Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday said thousands of city workers and contractors have made a significant dent in clearing the 8 to 15 inches of snow that buried the Big Apple on Sunday from city bus stops and crosswalks.
Hizzoner, during an unrelated Jan. 30 news conference, said municipal workers have removed snow from 12,986 out of the city’s roughly 14,000 bus stops — about 92% of stops overall and 100% of the 3,400 with shelters — since the blizzard on Sunday. He added they have also cleared accumulations away from 18,814 crosswalks and 5,784 fire hydrants.
Although the city’s buses are operated by the MTA — and city Department of Sanitation (DSNY) employees are charged with clearing the streets — snow removal at bus stops with shelters is the responsibility of the city Department of Transportation, which contracts workers with the firm JCDecaux to get the job done. Bus stops without shelters are the responsibility of the property owners adjacent to the stops to clear.
The mayor gave his weather update on Jan. 30, noting that freezing temperatures have persisted throughout the week and are forecast to continue into the weekend. Sanitation and seasonal workers chipped in to remove snow in areas property owners did not remove snow or failed to keep clear.
“While the sun and rising temperatures would typically help the city’s response following snowfall, this cold is persistent, this snow is stubborn, and this danger is real,” Mamdani told reporters.
In its efforts to get rid of the frozen piles, DSNY has deployed giant hot tub-like machines at eight sites around the city that can melt 120 tons of snow per hour.
“As we speak, hundreds of DSNY workers, contractors, and emergency snow shovelers are breaking up snow ridges and carving paths through mountains of snow,” he said. “Because as we know, there is nothing more frustrating than having to take a longer detour because an intersection isn’t passable.”
Reps for the MTA declined to comment.
Mamdani’s announcement came after several reports on Monday, the day after the storm, highlighting bus stops blocked by icy and slushy mounds of snow. The obstacles made the stops particularly hard to navigate for commuters with young children, the elderly, and those with disabilities.
According to Danny Pearlstein, director of policy and communications at Riders Alliance, city snow plows and workers often end up moving snow cleared from the roads into bus stops because they are the only spaces available.
“The snow gets pushed wherever parked cars aren’t,” Pearlstein said. “The snow goes where there’s space for it. And unfortunately, the bus stop is often the space of last resort.”
When asked how he would respond to New Yorkers frustrated by the pace of the city’s snow-clearing efforts, Mamdani said, “The work continues.”
“We will never be a city government that pats ourselves on the back for what work we have already done. We will ask ourselves, ‘What more can we do?'” he said. “The work, it continues until every single New Yorker, no matter their mode of transport, is able to get around the city that is theirs.”
Pearlstein said the large amount of snow, combined with the persistent freezing temperatures, has made it hard to gauge the city’s performance in clearing bus stops following the storm.
“This is a storm that’s not entirely unprecedented, but we haven’t seen this much snow in several years, and we certainly haven’t seen it remain this cold after the snow in several years,” he said. “I think that it was a challenge, certainly not just in bus stops and bus shelters, but subway stairs, and crosswalks.”
