Janette Sadik-Khan

Streetsblog interviewed DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan at 40 Worth St., Monday, June 18. Photo: Brad Aaron

Department of Transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan continues to assemble an impressive management team.

Department of Transportation First Deputy Commissioner Judith Bergtraum, a top aide to former commissioner Iris Weinshall, is leaving DOT for a job at the City University of New York where Weinshall is now a vice chancellor.

File under: Totally unimaginable just a few months ago.

Jon Orcutt will be stepping away from his job as executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign to go work at the New York City Department of Transportation as Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan's Senior Policy Advisor.

The third annual Tour de Brooklyn was a special treat as New York City DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan rode the entire event with over 2,000 enthusiastic cyclists. The new commissioner introduced herself to riders at the beginning of the ride and had some very positive things to say about cycling in New York City. The ride covered 18 miles, starting in Grand Army Plaza, heading down 4th Avenue to Bay Ridge, then stopping in Dyker Heights for a respite before returning to Prospect Park. As always with the TdB, the emphasis was on friends, family, and fun.

New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan enjoys a lighter moment with Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz as Noah Budnick of Transportation Alternatives welcomes cyclists to the 2007 Tour de Brooklyn.

At a City Council transportation hearing yesterday Manhattan City Council Member Jessica Lappin expressed anxiety about the effects of congestion pricing on her Upper East Side district. The ill-informed Lappin, who clearly has not read Donald Shoup's 750-page masterwork, The High Cost of Free Parking, asked DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan if the city would be building new municipal parking garages to accompany Mayor Bloomberg's traffic-reduction plan. Metro reports:

This is how newly appointed transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan got to work this morning. Accompanied by DOT director of street management and safety Ryan Russo, assistant commissioner and director of signs and markings Gerard Soffian, and bicycle program coordinator Josh Benson (pictured above, left-to-right), she took the scenic route, traveling along 9th Avenue through the West Village, the Hudson Street and 8th Avenue bike lanes and the Hudson River Greenway.