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Janette Sadik-Khan

A Transcontinental Transpo Message: Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment

5:13 PM EDT on March 19, 2010

NYCDOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan is in Los Angeles this weekend for the StreetSummit, a gathering of Southern California bike and pedestrian advocates. In a lead-in to the conference, Sadik-Khan spoke at her alma mater, Occidental College, and Clarence Eckerson and Streetsblog LA's Damien Newton were there.

Speaking to a packed house of advocates, planners, and students, Sadik-Khan described how New York's streets are becoming safer and more sustainable. Damien reports that the changes happening here are raising expectations on the other side of the country:

Thereal message of the evening was that Angelenos, especially ourgovernment leaders and transportation bureaucrats, shouldn't be scared of trying something new. After all, the transportation planningfor Los Angeles up to now clearly hasn't worked...

As Sadik-Khan talked about how easy it is to makesome of these changes, some in the room got a little queasy. It's easyto paint bus-only lanes? Sorry, that takes decades of studies andenvironmental reviews. NYCDOT has a goal of fifty miles of new bikelanes ever year? Well, here in L.A. we can bring a Sharrows pilotprogram on a couple of streets to fruition a mere three years after the city starts studying it.

For more on Sadik-Khan's appearance in Los Angeles, check out Damien's write-up at Streetsblog LA.

Ben Fried
Ben Fried started as a Streetsblog reporter in 2008 and led the site as editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2018. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife.

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