Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Sadik_Khan_Biking.jpg

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan bicylcing to work during her first week on the job

Crain's New York reports that the earth is shaking below Dept. of Transportation headquarters at 40 Worth Street:

Janette Sadik-Khan, the city's new transportation commissioner, politely says she's building on the foundation left by her predecessors. In fact, she is shaking it. A month into her job, she's advancing ideas that the department has long rejected, from residential permit parking to banning cars from Central Park to the mayor's revolutionary congestion pricing plan.

Ms. Sadik-Khan knows she can't merely reform the Department of Transportation's policies. She has to change its very mind-set, because staffers have long seen their mission as moving as much traffic as they can, as fast as they can.

Overcoming such entrenched thinking is an immense task, as Ms. Sadik-Khan, 47, knows from experience. As a DOT staffer in 1991, she answered Mayor David Dinkins' call to reduce congestion by writing a plan for East River bridge tolls. The idea was predictably unpopular and died quickly. Ms. Sadik-Khan's abandoned report sits on a shelf in her unglamorous 10th-floor office at 40 Worth St., a reminder of what happens when policy meets politics.

After leaving city government, she worked as a senior vice president at engineering giant Parsons Brinckerhoff and before that as a transportation official in the Clinton administration.

This time, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has vowed to fight for congestion pricing regardless of the political cost, which is why Ms. Sadik-Khan is in the hot seat. "When I talked with the mayor about the possibility of joining the agency, I did talk to him about wanting to do congestion pricing, moving forward with bus rapid transit, taking a greener approach, looking at complete streets, a revitalized bike network," she says. "I very much see working toward a greater, greener New York as the new mission."

She speaks of redesigning the city's streets for pedestrians, bicyclists and buses. That's what Jon Orcutt from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Andy Wiley-Schwartz from the Project for Public Spaces and traffic consultant Bruce Schaller have advocated for years. The department had never listened, but Ms. Sadik-Khan not only heard them, she hired them.

At 40 Worth St., you can almost feel the foundation rumbling.

Photo: DOT press office

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Friday Video: Meet the Subway’s Straphanger-Free Trains

We've all seen them. Now, thanks to YouTube's "Half as Interesting," we can tell you the purpose of each one.

October 3, 2025

The MTA Is Headed To The Lab To Design The Ridgewood Busway

A filthy private road underneath the elevated M tracks could become a gleaming bus-first corridor.

October 3, 2025

Friday’s Headlines: Good News Edition

The Department of Transportation reports that traffic deaths are way down through the first three quarters of 2025. Plus other news.

October 3, 2025

‘Bean-Counting Street Safety’: Advocates Blast Gale Brewer’s Daylighting Flip-Flop

The Upper West Side pol's inconsistent safety record is getting a second look from activists who once supported her.

October 2, 2025

There’s Good Science Behind the Human Craving for Livable Streets

It's time to understand the science of pedestrian-friendly cities. Or, why streets should be designed like gardens.

October 2, 2025

Thursday’s Headlines: Mourning Becomes Enforcement Edition

Why were cops ticketing cyclists at the very intersection where a bike rider was killed by a driver on Saturday? Plus other news.

October 2, 2025
See all posts