As a candidate, the mayor pledged during his first campaign to introduce bus rapid transit on Manhattan's East Side, and that project still isn't ready.

He's otherwise not spoken up for transit (talk to Upper Manhattan residents trying to save elevator attendants on the job in scary stations in Upper Manhattan; his MTA board members would not lift a finger). Some opponents of congestion pricing are concerned that the cash will be used for pet projects like the 7 line rather than real transit improvements. Until he appointed a new commissioner a few months ago, his transportation commissioner acted like the head of the AAA. I could go on and on, and maybe already have.

And he rode the subway. (From the express stop after he gets a ride in an SUV.)

I don't think this makes him the number one subway booster in the city. Every mayor talks up mass transit, and even once in a while rides the trains.

I'm willing to give the mayor the benefit of the doubt on the congestion pricing front, which I support, and even buy that it's part of his vaunted transit advocacy. But, as I've written elsewhere here, it was so mishandled by the mayor that I sometimes wonder what his real game was in endorsing it.

the bottom line is that he sets a good example. he walks the talk in the way he can - and probably the way his security allows. and all of this criticism is ridiculous.

You're clearly not reading enough Streetsblog.

Here's a photo of New York City Mayor William Jay Gaynor, August 9, 1910, moments after being shot in the throat by a disgruntled former City employee. On the left, moving forward to help the mayor is Robert Todd Lincoln, the only surviving son of the first U.S. president to be assassinated. Garner died a few years later, they say, of lead poisoning from the bullet.

I believe Garner's was the only assassination attempt on an NYC mayor.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2006/12/04/congestion-charging-in-new-york-city-the-political-bloodbath/

OK, I don't know for sure that the SUVs continue to City Hall while the Mayor rides the subway, but if they don't, that means we taxpayers have purchased him two more SUVs that get parked at City Hall, with two additional drivers and security details on OUR payroll. So driving the SUVs downtown, sans Mike, is probably the better scenario.

I'm afraid I agree totally with rhubarbpie and Christopher above in being really disappointed that his riding the subway is more stunt than conviction. I really was under the impression that the Mayor rode the subway every day, and wasn't being driven to the station. Because it really IS the best way to navigate NYC, both in speed and efficiency and in cost. And if the Mayor needs to be on the phone, then there's some motiviation for wiring the subways for cellular service (not that I'm advocating for cell phone yakking on the subways, mind you).

If it weren't for the SUVs driving around empty, I would give him kudos for at least straphanging some of the time, which, as has been pointed out, the vast majority of placard-enabled officials never do. That needs to change – not least of all because it would mean they'd actually be working more and sitting in traffic less.

Finally, as for the "varying the route for security" theory, I'm afraid I find that unconvincing. He's the Mayor of NYC, not el presidente. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the number of all-time attempts on the lives of NYC mayors is zilch. In fact, the only killing of an elected official in NYC that I can recall took place in City Hall, unless you conunt Donald Manes and his kitchen knife. You older Livable Streets advocates will recall that he wanted to bould a race track in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The mayor's made his morning commute a public issue, by repeatedly drawing attention to it. It was key to his strategy of softening his image from the billionaire mayor who seemed to have bought the election to someone at least a bit in touch with his electorate.

I don't care one iota what the mayor does in his private life. I do care about it when he uses a populist -- and intentionally public -- act dishonestly, and that is what he has been doing here. (Even if he does ride the subway more often than many elected officials, to his credit -- but otherwise, on subway issues, he's been no prize if you look at his record over his mayoralty.)

For all of you who default to "it must be a security thing", consider this: where are you safer - strolling through Park Avenue in the 70's in the morning, or on a subway train? Where would a police escort (on foot) be able to protect you better? While the mayor's people don't seem to offer "security" as a defense, I don't see how you can justify it on his behalf.

I am reminded of a story that is, I hope, apocryphal. In the early days of the Bloomberg administration, Planning Commission Chair and fellow UES zillionaire Amanda Burden gave into peer pressure and took the subway to work. However, she didn't like having to carry her heavy bag of papers to and from the office each day. Her solution? The bag went downtown in a car while she made the appearance on the subway.

Mike: you can't take a limo part of the way to work and claim that you're commuting on the subway.

But guess what? The article showed that it's just so much hooey. The mayor turns out to be really not so much like the rest of us. He gets a ride to the subway (yes, there are New Yorkers who are dropped off at the subway, but most of them do not live on East 79th Street in Manhattan) in an SUV, accompanied by another SUV (that then head down to City Hall, adding to congestion and pollution), so he can take an express train, even though he lives a block or two from the local, which I guess is too crowded or slow or something. OK for the rest of us, but not for the busy busy mayor. Illustrating, in the end, that this was pretty much a long-running p.r. stunt, brilliantly pulled off for years.

Nuclear power is the only way to keep the lights on without increasing carbon dioxide emissions. That's why Bloomberg supports it.

> SUVs (plural?!)

No, I think the plural of SUV is SUVi, you know, pronounced S-U-Vigh. Or Veigh. As in fungi.