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New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Saturday a plan to invest more than $900 million in the NYC Streets Plan in an effort to reclaim city streets from cars.

The investment in the plan will look to expand the mileage of bike lanes, dedicated bus lanes and busways, and reclaim pedestrian space on city streets, according to the mayor.

“This investment is a game-changer,” said Adams during a press conference in Brooklyn. “Too many New Yorkers have lost their lives to the traffic violence crisis, and we are seeing cities across the country struggle just like us, but this historic investment will allow New Yorkers to walk and cycle around our city without fear. With this historic investment of over $900 million, we are tackling this crisis head-on and setting the tone nationwide. We are going to ‘Get Stuff Done’ and deliver safe streets for New Yorkers. This is how we save lives.”

The NYC Streets Plan was first announced by former Mayor Bill de Blasio at the end of last year. The plan is a five-year blueprint for upgrading the city’s roadway infrastructure. It includes overhauling New York City’s streetscape in the coming years to bring hundreds of miles of new bus and bike lanes, while also improving conditions for pedestrians and motorists alike.

“This is the largest amount that we have put in place — to invest in making our streets safe,” said Adams.

The more than $900 million will be used to tackle the city’s traffic violence crisis and deliver a safer, healthier and greener city for all New Yorkers, according to the mayor’s office. The Adams administration is committing $904 million over five years — nearly $580 million in capital funding, as well as expense funding that ramps up to more than $65 million annually, or $327 million over five years — to advance the goals laid out in the NYC Streets Plan and rapidly build out critical street safety and public transportation infrastructure.

The investment also aims to reform on-street parking and reduce the number of dangerous vehicles and drivers in New York City — building on work the city has already done to stem the tide of rising traffic violence.

“These are our streets. It’s about moving around your city in a safe way,” said Adams, who provided no details on specific allocations per borough.

However, the mayor also announced that the city is designating five protected bike lanes for physical infrastructure upgrades to protect cyclists, drivers and pedestrians. The bike lanes are located in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx — with no upgrades in bike lanes announced for Staten Island.

Meera Joshi, deputy mayor for operations, touted the funding plan, stating that the expansion of vehicle-free areas is a “giant step toward aligning New Yorkers’ experience with this fundamental truth: To save lives and our planet, streets cannot just be for cars anymore.”

Transportation Alternatives, one of the city’s leading safe streets advocacy organizations, recently released a new report finding that there were 59 traffic fatalities in New York City during the first three months of 2022, marking the highest number of first quarter fatalities since Vision Zero began in 2014.

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