K, I suggest that Streetsblog follow up to get itself off the hook. And as there is no present congestion pricing debate to distract from, I don't see why the DOT would not provide some detail. If not, whatever, they could say no comment again and keep telling themselves that is genius politics. (I am breathing regardless, thx for checking.) As for conflating the incident with lawless executive power in general, you made that mess when you brought Corzine into it. The JSK ticket could be judged on its own, sure, when someone is not saying it is exactly like some other violation, which was exposed by a near near-fatal crash but not ticketed.

There are not enough known facts to support anything but bickering, as I'm doing. Happy new year guys.

Nor do I get why she passed up a superb oppt'y to turn the incident into a teachable moment for all, starting with an apology.

Obviously, it would not have been useful or productive for Janette to take time out of her lobbying trip to Albany for congestion pricing to call a press conference and apologize for her driver's speeding ticket.

The NYC press doesn't need a lot of help in covering stupid stuff. They already do that just fine on their own. During the pricing debate it was already nearly impossible to get the press to actually focus on the issues and policies at hand. And that, of course, was State Assembly members' goal in making hay of the speeding issue to begin with -- to redirect attention from a real discussion of congestion pricing. If Janette had followed this advice of yours, the only result would have been to turn the speeding-DOT-commissioner story into THE story of the week rather than a one day blip in the Daily News.

As for the idea that this is a "teachable" moment -- what? There's absolutely no reason to believe that some mea culpa from NYC's DOT commissioner on behalf of her driver would actually do anything to promote safer driving in the NYC metro region. If safer driving is your goal, there are lots of better ways to achieve it -- like, for example, speeding up to Albany to get congestion pricing passed.

For me, the crucial thing is whether the incident is part of a pattern of behavior. If it's an isolated incident, time to forgive and forget. If it happens repeatedly, JSK would earn harsher and more prolonged criticism.

For the time being, it seems to be a single incident. So let's not hamper JSK's future productivity by dwelling on it. Unless it happens again.

I hope you're not holding your breath about S'blog getting the "likely boring" details about Janette's Thruway incident, seeing as how, according to the Daily News back in April, "Her spokesman refused to say where on the highway the city-owned hybrid was pulled over, how fast the car was traveling and why the driver, a city employee, was speeding and using lights and sirens."

As for Corzine and his driver: your snarky take on the latter ("so long as his driver can avoid plowing into someone") distorts that incident beyond recognition. The facts are: the driver's siren-light combo freaked out a second driver, who hastily veered onto the right shoulder, oversteered, and came back onto the roadway, forcing a third vehicle (which had lane-shifted from the left to the right lane to leave room for Corzine's car) to move left, striking Corzine's car. It's all in a June 29, 2007 Star-Ledger story that evidently is no longer on the Web but which I can send you as a Word doc -- though I'm confident you can find the same essentials elsewhere. Everything I've read about the incident convinces me that Corzine's driver performed brilliantly in avoiding an even worse crash and then took the fall for the Governor's Type-A, entitlement-fueled behavior.

I don't understand why you choose to conflate JSK's endangering moment with lawless executive power in general. Can't it be judged on its own? Nor do I get why she passed up a superb oppt'y to turn the incident into a teachable moment for all, starting with an apology.

I'm 47 and I can't remember it, I've only read about it. It was a brief era from the dawn of the Progressive era to the start of the era we are in, with higher taxes than the Progressives ever proposed, inferior services, and special deals worth of Tammany Hall.

The source of the problem is government executive power operating above the rule of law, from the president down. Our country doesn't just permit this corruption, we revere it. But if people want to drag JSK through the mud forever because she didn't have enough pull to get out of the ticket, even though the driver didn't crash unlike every other l&s violation we become aware of, I guess that's okay too. Maybe some dang day Streetsblog will make a phone call to a DOT contact and get the (likely boring) details and an apologetic comment from JSK so everybody can get on with their streetslives.

Remember, there was a time when NY was thought to have one of the best state governments in the country.

By, Larry, you must be _really_ old to remember that! That's something that I can't even relate to, much less remember!

I am a huge fan and ardent supporter of JSK. But reckless driving behavior should always be called out. I was disappointed last spring when Streetsblog wouldn't address it, and I'm disappointed by the comments here that don't seem concerned that JSK's driver put others at risk.

Unfortunately, that neighborhood is represented by Jim Brennan, who shot his wad a long time ago and has been going along with the crap that is Albany every since.

All of the positive mentions yesterday were for citizen initiatives, or projects undertaken by government bureaucrats toiling away and presumably hoping that actually doing something won't cost them their jobs.

All the negative mentions were for New York State elected officials.

If there was to be a positive mention, it would probably be for Mayor Bloomberg, who came in from outside the NY political culture a few years ago, and elected officials from other cities and states. Speaker Quinn would probably get a mixed review, which for this city is pretty good.

That correlates pretty well with my opinion of our insulated, self-perpetuating political class, particularly at the state level. Remember, there was a time when NY was thought to have one of the best state governments in the country.

Its easy and, for the most part, safe to drive 70 on the thruway. I wonder how many state legislators drive above the speed limit on their way up to albany?

Then again, during that week in april when the legislature was supposed to be discussing and debating pricing I could have cared less.

Think of this -- do you really think Westchester will be a better place to live and earn a living IN THE FUTURE because of Brodsky's representation IN ITS TOTALITY, not just on this one issue?

The only reason people like Brodsky seem to be anti-NYC, rather than anti-NY State, is that NYC is the one part of the state the suckers are still moving to.

While America needs graduated drivers' licenses based on vehicle class and driver ability, I'd settle for a simple speed limit hike on the interstates themselves. Fifty-five is absurd, and 65 isn't much better.

The problem is that, while driving a car, just like while riding a bike, everyone is a criminal, guilty of so many minor violations at once that the cops can stop you for any reason at all and concoct a rationale post-facto.

Design the laws so the only people breaking them are being reckless; then be absolutely draconian with the reckless citizens.

It's doubly absurd that JSK's _professional driver_ in a TLC behicle would be ticketed for unsafe driving for simply doing what all traffic on the thruway does all the time.

But then, I've been ticketed on the thruway _while being passed by a semitrailer_, and the cop wanted to hear nothing of it.