City Council To Formally Step In Front of Fast-Moving Transportation Commish
The City Council appears to be trying to stand up to Janette Sadik-Khan, the Bloomberg administration’s relatively radical and innovative transportation commissioner who has rapidly closed down car lanes and replaced them with bike lanes and open space across the city.
Two separate bills that are slated to be heard before the Council’s Transportation Committee on Thursday would throw new layers of public review at the Department of Transportation, forcing it to come before the local community boards with detailed plans before it implements any pilot initiatives or other major projects.
Their sponsors say the bills, Int. 1063 and Int. 1077, are a direct reaction to the fast-moving policies at DOT under Ms. Sadik-Khan, as the Council members say they’ve felt burned due to a lack of a thorough community review before projects took effect.
Few commissioners, let alone DOT commissioners, have visibly changed the city so quickly as has Ms. Sadik-Khan, who started in her job in mid-2007. Since, she’s gained most of the attention for installing public plazas where there was previously open road, putting in partitioned bike lanes in the place of auto lanes, and wholly shutting down Broadway in Times Square and Herald Square, putting tables with umbrellas where a constant flow of traffic once ran.
The secret to her magic: the transportation commissioner has broad power to do as he or she likes with the roadways without subjective outside approvals, as, traditionally, such commissioners simply treated roads as roads. But by treating the roads more like canvases of open space that happen to accommodate cars, she is able to achieve quick, tangible results that are relatively low budget, and to go forward without approval from the City Council. (By contrast, the Council must approve any major land-use changes on private or city-owned land, making it far more difficult to quickly implement any major changes.)
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Leave it to the NY city
Leave it to the NY city council to want to reign in one of the most forward thinking commissioners in history. Heaven forbid something good for the average citizen -- the four out of five households that don't own a car -- should get done in the span of less than two years.
Sadik-Khan has fashioned more public space and foot and bike paths from streets and avenues in her two-year stint than the council has created in the past 100 years combined. When the council steps up and starts making transportation decisions that consistently favor pedestrians over cars and trucks, they will have a lot more credibility. Until then, please let a true leader lead.
I'm all for public input, but
I'm all for public input, but it would be a shame to tie Sadik-Khan's hands and slow down the progress she has been making. The commissioner has had a tremendous impact on our roads and open spaces in a short period of time. Some of the pilot projects have been more successful than others, but it is refreshing to have a DOT commissioner who is not afraid to innovate, and who understands that our transportation network needs to work for everyone, not just motorists.
Additional Observations
One of the things Sadik-Khan must do, but has not, yet, is to work aggressively to close the Gaps in the Manhattan Greenway - particularly the one from 38-61 streets on the East side, where the official detour takes bikers through some of the most congested and dangerous avenues in the city (9 bikers were killed there from 1995-2007). We currently have a deadline to remove the casons left over from the FDR detour a few years back; these were left there specifically to complete the Esplanade and if removed, there will be little push to complete the Greenway. Tell the councilmembers, the CBs (especially CB6, whose Land Use Committee meeting I attended just last night), and Sadik-Khan that a way must be found - NOW - to complete the Greenway, before we take a giant step backwards for ALL New Yorkers. Having more Greenway will not only help bikers and pedestrians, it will help cars still on the roads, by clearing the streets.
Democracy
What I really love is how democracy -- or even the faint resemblance of democracy that community boards and community outreach is -- is considered something distasteful that would unnecessarily tie the City's hands. (I guess that would go for our beloved mayor too, who loved term limits until he didn't.)
I'm a huge fan of Sadik-Khan and pretty much everything she's done, but since she's extremely likely to be on the job for the next few years, maybe she'll have to take it a bit slower and actually use a process that includes some public review.