Over the past 25 years Mr. Horodniceanu has worked tirelessly to bring his company to the forefront of the engineering profession, in the process, his company has worked on countless city and state projects. Urbitran is a reputable consulting engineering firm and is well respected with NYCDOT and NYSDOT, as well as out of state public agencies. While the critics may have issues with some past Urbitran projects and with Mr. Horodniceanu’s decisions/actions as Deputy Traffic Commissioner, the reality is that projects are created and decisions are made based on current needs, long term city planning, available budgets and political leadership.

Mr. Horodniceanu’s experience and accomplishments, leave no doubt that he is well qualified to undertake this position. Moreover, with no political agenda or promise for long term employment, Mr. Horodniceanu should be applauded for willing to leave his own company to take a short term position as NYCDOT Commissioner. I am sure Mr. Horodniceanu will do his best to advance the city’s transportation needs including addressing pedestrian, vehicular, parking and public transit issues.

G. Amit

He's gotta be reading this....

Mr. Horodniceanu we are here - clarence@streetfilms.org

Thanks.

But DOT doesnt control the City budget or level of investment in bridges and roads. They do control traffic policy and street use. So, is it fair to measure the leaders of DOT past by current levels of public expectation? Maybe not, but it shows you how much higher the bar is now, because the cycling and pedestrian safety problems that existed then would be considered truly outrageous today.

I also agree with Carolyn. Mr. Horodniceanu has a rare for these days quality to recognize talents of others. And in my book this is the best qualification of a leader.

P.S. If he is appointed, I hope he clears up this mess with the City issued parking permits. It seems that DOT prints them faster than the Feds print money.

I've got to wonder what societally beneficial innovations Dep Commissioner for Traffic Horidniceanu put on the street when he was at DOT. The bike network was a fraction of its current size, 2x as many pedestrians were getting killed and 50% more injured. Herald Square and Times Square were chaotic disasters as were the Grand Concourse and Queens Blvd. There was no Safe Routes to School and hundreds of LPIs had not been installed.

It seems reasonable to assume that hundreds of people getting killed, most at unbelievably bad locations, would be a glaring problem that any truly competent traffic commissioner would be impassioned about. So you would think, but it's not as if Horidniceanu slayed his generation's dragons and new pedestrian safety monsters sprang up in there place. The same places that were killing zones when he had some power at the DOT were the same ones taken on much more actively by his successors.

So, Michael is yet another city government official with free parking who drives to work into Manhattan every day rather than using transit like the vast majority of his fellow citizens and neighbors.

I just don't believe that a car commuting transportation commissioner will be a friend to peds, bikes and buses. He will inevitably spend time trying to make his own commute faster and more efficient. He will work on solving the problems that he sees and experiences while driving. It's only human.

It should also be noted, Molly that when you're driving to work from Queens you're not driving "through bad traffic" -- you ARE the bad traffic. The traffic isn't something outside of you. It is something that you are creating. Commissioner H is the traffic.

Furthermore, all the cynics out there talking about salaries and believing that Michael is highly compensated should applaud any individual, regardless of the truth or lack thereof of the statement; that is, people who are willing to work in the public sector and willing to demonstrate a commitment to the betterment of the City.

I hope you're right for all of our sakes. Among the million good things an enlightened engineer could do, he could approve raised crosswalks as the standard around schools and retirement homes, and new arterial design standards with curb extensions, medians, raised intersections and the like that could transform the pedestrian enviroment at very little cost if incorporated in routine street reconstructions.

He could also require DOT to evaluate streets as corridors for moving people via all modes instead of just vehicular LOS.

Mike was a pioneer traffic calmer. In 1986, as NYCDOT Deputy Commissioner, he offered $600,000 to carry out a community traffic calming plan that would have done 20 years ago what the City’s costly sidewalk cosmetics still ignore—protecting neighborhood streets from through traffic. He was so far ahead of his time that he took brickbats in a personal appeal to a skeptical community board that now rues the day they voted it down. Today, he uses graphic traffic network models (tools NYCDOT has refused for Brooklyn) to show how innovative pedestrian measures can benefit everyone. If chosen, he’ll know where in the agency to find good people ready to do the right thing.

As for putting bikes before transit in a "green transport hierarchy," bikes can carry far more people than buses, far more cheaply and in less space. Admittedly, NYC isnt Holland or Denmark or even London, so moving buses faster is clearly important. That said, if cycling was boosted to 5% of all trips (it's probably somewhere around 1%)it would take a big load off of public transit and do it very cheaply.