Can we get a new City Council Transpo Committee Chair as well?

My hats off to TA for organizing this so quickly and getting prominent councilmembers to speak so forcefully. The mayor elevated transportation as an issue in his sustainability speech. This event helps keep it there.

We have a seemingly rare window to see many good things get done relatively quickly. The mayor's Olympics/WS Stadium obsession, SI Ferry crash, 9/11 and the commissioner churn at DOT, were huge distractions from achieving a 21st Century transportation agenda. Now, the mayor himself is framing transportation as one of the key issues deciding NYC's future. It's clear the advocates sense the possibility, hopefully City Hall does too.

Weinshall never had the policy chops or vision to "frame" an agenda and it's unlikely her successor will either. The basic issue is that the mayor doesn't seem to have a lot of interest in transportation issues, and Doctoroff was engrossed with the Olympics, West Side upzone or Ground Zero until recently. (Really, the Olympics were the transportation agenda.)

Even the strongest DOT boss doesnt hold the transportation reins in NYC, the mayor does. EDC,DCP, NYPD, MTA do not report to the DOT commissioner. (SBloggers grant the DOT commish much more power than most political observers. DOT is considered a 2nd or 3rd rank agency by most.)

The implicit question is that given City Halls lack of interest couldn't much more have happened with some leadership from Weinshall? YES! Some observers feel Weinshall essentially gave control of the agency to traffic engineers after the SI Ferry crash. There's no doubt she was looking for another job for quite awhile. Either way, she is out of here and City Hall is signaling interest in traffic and transportation. Opportunity knocks.

DOH was never a very high-powered agency. Look what Freiden managed to get done in that job. The problem here is, exactly as JK says, that we have had seven years of a DOT commish without the policy chops or vision to even know what needs to be done other than keeping traffic flowing freely. I reject the claim that DOT couldn't have gotten much more done in IW's time. She failed.

Weinshall's staff are telling people the new Commissioner should be First Deputy Judy Bergtraum. They say Iris did a good job, so her deputy is the logical choice. Everyone else in DOT is keeping their fingers crossed that it's anyone but Bergtraum.

i would think that it would do a lot for DOT morale, not to mention confidence in their leadership, to have somebody with at least some transportation or planning in their background as commissioner

A. Dot these are a quality insights.

However, if maintenance is all DOT can aspire to, it should be disbanded and replaced by an infrastructure maintenance agency --- a position advocated by former commissioner Lou Riccio and adopted by Giuliani. Many of us think that would leave us even worse off than we are now. Maybe we should rethink this.

DOT can do better. There are many things within DOT's power that are essentially free, and politically non-controversial. Many have been listed on these pages and by Transportation Alternatives. But here are a couple:

-The DOT commissioner could use their position to raise the level of public knowledge and debate about transportation and traffic --- and create political space for more action. Currently, the advocates, business and city council are the transportation dialogue.

Among many other things, DOT could co-promote forums like the one conducted by Scott Stringer in 2006. (In the early 1990s DOT hosted a three day traffic calming forum at NYC that was attended by hundreds of people.)

- Issue a new design template for city streets that finds a new balance between motor vehicles and pedestrians and cyclists. When streets are reconstructed (currently 90 lanes miles a year)they would, depending on desired use and volumes, include features like neckdowns, raised medians and raised crosswalks.
- Promote widespread, substantial traffic calming as part of Safe Routes to Schools.
- Ensure pedestrian median refuges are protected by walls or bollards, like phone booths.
- Encourage car-free Central and Prospect Parks.
- Encourage street pedestrianizations and experiments where the community support exists.
- Promote rational on-street parking policies within NYC govt and media and business.( Granted this would require political capital, but it's a must.)

I'm sure Sbloggers could add many additional inexpensive and politically realistic things.

Sure, the DOT is a maintenance agency, and so can only control relatively small details of the whole big picture. But details count too! There are many things that are well within the DOT's power to do that would provide small, incremental improvements to the streetscape and the general environment of NYC. Replacing the "temporary" sidewalk extensions in places like Times Square with permanent ones would be a start, and painting bike lanes in major corridors could be helpful too. "Bus Rapid Transit", in the form of segregated bus lanes, are also within DOT's power to implement, though it would require some cooperation from the MTA and NYPD. These aren't huge policy things, not nearly on the scale of a 30 year sustainability plan, these are just small shifts in the way the DOT does business, and the right person in charge can make them happen.

I love your inside information "wizard" but you forgot a couple. The neighbor in Bridge Preventive Maintenance appointed Deputy Director and the Head of Fleet Services from DCAS she brought over to name a few that I also hope do not have a safety net because of their arrogance!

Her inside cronies are all over the place and good people were sacraficed at their expense.

Bring back Lou Riccio and create another division to worry about traffic congestion and rapid transit. DOT should just focus on repair of roadways & bridges.