers won't close until 2020 2032? Then >> um I I think that that's a a fair statement. >> What is the plan? If there is overflow, how is DDC and the city planning to address that? I know that DOC and MACJ um have been involved in a different uh uh effort and initiative regarding that. I I cannot speak to that as an operational issue. >> What is the current cost estimate for the completion of each of the facilities? You gave me that number I believe right? >> Uh yes, we we we do we do have um the total the total package including the early works that have already been accomplished is approximately 16 billion. Thank you. DDC manages a large portfolio of capital projects being completed for non city entities such as 501c3 nonprofit organizations. How many non city projects does the DDC currently manage? >> Many. Uh I don't have an exact number. I can definitely get back to you with those details. >> That would be great. I have heard from a number of organizations that have been awarded funding for non- city capital projects that once funding was allocated, they were not provided with any road map roadmap for how the process worked. What is DDC's protocol for contacting groups once a non- city capital project is in the budget? >> That's a fair statement actually. Um we and this is something that we have identified as an issue and we are we have been over the past several months in the process of developing standard operating procedures that will be posted online. Then we will bring in uh those organizations to train them on on on how to basically submit the paperwork that they need to submit and providing checklists and and training is is something that is now being worked on. >> And can you provide us with a summary of your internal timeline for these projects? >> I can get back to you on that. >> Sounds good. In the FY2630 preliminary capital plan, 5.1 million was moved from fiscal 29 to fiscal 2026 for raised crosswalks design build. Why was funding shifted? >> So funding was advanced by OM based on the current progress of the project >> or can you repeat that? So the funding was advanced by OM based on the progress of the project. >> And what is the current scope of this project? How many locations are DDC looking at for this project? And what does the work entail? >> Right. So this is a design build project. Um and it it it it entails 127 locations across all five borrows and um the the the the procurement has been packaged in seven packages. Um and of course it includes raised uh sidewalks uh crosswalks as well as pet ramps and um uh utility work cash basing improvements and so forth. So uh at this point we're looking to start the work this summer and complete by the summer of 2018. Are >> are these DDC workers distracting us here? >> Call Dcast. Oh boy. Where? All right. I can't I got to stop joking around. Um what is the updated timeline for completion for these raised crosswalks? >> So, uh we're looking to complete by the summer of 2018. >> I have to say y'all are answering my questions and I really appreciate that. Really appreciate that. It's not always that I get my answers to questions. So, I have to say thank you for that. Um, in the first four months of fiscal 2026, 54% of eligible projects completed a post construction customer satisfaction survey, up from 21% in the same period of fiscal 2025. Of the 18 surveys returned, only 29% of respondents rated the completed project as adequate or better, a 71 percentage point decrease in favorable responses from the same period of fiscal 2025. Most of these responses were about a particular project which required the construction team to be on site large longer than anticipated in part due to utility delays. What is DDC doing to better coordinate with utilities and improve delay times? >> So um as you may know joint bidding is is one of our our most important initiatives and uh it's it's critical that we get an extension of it. um multi-year extension, not a year-to-year extension. That's we have been getting over the past couple of years to ensure that the coordination with the private utilities is is adequate, that they do the pre-engineering as they should and that we identify uh to the greatest extent that we can all of the underground conditions as we do um infrastructure work. So, I I think that a key component in improving that metric is to ensure that we get the multi-year joint bidding uh legislation uh approved in in >> I was going to say we need a city legislation. I mean, we would be happy to look into it, but it seems like it's a state issue, right? >> Yes. >> Uh my last set of questions before I pass it on to council member Wong. DDC's contract budget is only 3 million and you spend 131 million on personnel. What efficiencies has DDC's chief savings officer identified in their budget? Are there any in headcount? >> So I have the the chief savings officer is right here with us. >> Right. Well, >> are you the chief savings officer? >> Yes, >> I am. I'm a bunch of things. >> Okay. You wear a lot of hats, I see. >> Yeah. CFO and CSO for the hearing. But uh bunch of stuff. Uh yes. Um so basically we have identified it and uh as you know already uh most of our and as uh my commissioner testified most of our funding from inter agreement which comes from capital budget. So when the csos were tasked with finding one and a half point uh 1.5% in FY26 and 2.5% from 27 going out. they asked us or me and DDC to find savings in the uh city tax levy. So it's a very small percentage of our budget as it compared to the you see the 130 um million dollar in PS we have let me just give you the exact right number but if you're looking at our PS number for for tax levy is 10 million out of that 132. So out of that we were asked to take uh half of our vacancies. Uh and that's in addition to the one and a half and the two and a half% we were uh tasked with savings and we came up frankly we came up with a proposal that we submitted to OMB. OB has been very good uh working with us on it and we're trying to come to an agreement where we meet the full funding uh requirement and we kind of save some of those vacancies because the the vacancies are very important to our front-end planning units and uh and advanced capital planning and they can actually save the city hundreds and tens of hundreds of millions of dollars in capital. So we wouldn't want to you know uh make a cut to those guys and lose a bunch of savings in capital. So that that's what and we've provided and uh 1B has been very agreeable to it so far. That's not been accepted, but it's been something that they didn't react harshly to. So it's good. >> Has DDC considered contracting out more work. >> Um so we um not more work than what we contract out now. We we do quite a bit of in-house work, design work um in infrastructure um less in public buildings, but um we we we do the bulk of our design work uh is farmed out to uh firms throughout the city. >> And my last question is how often does DDC revise their headcount in terms of efficiency and when was the last time? I'm going to turn to you on that, Nathan. >> All right. Uh, well, we I will just tell you that we are are constantly revising it. We're constantly looking at it. And as far as efficiencies go, um, we are actually allowed to recruit. I'm going to say this, we're allowed to recruit uh over our headcount because we're IFA funded. So, we have to constantly recruit. I will uh tell you that in my time here at DDC, we have seen a lot of separations. I've seen a lot of it's very hard to for us to get to the headcount level we want to get to. We putting uh uh get and all kudos to our HR department. They're doing a great job of just getting everybody in. We've got, you know, some salary barriers for for civil service and things like that. Just, you know, just a things we have to work around that puts us a little bit of a competitive disadvantage to the private sector, but we're we're doing a good job. We're trying to really keep ourselves at a good level. And also, uh you know, pre- pandemic, we had a much higher headcount. uh and then it went down because was the pandemic everybody had to take uh you know just the belt tightening and everything else and frankly we're our capital budget itself or not I'm sorry we don't have a capital budget the budget of our sponsors and the pro the budget of the uh sponsor agencies we manage is much higher than it was pre- pandemic and we're doing it with less people and I will tell you as uh usually efficiency is defined as doing more with less but I mean at some point uh it becomes you can't do it so I mean are we we're right there and we're very good and we're we're doing But, you know, we we got to stay at least this level, I would say. >> Well, thank you. I want to let the record reflect that I acknowledge that there have been there there are seven green ties in the room. Uh I see a lot of green sweaters and shirts and I appreciate the solidarity on St. Patty's Day. Council member Wong. >> Okay. Thank you, Chair. Um I actually have three questions, but bear with me. Number one is regarding in my district uh there's a reconstruction on 80th Street between Caldwell Avenue and 58th Avenue where sewer lines were replaced. The street was closed for like two years including sidewalks and uh and the road the whole road was closed. Um alternatively like there was they closed this side and they closed the other side. Residents lost access to their driveways and then their sidewalks. Here's the issue. Uh um the project lasted for a very long time and residents are now being build for sidewalk work that they did not ask for. In other words, the the the vendor replaced the sidewalk as as part of their digging. They broke the sidewalk and the residents got bill and they found out only when they received the latest tax bill. That's how ridiculous it is. All right. And first they they weren't told that they will get build and they didn't even ask, "Hey, we're going to do your sidewalk, you know." So my question focuses on transparency, fairness, and preventing similar situations from happening again. Was it DDC that determined that homeowners should be built for these sidewalk repairs? I mean, who who made that determination? That's my first question. Please please answer. Yeah, >> it was not DDC. Um and I I believe that there's there's another meeting that's been scheduled with finance uh in regards to this as well. We will be happy to participate as well with you and finance on that meeting because it was not DDC >> bills were coming to my office and total is over $80,000 in repairs and is a big surprise to many seniors who rely on fixed income. How are they going to where they going to come up that money? >> Understood. >> Yeah. >> Okay. and then and hopefully uh DDC could work with the department of finance to ensure that uh there are no penalties and and then then there no interest apply when this issue is under review because this is very very frustrating. They uh the residents just just is so angry right now, you know. Sure. >> And I get blamed. Yeah, it's my fault. Yeah, that's right. That was your fault. It's you. It's you. Okay. My next issue is Grand Slope Staircase is a park. Uh there's a stair a grand slope park. There's a staircase is 15 steps. Okay, bear with me. Let me explain to you and then I'll come to a question. This 15 step of staircase uh was cracked for many years and DDC worked on it I believe uh last year and they replaced the 15 steps. But from the day the funding was secure, it was secured by council member Daniel Drum. Uh it was exactly three years and eight months ago from the day the money was allocated to the day the stairs were completed. Three years and eight months the total cost was400,000 if you do the math is $26,666 per staircase. Now the reason I know because I was the one who went to council member Drum and told him please fix the stairs. All right. So, he allocated that funding and I waited and I waited and I've been following because that was the end of my block. That's where I live. All right. And I just want to tell you how how how insane the cost could be because uh there's a general contractor that live in my block who said that he could do it over the weekend for $500 and a six-ack of beer. The truth. That's the truth. Okay. So, I I it's just I just find it very very uh outrageous. Yes, there's design and yes, there's bidding, but uh I just don't see why it could could cost so much. Can you can you talk about that? >> I I Is that what was that? A DVD job or >> Yes, it is. Yes, it is. >> I have a Well, I'll look up my pictures. There's a There's a contract number, too. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Well, I I don't have an answer. I mean, $26,000 per step. I can see how how that could inflame anybody. Yeah, I I don't have an answer. I I really don't. >> Yeah. Uh again, perhaps for the I I treat this as a small job because we're not building the whole park was just fixing the staircase and then it could take so long and and with in involving so much money or so much tax dollars and then uh uh I felt is unjustified. It could have done better and it could have been done sooner. >> Right. Okay. >> Y next. Now my next question is 70 Mbury Street. In your statement, you said there is you have five projects in our pilot program, CM built pilot program. I don't know what it is. If you can talk about it, that would be great. That includes the renovation of 70 Mberry Street. Now that building, sorry, yeah, that building is significant because on January 23rd, 2020, there was like a three alarm fire that pretty much burned down the building. >> Yep. >> And that was that house many nonprofits and a senior center and a museum, right? And the reason I'm mentioning because what that used to be PS23 and I used to go to that school. I learned my English there. That's why I'm here asking the question, uh, do you have an update for the community? And, uh, what what has been happening since the fire? And, uh, of course, what is this CM build program that you're talking about? >> So, the CM build program is one of the alternative delivery pro program uh, methods that we're using in addition to design build to expedite delivery of these projects. So um understanding that this this job is ideal for CM built meaning that we will bring on a consultant an architect and uh as he develops the uh design we'll bring on a CM a construction manager uh to then work with the architect not only to try to expedite but also to perform the work as efficiently efficiently as possible in terms of cost and time. And so that's why we use the CM build on this job because we know how important it is to the community. It's very close, as you know, to the BBJ facility uh in in in Manhattan in Chinatown. And so we um we realize that the the type of synergy that needs to be developed in terms of project development for 70 Malbury needs to be in in sync with what we're doing at the BBJ facility, too. We don't want these jobs to be trampling over each other. So at this point we are in the procurement phase. Um and uh that that means we are uh about to hire an architect to get started. >> Are you keeping the first two floors? I mean um all your or most of it will be demolished. >> I I think we are preserving the facade which the community had expressed was historically significant and culturally but the the structure was really really bad shape. It was it was damaged beyond repair and it's it's just better to to to to redo it than to repair it. >> I see. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the update. >> Thank you, Council Member Wong. I also want to tip my hat off to the acting commissioner. The patron color of St. Patrick is blue, not green. So, thank you so much for coming today. We really appreciate you. Um really appreciate your time. Uh this panel is excused. >> Thank you. All right. He waved. >> Yeah. It was nice meeting you. >> Nice to meet you. >> Take care. I don't know. Are you literally I'm going Tipples. That's cool. That's cool. Hello. Great. Are we rolling? Huh? >> All right. I now open the hearing for public testimony. I understand that there are folks who are signed up to speak at 4:00 online. We'll make sure to keep the hearing open, but we want to take advantage of the fact that we have people here now, but want to reiterate, we will keep the hearing open for folks who are signed up online or if folks wish to come in person at 4, we'll be here. But we'll get started. I remind members of the public that this is a government proceeding and that the quorum shall be observed at all times. As such, members of the public shall remain silent at all times. The witness table is reserved for people who wish to testify. No video recording of photography is allowed from the witness table. Further, members of the public may not present audio or video recordings as testimony, but may submit transcripts of such recordings to the Sergeant-at-Arms for inclusion in the hearing record. If you wish to speak at today's hearing, please fill out an appearance card with the sergeant-at-arms and wait to be recognized. When recognized, you will have two minutes to speak on today's hearing topics. That is the calendar year 2026 adopted budget and the 2026 2029 financial plan of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the fiscal 2027 preliminary plan, the fiscal 2027 preliminary capital commitment plan, and the fiscal 2026 prelim preliminary mayor's management report for the following city agencies. Department of Transportation, the Taxi Limousine Commission, and the Department of Design and Construction. If you have written if you have a written statement or additional written testimony you wish to submit for the record, please provide a copy of that testimony to the sergeant-at-arms. You may also email written testimony to testimony at council.nyc.gov within 72 hours of this hearing. Audio and video recordings will not be accepted. I will now call on the first panel. Just give me one second. Oh, I have it right here. Beginning first with Jean Ryan. Thank you for being here. uh as of 9:00 this morning and appreciate your patience. Male Ring, Monica Bartley, and Rashetta Bunting. >> Michael, my apologies. Do we need additional >> seating or tables? >> She was and she isn't. >> She's She's here, but she's not in the room. All right, we'll make sure to put her on this on the next panel. We'll just get started. >> Thank you. >> First, >> it's on. >> Yeah, we can hear you. Hi, I'm Jean Ryan, president of Disabled in Action of Metropolitan New York and I am testifying about issues facing the MTA, DOT and TLC that affect people with disabilities. Of course, there are many other issues that affect us. DIA wants the TLC to reinstate the accessible dispatch program with trained dispatchers so that the people with disabilities, including people with speech differences, can call on the phone and get a person who understands our needs and can dispatch a taxi that comes to where we are anywhere in the city. The people who are there at this TLC program now are not able to get a vehicle to us and we get stranded at home or elsewhere. This is very urgent because every day that this program remains like it is now is a day that people with disabilities are stranded. Taxis refuse to pick us pick up wheelchair users who try to hail them. We are asking the MTA to look into lowf flooror coach type express buses that have a ramp instead of a lift so that wheelchair users can reliably get onto and off the express bus and take it like anyone else does instead of being left at the curb or having to be removed from the bus by the New York Fire Department as often happens now. They say all their buses are accessible, but in reality, the current buses are not accessible when it is a complicated system that drivers are unable to use reliably, especially on nights and weekends when there are many fill-in drivers. Nothing has changed much in 25 years. Wheelchair users and other people with mobility problems need access. We are feeling the count. We are telling the council and DOT that we want outdoor dining to be 100% accessible to wheelchairs. It has been the requirement since at least 2020, but there seems to be zero enforcement of accessibility for outdoor dining. What good is the rule if >> you can finish? >> Thank you. If not followed, we also want any outdoor restrooms to be fully ADA compliant so that we can use them too. And lastly, we want the DOT to pick up the pace in making curb cuts at corners because there are so many bad or missing ones, including at and right around Union Square in Manhattan. Now, it's dangerous to be there in a wheelchair and try to cross the street. We need high contrast domed ramps at every crossing, not fancy stones or cement that might be a slightly different color so that everyone can safely cross the street. And one thing I want to add, DD, I don't know if it's DDC or Dcast that's in charge of a uh access to 80 Center Street, but we need a safe and accessible entry and exit there. We want a permanent ramp on Center Street like the one at 100 Center Street because it's totally dangerous to get in and out of that building. and we shouldn't have to literally risk our lives to go in for the services that that building has including court DA um >> center. Thank and marriage center. Thank you. >> I appreciate that. >> Hi. Um my name is Michael Ring. If anyone needs a verbal description of my appearance, I'm a 62y old white guy that needs a shave wearing a hoodie. Um, my hands don't work very well and I'm wearing ankle braces. Um, I'm also second vice president of disabled in action. Um, I wasn't going to talk about Accessoride, but um, Jano called me out this morning and he gave me a sticker. Um, there's a program I'm in that does cost more money because it works so well. It's the Accessoride on Demand program. Um, in short, I could use Uber or Lyft in real time to get to where I'm going. Um, it it cost about the same per ride as being picked up by a white and blue van, but it works. I could get here. I can get home um in real time. Um, we've lost one of our speakers because their ride showed up and they had to leave. Um, but I I can leave when I'm ready to leave. Um, but what I did want to come here and talk about today was snow removal. Um, there's a concept in the disability community called the curbcut effect. Um, building curb cuts for people with disability was a requirement. Um, it turns out a lot of people like them, parents with strollers, um, delivery people, people who just don't want to walk up a step. Um, removing all the snow for people with disabilities is crucial. Um, I can't walk on an icy surface. Um, someone using a wheelchair can't get anywhere if there isn't a 4ft wide clearance. Um, I would really hope maybe in the future if there's a snow emergency, we can have a snow removal zar. Um, I noticed that, you know, the Department of Transportation have fleets of snow removal trucks, sanitation, and the MTA and the police department. Someone should coordinate all these vehicles, all these workers, and the snow could be removed a lot better. Um, and if disabled people can get around, and then everyone will get around and uh the city will get back to normal even quicker. Uh, thanks a lot. >> No, thank you. Next. >> Good afternoon. I'm Monica. My name is Monica Bartley and I'm a member of Disabled in Action. I want to speak today about the challenges that construction and sidewalk work create for wheelchair users trying to access buses. At many bus stops, scaffolding, construction barriers, or temporary fencing take up space along the curb. When this happens, there's often not enough room for the bus operator to deploy the ramp. Sometimes a driver will try to pull forward to find a place where the ramp can be lowered safely. I appreciate those drivers who make that effort. However, other times the driver simply indicates that there's no space to deploy the ramp and continues on. When this happens, I'm left waiting for the next bus, which may take a long time. For people who rely on wheelchair access, missing even one bus can mean a very long delay. It can also make it difficult to get to work, medical appointments, or other important destinations on time. Construction is a normal part of city life, but accessibility should not disappear when there is sidewalk work. Bus stops must remain usable for everyone, including people with disabilities. I urge the council to work with the city and the MTA to ensure that construction sites do not block accessible boarding areas at bus stops. Contractors should be required to maintain adequate clear space so that bus ramps can be deployed safely. When that is not possible, there should be clear, temporary, accessible boarding areas nearby. Accessibility is not optional. It is essential for people with disabilities to participate fully in city life. Thank you for your time and your attention on this matter. >> I appreciate your time and attention to this matter. Thank you. This panel is excused. Next up we have Rashida Bunting, Zay Howard, Edward Funches, Glenn Bolovski. Yeah, >> you hear me? I'll >> I'll let you know when to begin. Let's just wait for everyone to settle. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> All right. You may begin. >> Yes. Thank you for having me. My name is Rashidita Bunting and I'm the vice president of the National Federation of the Blind of New York State and also on the board of disabled in action and also a member of the DOT disability advisory committee. So today I want to talk about something that's dear to not just the blind community but anybody who uses anybody with a disability who uses their ears to navigate NYC the accessible pedestrian signals. I'm just going to say APS in the interest of time. For years we fought for APS's to be everywhere and slowly but surely they could be a lot faster. They are popping up especially in the outer burrows where there was a deficit of this. They're here, but now we need them to be louder. Blind people use our ears to navigate. As my vision deteriorate deteriorates more and more, I use my ears to navigate the city. But like my colleague Monica just expressed, the city is loud. There's a lot of construction. If we're not able to hear the APS's safely, even though they're on the corners, we're not able to cross the street safely. Case in point, I live in Canari. I fought hard for an APS to be at the Rockaway Parkway train station, Rockaway in Flatlands, Rockaway in Glennwood. Yes, the APS is there, but I should not have to rely on the kindness of strangers to cross me across the street. I implore that the council work in conjunction closely with the DOT to make sure that not just the APS's are here in in the outer burrow on all corners but to make sure that they are loud enough for those who do use their ears to navigate the city whatever your disability is to work properly. Thank you. >> No, I thank you. Next >> JJ Howard. Yes, I am Howard. >> We hear you loud and clear. >> Okay, this is it Howard. As I said previously, I am a member of 504 Democratic Club. I'm one of the advocate for people with disabilities. I am also in the access or user. My worst experience is uh double packing. Sometime you are you rushing going to work or going for an appointment or fortunately you know there is a heavy truck that hindering the traffic movement of Azurra that have been one of our complaint that hindering our movement. and of getting to our very destination on time. So we had to work on that uh very seriously for people with disability because sometime you have a certain time to go to work or to go for your doctor appointment but when you have been stopped by uh commercial vehicles you are late for your appointment or you are late to work is is creating a problem in the disability And one thing I do believe what affect us people with disability affect everyone because even you as uh uh as uh able body person when you are on your way to work or for today when you are been uh hindered by uh commercial vehicles you will also be late I mean for work that's I said what affect us affect everyone. >> Thank you very much for for your testimony. Next. >> Hello. I want to thank y'all. My name is Edward Funches and I am the founder and president of inclusion mobile detailing. I come here as an advocate and as a business owner. Uh as I heard uh all of the statements from the Department of Transportation TLC, I currently hold a contract with the Department of Transportation. However, with this contract that I have with them, when they when you when you ask them about the budgets that they have, I am currently rotating individuals on payroll, which is unheard of. We are doing a lot of work in the city. And as an advocate, you know, I drive, you know, we have we have we have vans. We have five vans moving around the city. I get tickets on these vans. We do not get uh we have to pay these tickets in full, not like these uh uh uh these other stipulation fines that people getting, you know, breaks on this right here. So, I'm here as an advocate and as a businessman and I want to thank y'all. >> Good. >> Anything else? >> That's it. That's it. I'm here, man. >> I appreciate you for coming today, sir. >> Extra minute. >> Yes, you can. >> No, you cannot. Um but if he wants to keep speaking, I'm here for it. Here you go, guys. That's uh >> I'm just saying I mean like I really would like to have the really sit down with with somebody, man, because at the end of the day, I built this company from the ground up and I hire all formerly incarcerated individ people with disabilities, people um experiencing homelessness and veterans. You know, like I said, we we currently have a contract with the Department of Transportation, which would extremely good to us, you know, but unfortunately, we just don't have enough job opportunities to change things. what we do at inclusion. We know if you can employ somebody, you empower them and that's how you enrich your community and that's what we we've been doing. But we need some help. >> Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you. >> We really appreciate it. Next. >> Okay. First of all, uh compliment everybody for their staying power. Amazing. Um especially those of you who have young kids, you know, it's really hard. So, I'm Glenn Bolovski. I'm a CPA. I'm a born and bred New Yorker. and I love New York City and I dislike what's going on in New York City with the streets here. Um, for 22 years the department of finance has been stepping on the toes of the committee of the trans committee on transportation and on the DOT by creating a program called the stipulated fine program. That program discounts and ignores the double parking rules that applies to commercial vehicles, which is 20 minutes. That's the law. But when Amazon or companies like Amazon double park for more than 20 minutes, they're breaking the law, but the Department of Finance turns a blind eye to it and discounts those tickets, causing individuals who are blind, like Zay, incredible safety hazards. and the double parking that's illegal needs to stop. Um, why are the buses going at 10 minutes and not at 8 or six? Why aren't they go as fast here as in Buenos Aries, Argentina? Because of the stipulated fine program when vehicles are double parked all day. We'll never have faster moving buses. It won't happen during the next four years that this committee uh has. It's a big challenge for this committee to get buses to move faster. There's also a billion dollars lost to the city treasury during the last 22 years because of discounts given to billion dollar companies. And the council uh denied the city the ability to have that program in 2007, but the city went ahead with it anyway despite the will of the people. in 637 2007, which was supported by TA, thank you, and others. Um, and by the 504 Democratic Club, by the PBA, by so many different organizations, had 39 members on the bill in 2018. It got stymied for political reasons uh that I could only talk about behind closed doors. But the reality is that that 15 the stipulated fine program is taking $15 $115 ticket is being reduced to 100 in the in that case and a double parking ticket is reduced from 115 to 65. So where's the money coming from? The city's doesn't have that money. They're not collecting it. They're supposed to give at least $15. >> Please wrap up your thoughts. Thank you. >> I will. 15. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Mr. Chair. $15 per ticket to the court justice fund or justice court fund and the attorneys will know about that. That's V VTL1809A. And that means women who are victims of domestic violence and their children are living in cars and homeless shelters that we can't afford because the department of finance is a morally bankrupt organization that has doesn't even care about the treasury of New York City. And this is something I believe the council and and the administration can work on together because they all appear in alignment. >> Thank you so much. This panel is excused. Appreciate your testimony today. >> Thank you. >> Next up we have Brian Frist, Christopher Shiler, Alli Langley, and Bavi Bay Ravi. My apologies. or >> Bay. >> I need to get it right. I need to get it right. >> You may begin. >> Uh, good afternoon, Cheru. I am Brian Frri, associate director of the permanent citizens advisory committee to the MTA, PCAC. For nearly 50 years, PCAC has serves as the official voice of riders on the MTA system. Just over a month ago, we organized a letter from a broad range of over 40 groups who believe city hall can make transit affordability a reality in this year's budget by transforming the fairs program. Our five-point plan includes explan expanding eligibility eligibility to at least 300% of the federal poverty level to finally include workers making at or close to minimum wage fully frees to the lowest income New Yorkers at the current level of 150% adding the commuter railroads and express buses as options and also uh instituting automatic enrollment as only a dismal third of eligible New Yorkers are currently enrolled. In addition to fair affairs, we have been arded supporters of faster and more reliable bus service across the city. We believe bus a bus rapid transit network starting with one or two worldclass routes as a proof of concept could serve as a north star for what it would mean to deliver worldclass service which our worldclass city and its riders deserve. This means a host of things including protected uh bus lanes aligned to the center of streets, transit signal priority, left turn bands and Q jumps, and building accessible BRT stations with level boarding and offboard fair payment. We look forward to working with you and the Mamani administration uh to make BRT in NYC a reality. Finally, three key final issues. We strongly oppose any efforts, be it from the council or state legislature, to dismantle the MTA's automated camera enforcement program or ACE. ACE is essential as it increases bus speeds by 5% and reduces collisions by 20%. We also hope the city will work with the MTA to ensure the agency has enough bus depot bus depot capacity to provide frequent and reliable service. As we work to create the excellent bus service the city deserves, depot space is a critical component that doesn't get the attention it deserves. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Thank you. Next up, good good afternoon chair chair chair Breu, Council Member Wong, uh committee staff. Um so I want to start with talking about accessoride. Um, so I I think it's I think it's important to frame accessorize properly, which is that it's a legal right. It's not it's not a it's not a um it's not a privilege. It's not uh it's not some kind of pre premier service that that the MTA is running. Uh the MTA is legally required to to to provide comparable service. Uh, as we heard this morning that the MTA uh want wants the city to to to to commit more funding than what it already commits uh to to to accessoride. I think it needs to uh if it wants to do that, it has to has to really work on uh its cost-saving efforts. And so that uh includes expanding the ondemand pilot program uh which currently a little less than 4,000 of nearly 200,000 access users can can can use. Um it's it's about 50% of the cost of traditional paratransit. Um another idea is to is to close the assessment centers which are used for eligibility determinations. There's a cost involved with that. Um, also want to talk about um about discounts. Uh, the the MTA does not offer the same discounts to accessoride users as are available to uh to to to to bus and subway riders. So that so they often kind of uh refer to to to to the fairs program when when discounts come up. that that that's a city program and there's a cap on it. It stops at age 64. And so for and so for accessoride users who are older than than than 64 that they don't get discounts, you know, and so this is this is a this is also just a huge problem. Um maybe I can quickly kind of wrap up with um uh talking about expanding uh the on demand program. also uh wish that that that the council will uh will push to TLC to to work with their partner the MTA on expanding the on demand program. Um, as far as the bus pilot that was referred to earlier, uh, I if that goes citywide, it also means, uh, free for free accessory rides city ride or citywide as, um, as during the pilot, all excess ride trips within a half mile of the pilot uh, were free. So, that's um, that's something to consider. And lastly, I would say that um uh the MTA should consider settling its cases uh its cases that that also involve the city uh as a as a cost savings. And so rather than spending huge sums of money uh in litigating accessibility cases uh and those cases and get and get the accessibility improvements done. >> Thank you. Next. Good afternoon. Um, I am Beta Vid Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. I was really stunned to hear the TLC say that their budget is less by $4 million this fiscal year compared to the prior one because the medallion relief program is no longer in the budget sheet. This program was prematurely closed down. This was a historic achievement by our union and a group of allies um including a 15-day hunger strike in order to address a level of debt crisis which had led to suicides among drivers. We've so far achieved $476 million in forgiveness. It's been lifech changing. But we still have close to 200 loans that remain. they need to be restructured and the last administration closed down that program prematurely. Rather than lift a finger to help us, we were the ones that brought the lenders, almost all of them. We were responsible for bringing them to the table. We also were responsible for creating an alternative that was acceptable to lenders who did not want to restructure the loans themselves directly. We have less than 200 loans in order to cross the finish line. We must complete this program and the city must live up it to its promise to the yellow cab medallion owner drivers of this city that invested all of their life into it. The city during, in you know, one decade made like $850 million in from the sales of these medallions that the same city was responsible for tanking. And it has led to like serious human consequences for so many families. Meanwhile, for the loans that are in the program, the drivers are saving about $11,000 on the premium compared to the drivers whose loans are not restructured under the program just yet. Um, if I could take an extra 30 seconds just to say thank you that it's also wrong um wrong misconception that the yellow cab industry has lagged behind in terms of accessibility. the percentagewise there's far more wheelchair accessible vehicles that are yellow cabs rather you know rather than on the FHV side of course primarily because on the yellow cab side there there is a mandate of 50% on the FHV side there was a settlement that was made that's left you know um that's required a much lesser percentage for that sector even though they by far have a much larger number of vehicles. And in fact, the accessibility mandate for yellow cabs, one that we have supported, not just today, but since that settlement was first reached with the yellow cab industry over 10 years ago, we were the only voice at that time that supported it. Um, it cannot be an unfunded mandate. The TLC did not tell the truth to this council about the fact that the taxi cab improvement fund is insolvent. It needs to be supported and the council must find ways not only to help us rebuild the taxi cab improvement fund, but also other ways of financial support for medallion owners to continue to meet this mandate. Thank you. and I'll make sure that we we coordinate on that for the exact budget hearing as well uh to to to shed light on on what you're you're discussing. >> Thank you. >> Next. >> Thank you. Uh my name is Ally Langley. I'm a staff attorney at the Taxi Workers Alliance. Um, I'll pick up where Barbe left off, which is talking about the taxi cab I improvement fund. Uh, which is the fund that provides benefits to yellow cab um owners um to provide this wheelchair accessible vehicle mandate and to meet that mandate that the city entered into. Uh, the TIFF is funded by a search charge on yellow cab trips. Uh, this funding model made sense when TIFF was created in 2014 uh when the settlement was entered into when the city entered into the settlement um for that wheel wheelchair accessible vehicle mandate. Um, since then, however, um, as we all know and as Barry described, um, there's been back-to-back crises in the yellow cab sector. Um, from the unregulated entry of Uber andyft to the medallion debt crisis to CO 19. Um, yellow cab trips today are just are less than 24% of what they were in March 2014. That is a staggering difference. Um, and that means not only financial harm to individual drivers, but also that revenue for TIF is down, which leads to that insolveny crisis. Meanwhile, the costs that the fund um is supporting are up because of that 50% wave mandate and a recent court order enforcing the settlement. Instead of exploring other avenues for funding, the TLC turned around and slashed benefits to drivers. They said today they increased the upfront funding um for the hackup payments to uh 20,000, but they didn't tell you that they did that um by uh really just destroying the benefits available to drivers and decreasing the overall amount available. They did this in two ways. Um, one, they got rid of some benefits entirely, including the $1 payment to drivers performing um, trips in wheelchair accessible vehicles. And two, by heightening eligibility requirements. And what that means is that the drivers who are fulfilling this promise of accessibility that the city has made to disabled New Yorkers, drivers who are operating wheelchair accessible vehicles, are not getting these benefits because of technicalities. Um, and this disproportionately harms the most vulnerable drivers. It harms drivers who are not technologically literate, um, who struggle, you know, with email, um, and submitting applications online. Um, and if I may just wrap up, um, and it also harms drivers who are not able to work as much as they once did, um, because of illness or because of age. Um, they're no longer getting operational payments. Um, and some drivers are not getting hackup payments at all, which leaves them struggling with the increased cost of operating a wave, which is nearly double that of um, a conventional vehicle. The TLC has to repeal these rules and the city must provide additional funding to TIFF so that all drivers who are operating waves, who are realizing the um wheelchair accessible vehicle mandate and making sure New York City has an accessible transit system get the benefits um that they deserve um not only to restore benefits to their prior level but also to make sure that the benefits actually reflect the true cost of purchasing and operating these vehicles. Thank you. >> Thank you. This panel is excused. Next up we have Rosa Chang, Yadira Sanchez, Abu Baki, Elizabeth Adams. Can we add in a chair for an additional panelist? And I'm going to call up Amanda Berman. All right, you may begin. >> Good afternoon, Majority Leader Breu. Uh, and members of the city council, uh, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Rosa Chang, and I'm the co-founder and president of Gotham Park, a 501c3 organization formed to advocate for, help guide the and operate and maintain the newly opened and revitalized public space underneath the Brooklyn Bridge anchorage in Manhattan, just across the street. Actually, uh over four and a half years, we distilled the hopes and dreams of our diverse community of over 47,000 residents within a half mile radius, 20% of whom live below the federal poverty level, 20% of whom are 65 years of age or older, 64% of whom are bipac. and we responded to the deep needs that we have in our historically disadvantaged community. The Manhattan neighborhoods surrounding the Brooklyn Bridge are some of the most densely populated in the entire city with an egregiously low square footage of public space per resident. The famous Brooklyn Bridge that is celebrated the world over that stretches from city hall to the East River lands like a wall that separates our community triple burdened by the bridge, the FDR Drive and the Civic Center security zone. We are grassroots effort fueled by the approval of the communities that we serve. In 2021, we saw the opportunity in the in between spaces between transportation infrastructure um in its shadow. And with the support of city hall, we opened our first acre in 2023. Last year, we were selected to be DOT's official plaza partner and we were able to renovate and open an additional three acres to the public. In the last 10 months, this new space has already become a community hub for recreational activity, serving thousands of people a week. We hope to continue our plans to open the entirety of the space, totaling nine acres within the next few years. Oops, and I'm running out of time. So, I am just going to uh end by saying that we deeply, deeply need public spaces in these underserved communities. So, if we could get your support to support these spaces, we would very much appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon, Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Jadira Sanchez. I am the director of organizing at the work justice project, home to loist. We are representing over 80,000 appbased delivery workers in New York City. Delivery workers are the backbone of city's on demand economy, completing nearly 3 million deliveries each week, even during the storms and emergencies. Yet, they lack basic labor protections and the mobility infrastructure they deserve to do this work with dignity and safety through leis and with the leadership of the council. We recently won historic labor rights, including expanded bas. >> My apologies. I'm going to ask you to stop because apparently folks online can't hear. I'll have you restart your testimony. Just give me a second. >> The issue has been resolved. Uh you may you can start from the beginning or you can start where you left off. Your choice. >> Um I'll do it from the beginning. >> All right. Let let's start off from the beginning. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Good afternoon, Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Jadira Sanchez. I am the director of the organizing at the worker justice project home to Losista solidos. We're representing over 80 t,000 adbased delivery workers in New York City. Delivery workers are the backbone of the city's on demand economy completing nearly 3 million deliveries each week even during storms and emergencies. Yet they like bakesy labor protections and the mobility infrastructure. They deserve to do this work with dignity and safety. Through loist and with the leadership of the council, we recently won historic labor rights including expanded pay standards for app grocery workers and just cost protections. I also want to thank you Sherman Ao for making it possible to restore tipping options and ensure paid transparency for delivery workers. My community and the deliverista community are really grateful for your support. Thank you. These victories show that it's possible when we organize and when the New York City Council shows bold leadership to to deliver what our community, especially delivery workers, need to leave and work with dignity. But there is still much work to do. Deliveristas continue fair predatory algorithmic management from multi-billion dollar companies and prioritize profit over safety exploit exploiting our communities. We must invest not only in city infrastructure but also in education and resources for delivery workers. Last year we helped more than 300 workers trade in their ebikes with UL certified models through the DOT ebike trade program and we hope to see this program expanded. This April we are launching the first deliverista hop near city hall a space with ebike charging rest areas and worker resources. This is this is a dignifying infrastructure, but infrastructure cannot do it alone. That is why I'm here requesting $300,000 in funding for our deliverista outreach and safety training program which will be offered through our soon to launch the libertista h this program together with other labor workforce initiative and other critical funding initiatives that will hope to bring restore uh and ensure dignity for workers. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm going to I'm going to finish because I know my time is up. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next. >> Good afternoon. My name is Abu Baki. I am a nap based delivery worker and I have worked for Graab and Uber Eat since 2019 primarily in lower Manatan. I'm also member and leader of lost deliver and worker justice project. I joined this movement because like many delivery worker I have experience in deactivation, traffic accident and constant pressure from the app which prioritize profit over worker safety. Because of this we have had to organize and fight back. No just for ourself but for thousand of delivery worker across New York City. When I start deliver in 2019, I use a regular bicycle. But by 2021, that become impossible. Delivery distance grow longer. Time limit become tighter and we have began punishing worker who could not deliver fast enough by reducing our access to work or they waiting us until early to survive. I had to switch to an ebike. Today more than 80,000 delivery worker rely on ebike to do their job across New York City. Together we complete about 2.7 million delivery every week making sure New York receive food and grocery in every neighborhood. Yet our city and city police have not catch up to this reality. That is why I'm here today asking the city council to invest in fact that will make our street safer for the worker who keep this city moving. We urge the city council to continue expanding protective bike lane, build accessible ebike charging station and secur parking, invest in ebike trade in program to help worker transistor to safer certified battery and create delivery zone so all user can share the street safely. We also soon launch our first delivery area near city hall, a space where worker can safely charge battery, rest and access support. I am here on behalf of a work project to respectfully ask the city council to invest 3,000 to help us launch a street safety outreach and training program for deliver so we can continue working together to make our street safer for everyone. This industry generate enormous profit but the risk cost and d push entry into worker like me. Our company must also be held accountable for the delivery time and safe condition they create. Ebback are the future of transportation in New York City. To make that victory safe and certain world, we must invest into worker to rely on them every day. We look forward to continue to work with the city council to build safer, sweet and stronger support system for a delivery worker. Thank you for listening to the voice of a worker who keep the city running. >> Thank you, Elizabeth Adams. >> Good afternoon. Thank you to the chair and the committee for today's hearing. I'm Elizabeth Adams with Transportation Alternatives. The Mumani administration has committed to building streets that are the envy of the world and realizing that dream is going to require significant resources to DOT. We are calling on this year's budget to fully fund and staff the Department of Transportation. DOT can with ample resources, DOT can implement the streets plan, can end the safe streets hiring freeze, and work towards building the streets, intersections, and bridges that New Yorkers deserve. We recognize the city's fiscal needs, and our streets play a critical role in addressing long-term issues. Traffic fatalities and injuries cost New Yorkers an estimated $3 billion annually, indirect co economic costs. Investing in Vision Zero is not only the right thing to do, it is fiscally responsible. Next, I'd like to highlight potential revenue raisers. Building the streets that New Yorkers deserve is not free, but there's tremendous opportunities for raising money from those same streets. Today, 97% of our parking spaces are free. By just modestly expanding the current metered parking program, the city stands to raise hundreds of millions of dollars. One estimate found New York is losing over hund00 million dollars a year from free parking on the Upper West Side alone. New York has significantly less metered parking than San Francisco, LA, or Boston. It is time we reassess and update our current program for our streets needs. Expanding metered parking is a no-brainer. Paid parking leads to less traffic congestion, cleaner air, and even faster parking. By metering parking and using that revenue to fund DOT, our city can build the streets of tomorrow all on a balanced budget. I'd also like to quickly reiterate a point that Open Streets organizers have been ma make for years in response to the commissioner's comments earlier this morning. In order for this program to survive and thrive, it needs to be fully funded. The Open Streets program relies heavily on unpaid volunteer labor by community organizers, and that is not a sustainable long-term model. Thank you so much for your time and the opportunity to testify today. Thank you. >> I have a question for you, Elizabeth. Are you concerned with the administration's testimony today with the lack of commitment on the streets plan and not committing to universal daylighting? The streets plan is a legal requirement. It is the law. Uh there is a reason that there are metrics requirements in there. Uh we believe that those need to be met. They can be met. Uh and we support the resources for them to be able to meet the legal mandates and their requirement. uh we support the outcomes you know uh request that the commissioner made as well. Um but this is not an eitheror. This is a both and. Um and we have to start from a place of making sure that we hit the the minimum and then go from there. Um so that is critical to us. And then also on universal daylighting the mayor has said as a commitment of of his. Um we know that daylighting saves lives. It is time to get this done. It is time to make it happen across our city. So, yes, we want to see that happen urgently. >> Thank you, Amanda Berman. >> Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity. Uh, my name is Amanda Berman. I'm here to speak on behalf of the Center for Justice Innovation about some of our efforts to make the city streets safer as well as our justice system more effective and more equitable. And I want to take this time to highlight three initiatives that we're hoping city council will support this year. First is our driver accountability program. This is a program that is evidence-based, is diversion programming for people who have been arrested on lower level offenses coming through our criminal courts. And thanks to the support of council, we serve around a thousand people every year in this program throughout New York City. Um the program works by providing education and encouraging behavior change uh through a facilitated group discussion rather than relying on traditional punitive court bait court-based responses like fines or jail. So, I'm proud to say that our uh recent evaluation of our program has shown that the program led to a 50% reduction in recidivism for these kinds of offenses in the bureau of Brooklyn and also very promising significant reductions in Staten Island as well. The second program that I wanted to highlight is Circles for Safe Streets, which we actually operate in partnership with our friends at Transportation Alternatives through their um initiative of Families for Safe Streets. And that program uses a restorative justice model to bring drivers together with victims or survivors of those they have lost through traffic violence where there's been a crash leading to a fatality or in some cases a serious injury. And so by bringing the parties together, the victims have an opportunity to talk about the impact and drivers have an opportunity to take accountability. And then I see I'm almost out of time, so I'm going to try to wrap up, but the last initiative I wanted to mention is our Bronx uh DWI initiative where we assess um and refer, if I could just have a moment, I'll be brief. We assess and refer drivers who might be in need of substance use treatment or alcohol treatment in order to get those services. We do all of this for free, which is unusual in the field because most providers doing that are charging people. So by removing those barriers, we are facilitating access to those muchneeded services and of course in doing so hopefully making our road safer. So together, these programs are part of a holistic approach to street safety where we're focusing on reducing the harms that are caused on our roads and reducing the harms that our traditional justice system has caused in response. So, thank you for the time. We hope we can count on council's support. >> Thank you so much for your testimony. This panel is excused. All right, we're now moving to folks who are testifying on Zoom. Beginning first with Wayne Chin. You may begin. Wayne Chin. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes, I can. >> Hi, my name is Wayne Chin. Uh, I'm a member of Neoy Walker Alliance. I drive a we share seat AC and as you all know 50% of the fleet are required to be waved and we all so we need adequate support from the city and state to accept our cost of the operating waxy you know we not only face a rising cost of living we also face a rising cost of operating the wave taxi the wave taxi 5 years ago cost 50,000 and now cost 80,000 also we had to pay uh our rising not only the operating cost we had to pay higher gas insurance maintaining cost so we demand the city and state provide adequate support for disability community and also for the wave dy driver so by eliminating the safe tax of the new taxi new wave dy so to lower the cost of the wave dy so also to ask the city to instake the dollar per trip to this wave taxi driver and also expend the other test program to have with the purchase of the wave pro wave taxi and and also finish restriction the loan medallion loan to end the all the medallion debt crisis so all the owner get the debt relief so we have like 200 mad owner remaining to be uh the loan to be restructured so we can save about 800 a month right now I paying 200 on my Medallian loan and my insurance is like 1,300 a month and my car loan is $800. So it's my cost is like 4,000 more than $4,000 a month to operate the tax the W taxi. >> 15 15 more seconds. >> Include the gas and maintainers. So we need a city and state uh support for the W driver and the disability community. Thank you so much. >> No, thank you so much. And now we're moving on to Richard Cow. You may begin. >> Okay. Uh, can you hear me? >> Yeah, we we can hear you. >> Okay. Thank you. And good afternoon, chair and everyone. My name is Richard Chao, member of the New York Taxi Walker Alliance. I'm an owner driver. We need to bring back the tip from TSC eliminated $1 tip driver ambushman and reduce the mainten car owner $1,000 till the life of the the to off to the 750 up to the full year. funds almost the bankruptcy that because of this eligible uh grant and become the trips are down city make the settlement agreement and must uh find the way to fund the program. We need more trans support the low interest rate lower down payment payment the atalas program CD and the CD could continue to find fund the medallion relief program. So last remaining loans are uh re restructuring under the CD back guarantee to plus all transfer of the grantee transfer the grande which made nonsense and why the city doesn't allow the owner to who's under this grande to sell the medallion and the transfer to the grande it will save the city money overall right now all owner Drivers who want to relieve their medallion to the family member not allowed to transfer to the grande that's mean that mean those medallan end up with the defaulting lossing the city money from the grantee and uh loan reserve fund our family lost the medallion and then and we have another issue there the se hearing testimony for MTA. >> Give you 15 more seconds. >> Yes, thank you. Very I close up and demand the city council support on the rising the payment to the SS right Medicare trip. These are low paid tip to the industry remaining outside the and between low price MTA and the high take from the broker base drivers are left behind with penny we are demand a higher pay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. We'll now move to Coober Sancho Prasad. Hello. >> How you doing? >> Hey, I can I can hear you perfectly. I can You may start. >> My name is Cooper Sancho Prasad. I'm a yellow cab driver for since 2014. My dad was a yellow cap driver since 1984 and he passed away. I'm here to talk on behalf of the med to keeping the medallion relief program open until the uh final set of my my member uh my fellow taxi drivers to get over the get over the finish line with the crushing medallion debts. There's only a few hundred left. uh would need we need the help of the city and the city council to try and get them over the finish line and make sure that they they're debtfree and they're forgiven by this debt that was caused by the city irregulation of Uber and Lift and the taxi industry. We also like to talk about the wave uh program and talk about trying to reinstate the dollar per trip for wave drivers because more majority of the vehicles even now we have the Sienna hybrid they are bigger vehicles and they require a little more gas and maintenance. So, and plus it's an incentive for drivers to uh to pay to use to put the towards the gas. Uh also for owner for owner drivers who own the vehicle. Uh TLC had said that they increase the vehicle amount to 20,000 upfront, but they didn't tell you that they cut the amount that they used to give us on a quarterly basis to keep the maintenance of the vehicle. And these vehicles are not OEM fitted with wheelchair equipment. These are retrofitted which causes them to become more um compl uh more damaged compared to when it's OEM come it comes from the factory original. So, we need more. We need money to just make sure that that from the stiff fund to make sure that we keep those vehicles on the road and make sure >> you have I'm going to give you an extra 15 seconds to wrap up. >> Okay. Uh I would appreciate your guys's in uh uh concern. I would take I would really like you to listen to my fellow taxi drivers and my union. Uh thank you very much. No, I thank you. Uh Joshua Boyce, >> you may begin. >> Hi, good afternoon. Uh my name is Joshua Boyce. I am a Queens College student and I'm also a board member for my perk New York public interest research group. Um I thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Um, today I'm going to be talking about bus service and bus infrastructure, which is the first thing I'll harp on. Second one I'll talk about is transit affordability for students. And three, I would like to talk about the um, Rockway Beach branch line, which first I'll go back to the U bus service. So, I take the Q25. And there are times when the Q25 is not as reliable as it used to be. Obviously, the MTA had done the Queens bus network redesign from before. And what had happened was now the service for the Q25 has been the service has been slow for many of us students here at Queens College. So we would like MTA to re-evaluate certain bus lines such as the P25 to make sure that our service is reliable for us college students. Um the next one I'll talk about is the bus infrastructure. Basically, MTA has said that they want to put more bus lanes and more camera enforcement on uh many corridors or many bottleneck areas that need it the most. So, hopefully MTA does put more emphasis on making sure that enforcement is there. Uh the next one is transit affordability, which to talk about transit affordability. I do wish and I apologize for me just walking with the trucks and the car. Um, I do wish that the MTA had put more emphasis on transit affordability to us uh cut students that need it the most because we are the investment in the future. And so having that opportunity to have student Omni cards or US Queens College students and many KU students would be nice and would be great for all of us that need the most. And I know it's already for ASAP and seek students, but we need to expand on it for more for all KU students. Lastly, I would want to talk about the Rockway Beach branch line which YTA has said that they wanted to >> please wrap up 15 seconds. >> Yes. Had uh wanted to evaluate on which for the next capital plan which hopefully they should put this on the next capital plan because this will be a good investment for people that live in work in the area of Forest Hills, Wood Haven, Ozone Park and will also connect communities together. >> Thank you very much. >> Yes. Thank you. I I appreciate your testimony. We heard you on the capital plan on the Rockaway project. Uh we're going to pivot to in person really quickly. I just realized uh we had a someone was here this whole time. We just signed the appearance card. Come on up. Steven Babson. I'm Steven Brinen. I'm also with the New York Public Interest Research Group. I work at City Tech in downtown Brooklyn. Apologies for the M uh communication. But anyway, I am also here to speak on uh students transportation needs and wants. Uh our campus is in downtown Brooklyn. Virtually all of our students come in from uh outside downtown Brooklyn via the MTA. many from outer burough neighborhoods with limited transit service. In fact, one of my most active students is one of your constituents, council member Wong uh Matthew Erenss. Um and um they face enormous challenges in just physically getting to campus on uh lines that are unreliable, both bus and subway lines, uh making difficult transfers uh coming in from uh outer burough neighborhoods. uh most of them work um virtually virtually all of them in fact uh and it's for that reason that I'm call that I'm calling for more investments in the ne in the interests of students uh better bus lanes to improve reliability on crucial corridors like Flatbush and Avenue form road uh new investments in maintenance in deinigning like the proposed Rogers junction um cap in the capital plan uh and new investments in student omniards and eligibility for uh better transit because when you invest in students being able to get to class on time uh participate fully in their education, dedicate uh as much thought to that as they possibly can and attend as many cl attend as many classes as they can so they don't have to uh take longer to finish their education than they otherwise have to. That's an investment in the future. not investing in those is going to cost us more in the long run. Investing that now is going to make New York money that we need for future development. Thank you council members uh so much and yes, have a wonderful evening. >> Thank you so much for your time and and your testimony. Now going back to Zoom, we have Norm Miller followed by Kathleen Collins. Norm Miller, you may begin. >> Hello. Hello. Good day. My name is Nora Miller. I'm also part of the Newark Public Interest Research Group right here at the New York City College of Technology located in downtown Brooklyn. I would like to say today that students like myself here, we deserve faster, reliable, and equitable equitable bus service, especially right here in the downtown Brooklyn area. Especially right, sorry about that. especially right here in the downtown Brooklyn area where we're served by the B41 which is a major crucial route where most of us students travel to and from to and from downtown Brooklyn. We're also calling upon the New York DOT to invest in more bus lane infrastructure and more able enforcement bus lanes especially for Flatbush Avenue. But we would like to see Flatbush Avenue have bus lanes all the way down to Kings Plaza, not just north of the Grand Army Plaza Circle, especially with the Brooklyn Bus Network bus re Brooklyn bus network redesign coming around the corner at least up until 2027. And lastly, I would like also like to say that we deserve to have an economy and a culture an economy that works for all of us, not just not just for certain people, but for all of us too as well. That's all I have to say. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for your testimony. Kathleen Collins, followed by Stephen Brinsson. Well, actually Stephen was in person, so uh so we're we'll take him off. So Kathleen Collins followed by Edward Zenang. Kathleen, you may begin. >> Thank you. Uh, my name is Kathleen Collins and I am part of a a board member of disabled in action. I'm a native New Yorker, a congenital quadriput who uses a wheelchair and a shift arms at times. I'm going to talk today just about one thing that's the e-hal program. This is a significant benefit because it allows me to do things on the spur of the moment and was a lifesaver when my husband's father became sick after 5:00 p.m. and I had to go to the emergency room with him. I could not have done that if I had just accessorized. Accessorized does not cannot take into account emergencies, but I was able to do it with the e-hal program and that really means a lot to me and to my husband and my family. I ask that the e-hap pilot program continue to be funded and that we improve it in the following ways. Please make the ehab pilot program available to all excessive ride users who want to use it. Please eliminate the restrictions on the number of rides a person is allotted to take on the e-hap pilot program. I'm allotted 25 trips. If I had used I'm planning to testify at least two or three hearings. That would be six trips just right off the bat. That would be knocked out um out of my 25. That would be one quarter of my trip. Uh please eliminate the restrictions on the number of rides a person is allotted to take on the EHAP pilot program. And also please increase the amount of the cost that the ENT will cover for each trip on the EHAP pilot program so that more of the city can be reached without passengers having to pay significant out of pocketage costs. Um I understand that the city and the MTA face budget constraints just like everyone else. However, the cost of placing more people on the e-hap program is not only minuscule but actually better use of our money as was shown stated by uh Christopher Shia about that it's only about 50% of the cost of the regular accessory program and we should realize that the cost of placing more people on e- health is not only minuscule and >> I'm giving you 15 more seconds 15 more seconds to wrap up >> I just I just asked that you considered these things and expand the program because it really helps so many people. Thank you. >> No, I appreciate that and we we will take your your your testimony into account for sure. Christopher Leon Johnson. >> Hello, my name is Christopher Leon Johnson and thank you Sean Bra, for doing this hearing. Uh, I want to make this clear that u I believe that the city council need to allocate at least u a million dollars to the worker justice project for emergency uh services when it comes to the relay layoffs that's going to occur in the next probably a week now for two weeks now on April 1st 2026 uh these guys are going to be out of a job it's thousands of them if it's like thousand you take 10,000 pounds that by 500 $500 that's like a million dollars that's like a million bucks give a million dollars for um OSHA trainings and job trainings when it comes to the relay workers getting laid off including the members that are the people that are that going to be used to work for relay that are opposed to the worker justice project. I I I'll send a real test about that and make them give them an online option. So they want to be in the office the same office as legit and the crew. Um but I make this clear that uh I support the Lara hub. They they deserve a deliverista hub and I hope that um very soon that the city council comes to the conclusion that they fix the budget to make sure that at the end of the year that the deliveries hub get built for the resource. But for now, I believe that more uh is more needed for the the people that be laid off from relay to start getting trainings for different jobs for the meantime because it looks like uh Moto Click and the other apps aren't going to be hiring them. So these guys gonna have to find something new to do. But I hope that you, Mr. Sha Breu, and many of these nonprofits come to the table, including uh Mrs. Galapa and uh many other organizations and come together and find a way to allocate u make them prioritized more when it comes to the job trainings. Uh if I was in the I'll find way to allocate a million dollars so these guys these guys would relay to start getting the job trainings. So um look I'm going testimony about that more be more in depth about that >> 15 seconds to wrap up Mr. Johnson. >> Yeah that's that's what I want to say a million dollar work just for the relay work laid off for job train. Thank you so much and enjoy your day. >> Thank you so much Charlton Duza followed by Jack Nerenburgg. >> Uh good afternoon everyone. Good afternoon Mr. Chairman. Uh my name is Charlton Duza. I'm the president of Passengers United. Uh so what's very important with DOT funding is DOT needs to restore all the good bus shelters and bus pads that were removed during the Queens bus redesign. Uh you have bus shelters sitting idle which have become garbage dumps and that is ridiculous. That is the biggest waste of money. And also my colleague Jack Nyenberg conducted a study an 80 accessibility study of every bus stop which is still ongoing and we found serious deficiencies and we found that there was a lack of correlation between what the DOT did in removing bus stops and ADA access. So that is something uh that we would like to meet with you and the transportation committee on and also we feel that the department of transportation should have an ADA accessibility committee especially when it comes to open streets, bus stop removals, uh bus redesigns, um and also bus lanes. This has been very controversial in a lot of neighborhoods and a lot of these groups that are coming on here, you know, they're getting uh like lobbyist groups. It's not fair to all of us that are doing all the hard work in the community and we're actually focused on scientific engineering whereas groups are just coming in and saying put this here, put that there. And like the DOT commissioner said today that you know he didn't support universal daylighting and in a way he was speaking from an engineering background. So that's a good thing and we need more of that and uh you know cuz sometimes communities you know they might have a different opinion on something. Um, and I can tell you like bus stop islands for instance, if you look at the ones on Queens Boulevard, it is so high up that seniors with walkers and limited mobility, many seniors were falling down. >> 15 more seconds to wrap up. >> It was not properly shoveled and salted. So, please uh, Mr. Chairman uh, meet with us and also look into that and also the DOT. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up, Jack Nerburgg. All right. Can you hear me? >> I can. >> All right. Fantastic. Thank you. Uh, good evening everyone. My name is Jack Nerburgg. I'm the vice president of Passengers United. I'm also a master city planning student at the University of Pennsylvania. And uh earlier today, we heard the MTA CEO uh claim that the uh bus stop balancing, the bus stop removals during the Queens bus network redesign and Brooklyn bus network redesign, they were balancing the needs of people with disabilities with those traveling longer distances. Yet, there's no evidence that that's actually true. and all the information that we were trying to acquire to uh justify the removals uh we've been having extreme difficulties actually obtaining to the point where we're kind of forced to sue uh to get any kind of information like this. So what we sought out to do, I'm leading the uh the study that my colleague alluded to earlier uh where we are uh conducting observational uh data uh studies at each of the uh eliminated and intact bus stops. We're starting in Queens. We have three routes uh done so far where we're looking at each of the uh observational factors uh that enable people or prevent people from getting to the bus stop, getting on and off the bus, waiting at the bus with ease, at the bus stop with ease. And what we found is that uh there's no correlation between the bus stops that were removed in the Queens bus network redesign and their overall accessibility including presence of a bus shelter whether the uh bus stop is close to essential origins and destinations including grocery stores, healthc care facilities, assisted living facilities, uh the conditions of the sidewalks as well. And all of these factors have to have a immense uh impact on people's ability to get on and off the buses, get to and from the bus stops, especially since they have to walk farther. >> 15 seconds to wrap up. >> Uh we are going to be uh continuing this study for the Brooklyn bus network redesign, but we're going to need the support of of the city council to uh and the DOT to really have the greatest impact possible. We have identified nine areas thus far, nine census tracks for prioritized stop restoration, but accessibility needs to be a greater part of uh the DO's budget and the MTA's budget as well. Thank you very much. >> No, thank you. And I appreciate your commit I appreciate your commitment to this issue. If we have inadvertently missed anyone that has registered to testify today and has yet to have been called, please use the Zoom hand function if you are testifying remotely and you'll be called in the order that your hand has been raised. Have we is there anyone with their zoom hand function? Seeing no one raised their hand on zoom. If you are testifying in person and haven't testified and would like to testify, can you please come to the deis? Seeing none, this hearing is hereby adjourned. Thank you all.