When NewYork City Mayor Zohran Mamdani rolled up with the Bergen Bike Bus, it felt less like a press moment and more like a rolling preview of what a different kind of city could look like—one where kids don’t just survive the school commute, they actually enjoy it.
The occasion was a major announcement: Bergen Street and Dean Street are set to become a continuous 10-mile bike boulevard stretching across Brooklyn, from around Court Street toward East New York Avenue. The vision is straightforward but ambitious: prioritize people who move under their own power—especially cyclists and pedestrians—over cars cutting through residential streets.
And this isn’t just a paint-and-post-it-note redesign. The plan includes protected bike lanes, safer intersections, sidewalk extensions, and traffic calming designed to slow vehicles down and make crossings feel intuitive rather than intimidating. In other words: a street network that behaves like it actually expects children to be using it.
“Bike boulevards give families the peace of mind they need to start the day right: by enjoying a safe, easy ride to school,” said Mayor Mamdani. “From protected bike lanes to safer crossings, these redesigns make our streets work for people and encourage our youngest neighbors to grow into lifelong riders. It was such a joy to ride with the families of the Bergen Bike Bus, who have for years strapped on their helmets and pulled out their bikes to show the need for better cycling infrastructure. Now, we’re building a city that meets that vision.”
There’s a reason this kind of infrastructure gets urban cycling communities excited far beyond New York. Protected bike lanes aren’t just about comfort—they’re about survival and accessibility. Studies consistently show they reduce deaths and serious injuries for all road users by about 18%, and pedestrian injuries by nearly 30%. That’s not incremental improvement; that’s a fundamental shift in how safe a street feels to exist on.
But the part that makes this story stand out isn’t just the policy—it’s the people already using the streets as if the policy had existed for years.
Since 2022, the Bergen Bike Bus has been quietly proving a point about safe active travel every Wednesday morning. Families gather along Bergen Street near Rockaway Avenue, then roll west together toward Court Street between roughly 7:15 and 8:00 AM. It’s not a race. It’s not a protest. It’s just a growing group ride of kids, parents, and volunteers turning the school commute into something closer to a moving block party.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Bergen Bike Bus
“On this National Bike & Roll to School Day we, the Bergen Bike Bus, are overjoyed by Mayor Mamdani’s announcement. Thank you to the City leaders for hearing our weekly pleas, for riding along with us and for working to give kids the recognition they deserve as citizens and street users of NYC,” read a statement from Bergen Bike Bus. “Biking to school is an active and fun way to start the day. Biking to school can be safe not just on a bike bus, but every day. Bergen is a bike route in name, and now DOT can begin to transform it into a true Bike Boulevard, where kids, parents and all road users feel comfortable and safe. Thank you to the kids, families and team of volunteer marshals who bring joy to Brooklyn every week and who demonstrate that biking to school benefits everyone, and thank you to the City leaders for supporting this version of free buses!”
The format is deceptively simple: ride together, stay visible, make it fun, and make it normal. Kids can hop on and off along the way, and the whole thing runs like clockwork every Wednesday—rain or shine, school day or special event. Over time, that consistency has turned the bike bus into something more powerful than any single ride: proof of demand.
Because once you’ve seen a pack of eight-year-olds confidently cruising a main street at rush hour, it becomes harder to argue that “the streets are too dangerous for cycling” is a permanent condition rather than a design choice.
“My daughter, a 1st grader at PS-133, and I spent many Saturday mornings handing out ‘Build the Bergen/Dean Bike Blvd’ flyers along Bergen & Dean,” said Dustin Golden, a 47-year-old Brooklyn father. “We were just one piece of a long-running campaign by Transit Alternatives Brooklyn to secure these necessary safety improvements. I cannot wait to finally feel safe and at ease biking along Bergen and Dean with my daughter.”
That’s where the announcement lands so well with urban cycling advocates globally. It’s not coming out of nowhere—it’s responding to an existing culture of movement already happening in plain sight. The bike bus has been the living demonstration. The bike boulevard is the attempt to make it permanent.
The City’s timeline reflects the scale of the ambition. A full design proposal is expected later this year, with Phase 1 construction targeted for 2027. It’s not immediate gratification—but it’s the kind of long-game infrastructure shift that cities actually need if they’re serious about mode shift and safety at scale.
What makes this especially interesting from a global cycling perspective is the direction of travel. Instead of building isolated bike lanes and hoping they connect, this is about creating a continuous corridor where cycling is the default travel choice. Protected lanes, calmer traffic, safer crossings—it’s the difference between “bike-friendly segments” and a coherent cycling spine.
And underneath all of it is a simple idea that the Bergen Bike Bus and other bike busses around the world has been proving every week: When you design streets so kids can safely ride together, you don’t just get safer streets—you get a different kind of city culture entirely.
One where the morning commute looks less like a stress test… and more like a ride worth showing up for.
Want to know more about the bike bus movement, read this article.
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