A decade ago, Riders Alliance members rode the subway with a life-size cardboard cutout of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had repeatedly refused invitations to see the impact of mounting delays firsthand.
Indeed, in his mad dash to cut the ribbon on the Second Ave. subway, systemwide subway delays quadrupled from 2012 to 2018. Yet it took the notorious “Summer of Hell” in 2017 for Cuomo to finally acknowledge the crisis.
As subway service hit bottom, Riders Alliance sponsored a “Worst Commute of the Week” contest. The first winning entry, from CUNY librarian Jennifer Tang, described an agonizing two-hour wait with a full bladder in the tunnel just outside her home subway station beneath Queens Boulevard because of, you guessed it, signal problems.
In the years since, riders have won big, often in spite of executive leadership: Congestion relief, more frequent buses and trains, and most recently new state funding to keep fixing the subway, with reliable signals, accessible stations and new rail cars. Now, we’re weeks away from a primary that could determine our next mayor.
Cuomo is the mayoral frontrunner. Faced with sexual harassment accusations in 2021, he resigned his high position in disgrace. He’s capitalizing on an unparalleled degree of name recognition and an unprecedented amount of political experience. He’s trying to game our election system when our democracy has never been more fragile.
So ahead of next month’s mayoral primary, Riders Alliance just launched a new political arm. In this election and many to come, our grassroots community organization will amplify members’ powerful voices on behalf of the city’s transit riders in the policy decisions that shape millions of commutes and New York’s iconic but embattled network of buses and trains.
As New Yorkers decide who will lead the city — and state next year — we are ready to infuse the political calendar with an unwavering vision for safe, affordable, fast, reliable, accessible public transit. And we’ll hold those in power, incumbents and challengers alike, accountable to deliver it.
For the past 13 years, riders have organized together and become a formidable force for winning a more just, livable city. Now, by expanding our advocacy to engage during political campaigns, we’ll be able to plainly tell the truth about what elected officials have done — or failed to do — to meet riders’ needs as they seek our votes.
We’ll be able to champion candidates who share our ideals, and campaign against pretenders who have had their chance and let New Yorkers down. We’ll have the opportunity to transform the voices of several million bus and subway riders into an organized voting bloc.
The need couldn’t be greater. For riders, a Cuomo comeback would be a disaster. As New York’s longtime governor, Cuomo raided MTA funds, cut transit service and let subway delays quadruple. While hyping crime underground, he slashed state support for mental health services.
The former governor has never been a rider himself. Instead, he uses our subway as a backdrop or prop: shutting down service, powerwashing trains, demonizing riders and exploiting our fears whenever it suits his political agenda.
While New York’s governor controls the MTA and is largely responsible for the subway, the mayor controls city streets, where millions of people sit on slow, unreliable buses. As governor, Cuomo declared preemptive defeat in the drive for better bus service.
He abandoned a partnership between the city and state to create Select Bus Service, destroying morale at the city Department of Transportation he would take leadership of, if elected.
His MTA even sided with NIMBY drivers over city planners on proposed bus improvements in Brooklyn. What did he do for bus riders? He pioneered the rarely used USB ports that seem to suggest, “Sit tight, you’re gonna be here awhile.”
The incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, for his part, repeatedly promised to be the “Bus Mayor.” Yet he knuckled under to seven well-connected suburbanites rather than speed up service for 85,000 Bronx riders on Fordham Road.
We are done being props in politicians’ campaigns. Ahead of the June primary and in the months and years to come, an energized and emboldened rider movement will keep shifting the transit policy arc away from pandering politicians who exploit our fears but neglect our needs.
We’ll expand on our victories like congestion relief, Fair Fares and more frequent service, to achieve our vision of a public transit system that works for all New Yorkers, commuters and visitors alike. With our new political arm, riders will speak transit truth to power at every critical juncture — and ensure those in power answer to riders.
Plum is executive director of Riders Alliance.
