They stirred resistance at every turn, prompting predictions of economic doom, touching off years of lawsuits and spawning a cottage industry of jokes on late-night television.

But Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s crusades to restrict smoking, encourage biking, expose calorie counts and sideline automobiles are now overwhelmingly embraced by New York City residents, according to a New York Times poll, making his experiments in behavioral modification an unexpectedly popular hallmark of his legacy.

In a stinging assessment of the mayor’s priorities and effectiveness, however, two-thirds of New Yorkers say they believe that the quality of the city’s long-troubled school system has stayed the same or become worse since he took office in 2002, despite his vigorous pledges to improve it.

Most New Yorkers say Mr. Bloomberg’s policies have favored the rich over the middle class and the poor. And 70 percent say that as mayor, he has paid too much attention to Manhattan, rather than its surrounding, less well-off boroughs.