Stringer hits Yang’s flip on busways

Mayoral candidate and city Comptroller Scott Stringer lashed out at rival Andrew Yang on Thursday with an accusation that Yang flip-flopped on his support of busways when he recently voiced concerns about one in Queens.

Stringer, who’s been lagging behind Yang in recent polls, called the front-runner out for putting “pandering over good policy” when it comes to lanes dedicated solely to buses.

“Being a mayor is a serious job. It is not a moment when we should be pandering. This is a moment when we should be planning, and Andrew Yang showed once again that depending on where he goes and what he does, the first sign that somebody pushes back on innovative transportation infrastructure, Mr. Yang takes it all back,” Stringer said Thursday before boarding a bus on 14th St. to ride along its busway.

“You can’t speak out of both sides of your mouth. You can’t be for busways on Monday and then go to a debate and scale it back when somebody asks you a pointed question.”

Stringer, who said he plans to become the city’s “bus mayor,” was referring to comments Yang made Monday at a mayoral forum in which he said the city should reexamine the busway in Flushing, as well as to subsequent remarks Yang made on the issue.

“I’ve heard numerous community complaints from people that have said that seniors have had trouble getting to their doctors who are on upper floors of those buildings, and prior to the busway, they would get dropped off at the curb by their relatives,” Yang said of the Flushing busway in remarks reported by Streetsblog. “Now they struggle with that, and there have been other issues.”

The Flushing busway — which bans most passenger cars from the neighborhood’s Main St. between Sanford Ave. and Northern Blvd. to make way for straphangers — launched in January after months of delays caused by a failed lawsuit filed by local business owners.

Stringer contends he is fully supportive of efforts to expand busways throughout the city and has vowed to create 35 miles of new busways and protected bus lanes annually if elected.

Yang didn’t offer much of a response to Stringer’s criticisms.

“It seems like other candidates are running their campaigns the way they see fit,” he said during an appearance outside of Yankee Stadium for Opening Day.