Why New York Enticed Translink Chief
When Translink CEO Tom Prendergast starts running NYC's transit system, he'll have a visionary ally in Janette Sadik-Khan.
Transformer: Janette Sadik-Khan, New York City's Department of Transportation Commissioner.
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TransLink Hijacked
How Gordon Campbell stole your vote on region's fate.
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Bloated Pay, Conflict at Top of BC Ferries: Ministry Report
Boss Hahn's $1 million salary twice the norm; board members set own pay 'without accountability'.
Translink's challenges are once again in the spotlight, with a damning ministry report preceded by last week's announcement that CEO Tom Prendergast is leaving Vancouver to become the president of New York City Transit. The reasons for Prendergast's decision, rumored and official, include Translink troubles and Big Apple opportunities. But one largely unmentioned reality that surely played a role in Prendergast's decision is the powerful compatriot he will have in Janette Sadik-Khan.
Sadik-Khan is New York City's Department of Transportation commissioner. She's spearheading an ambitious reboot of New York's transportation priorities, with the goal of putting pedestrian, bike, and transit improvements in the fast lane. And she and Prendergast have worked together in both the public and private sectors for over twenty years.
In Vancouver on Monday, Oct. 20th Sadik-Khan addressed a Translink cycling strategy workshop, speaking to a capacity crowd at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. Her speech featured a vision of New York City re-imagined for the twenty-first century, where cars literally yield road space to pedestrians, cyclists, and buses -- taking lanes and entire streets away from cars and putting them to new uses.
Inspired by European cities
In her speech, Sadik-Khan described the process and goals for a revamped city.
"Mayor Bloomberg launched PlanNYC in 2007, and it was the first time we took a long range view -- what are we going to look like in 25 years? What the plan concluded was that the only way to secure the future of the city of New York was to invest in transit, reduce our environmental impacts and improve the quality of life... and transportation was one of the areas where we can have the most profound effect."
Since then she has added 200 miles of bike lanes to the city's road network, replaced gridlocked streets with pedestrian plazas, improved public transit service times so effectively that 98 per cent of users expressed satisfaction, and for the most part, silenced critics in a town that is, as she likes to say, made up of 8.2 million transportation planners.
At the heart of Sadik-Khan's success is a theory -- borrow from the best and make it your own. European cities such as Copenhagen and Paris have provided her with inspiration -- in the form of protected bike lanes and public bike programs. She notes she's also found good ideas to take back to New York in Portland and Washington -- and here in Vancouver.
"I was here [Vancouver] about ten years ago... and you have this seamless transportation system where you have one fare card and you can use the entire network and I thought, it really is nirvana. So it was no surprise to me when you managed to -- I'm not sure the word is 'recruit,' I think the word is 'steal' -- our best transit professional in the form of Tom Prendergast, who I think is one of the best in the world."
'Pavement into plazas in a matter of weeks'
With Prendergast headed back to New York, Sadik-Khan gets a measure of revenge for that theft. Of course, one typical feature of Metro Vancouver's transportation network she doesn't have to contend with is the cumbersome bureaucracy and funding challenges that have dogged Translink for years. Sadik-Khan enjoys plenty of support from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and she has the power to move rapidly and decisively, without getting bogged down in red tape.
"My secret word is pilot program," says Sadik-Khan. "We've been able to move very quickly. We can transform pavement into plazas in a matter of weeks. I think it's very important that you show quick progress when you are bringing change."
Among other notable changes, Times Square was transformed from traffic chaos into a car-free pedestrian plaza. Sections of other streets were transformed into linear mini-parks. Also popular with New Yorkers was the Summer Streets program -- seven miles of Manhattan streets were closed to cars for three Saturdays, as residents took over the streets to cycle and take fitness or dance lessons. They were able to simply enjoy the opportunity to stand in the street, look up, and contemplate the high-rise majesty of skyscrapers without being run over. A defunct elevated freight railroad, the West Side Line, has also been transformed into a public greenway now called the High Line. All of this innovation took less than a decade to move from idea to reality.
New York becoming far safer for pedestrians
Besides the sustainability and quality of life issues surrounding transportation, Sadik-Khan cites safety and health concerns as major reasons for her initiatives.
"I take it personally when someone gets hurt on a New York City street. We've now got the lowest traffic fatality rate since the city started keeping records in 1910. We're targeting our most vulnerable pedestrians -- kids and seniors. Since we started the program [Safe Streets for Seniors] we've seen a 43 per cent drop in pedestrian fatalities for seniors."
Sadik-Khan also identifies chronic health conditions as something that can be impacted by designing road networks with cyclists and walkers in mind.
"When you think about it, we've got a crisis of obesity and diabetes in New York City like a lot of other cities in the U.S. We have to do something about that, and cycling is an easy way to build increased mobility and more active transportation into our network."
Sadik-Khan clearly loves her city. As she describes the changes wrought through her initiatives, her enthusiasm for New York and belief in the city's possibilities is evident. She's also quick to point out that while New York's road system may have been rooted in the goal of making car travel efficient, courtesy of Robert Moses [the city's famous traffic czar], its design is now lending itself to new ideas as well. Wide streets -- originally envisioned to facilitate automobiles -- now provide the necessary space for separated bike lanes, public spaces, and pedestrian safety improvements.
"One of the positive legacies of Robert Moses, who paved a lot of New York City, is that right now we have a lot of capacity to play with... it's a gift of a kind."
'Hungry for public spaces'
Despite the auto-focused planning among North American cities during the early years of the twentieth century, New York may be the easiest place to usurp the car-centric style of urban planning. Only five per cent of Manhattan commuters arrive by car, and the city's density makes walking, biking, and transit viable options in a way that's hard to imagine in car-reliant places such as Los Angeles -- or Coquitlam.
However, Sadik-Khan's accomplishments can't simply be racked up to being in the right place at the right time. Too many other jurisdictions struggle to implement even minor adjustments to the status quo. Even in supposedly bike-friendly Vancouver, the cries over the Burrard Bridge lane reallocation trial clearly demonstrate how changing the way we think about road space is not for the faint of heart. The difference is political will and powerful mandates. Having both gives Janette Sadik-Khan the opportunity to leave her mark on one of the great cities of the world.
"I like to say you can do a lot with a can of paint and a paint brush," she says. "We are literally painting the outlines of this greener city. Every time we roll out the orange barrels (to block off street space) people are ready to go. People are really hungry for these public spaces." ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
Urbanismo
09-11-2009
Where the hell have you been
Where the hell have you been for the last 50 years . . .
"Her speech featured a vision of New York City re-imagined for the twenty-first century, where cars literally yield road space to pedestrians, cyclists, and buses . . . "
Enlightened Holland calls it Woonerf
God help us . . . .
Grumpy
09-11-2009
Actually, the key to good public transit.................
........is not bicycles or bike lanes, rather it is LRT, streetcars or trams. It is light-rail in European cities that has transformed how people travel in urban centres.
But LRT or streetcars is a taboo subject here lest it inflames the SkyTrain lobby and their illegitimate kin, the roads lobby.
Sad to say bicycles are not the big item the cycling lobby makes them out to be.
worried
09-11-2009
Public Transit
I'm sure Tom left because of Gordo's cuts to public transit funding and total meddling in the whole Sustainable development plan that the elected Transit Board had been trying to bring in before he fired them. Remember why he fired them? Because they were insisting on making the Greenline a priority over the Canada Line because more lower mainland workers needed transit coming in from that direction. But no, Falcon and Gordo wanted to cater to tourists and the conservative riding of Richmond. We won't have a green city until we have great public transit, bike lanes or not.
dave49
09-11-2009
Translink
Given the recent announcement about Translink, it is interesting that even after the province taking over the Board, the Campbell Liberals have not been able to dictate the Region's transportation planning. So, they have to overhaul again. There must be blue air in a few back rooms when even their appointed minions won't even toe the line.
G West
09-11-2009
Nah!
Tom is leaving because a bit more than a year is all it took for him to realize that the Lower Mainland isn't 'the best place on earth' to try and weasel real transit solutions out of the idiots who really run the show at Translink.
It will have been a nice all paid holiday for the guy - now he can go back and do a 'real' job running a real transit system and not one based on toy trains.
rac
09-11-2009
Thanks
Grumpy, glad to hear you are now anti-bike. I expect your efforts will be about as successful as your anti-SkyTrain efforts. With your help, we will soon have protected bike lanes everywhere and be the cycling capital of the world.
By the way, cycling has transformed many a European city including Amsterdam and Copenhagen and to a lesser extent, Paris and Barcelona. Trams are great but they are not a solution for everyone for every trip. Bicycles provide people with much more flexibility and speed for trips under 5km.
Urbanismo
09-11-2009
"Bicycles provide people
"Bicycles provide people with much more flexibility and speed for trips under 5km."
Unless you live in South East Fraser, or Champlain Heights, or Kits or most locations in rainy, hilly Vancouver!
One way or another you live at the bottom of a hill that you have to pedal up in the rain and dark.
Walking is the only sensible mode but . . .
The issue then becomes location of amenity to place of origin . . . which is called urban design . . .
OilbertaRedTory
09-11-2009
Conspiracy Theories
... turns to conspiring realities:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2486235784907931000#
Private vehicles on public roads ; a tragedy of the commons.
SharingIsGood
09-11-2009
grumpy is right
Except for service roads for business owners to ship their products and supplies to and from work, construction and maintenance vehicles, moving vans, emergency vehicles, and public transit, cars should be eliminated from Vancouver. Public transit with light rail should be implemented. Half the streets could easily be converted to pedestrian, bicycle, tricycle, moped and other human-powered/assist vehicle laneways. The city gets quieter, the crush and danger of traffic diminishes. Public transport becomes affordable because everyone uses it. Politicians must ride public transit like everone else. In that way they will be more accountable to the public, because they are in the public.
ME2
09-11-2009
Yer dreamin in technicolour, SIG.
Campbell riding a bus other than for a photo-op? HA HA HA HA HA The mind boggles.
SharingIsGood
09-11-2009
Just imagine:
big city politicians actually travelling and mingling with the public on a daily basis. I'll bet we would see more action on crime, homelessness, addictions, improved public transportation... Food gardens in the front yards of houses and apartments could be lining the streets. It would be a virtual shangri-la that needn't be remote nor hidden away. The birds would come back.
I'll bet that it would make Vancouver the very most sought after place to live by people of all walks - especially those wanting to locate safe clean locations for corporate headquarters.High-tech industries would have little problem with getting employees wanting to settle in Vancouver.
alive
09-11-2009
Power assisted bikes v/s hills
Urbanismo.
Get with the times; nowadays people use power-assisted bikes
As a matter of fact 49cc bikes have been around since the fifties in many cities and hills are no problems for them.
Today I enjoy a 21 speed electric assist bike that has a range of 100 KM, so where is the problem?
snert
09-11-2009
Sorry G West but You're Wrong.
The man's ego demands that he be able to spend money. If it ain't there then neither is he. It's got nothing to do with idiots.
Fish-counter
09-11-2009
Translink is like a VW beetle parked between 4 Hummers.
It has no place to go. True to form, BC has created yet another pokemon with no freedom to act. They can't move in any direction because they are stymied.
It is like watching the Fascat ferries, designed by a committee and destined to go nowhere. It isn't about ego, but a political stalemate that is the de rigeur do jour. BC is in a self-designed bentwood box that is so tight we can't take a crap.
After the Olympics, we will deflate like a cheap balloon. Mr. Flash-Harry Campbell will pack up and go elsewhere. David Hahn's salary will be increased to $2 million, but he will retire on full pay for two years. Like the City of Nanaimo ex Chief Cerk, he will be paid full salary for NOT WORKING AT ALL FOR TWO WHOLE YEARS. We will be told that this is an improvement because his lunch allowance alone was worth $50,000 p.a. and that the frugal Mr. Hahn will be making his own lunches until he is eligble for his full CPP. Fares will increase by 25% to cover the increased service level i.e. Deborah Marshall's hair perm.
Chris Keam
10-11-2009
electric bikes
I believe Alive is referring to the kind of e-bike he probably rides, which is regulated by law to a maximum assisted speed of 32 kph (at which point the engine no longer adds power to the drivetrain. They are I should add, as noiseless as a regular bicycle and in my experience slightly faster to accelerate than a normal bike, but not much speedier overall.
Further, they open up the mobility advantages of cycling to many people who may lack the strength to ride a regular bike, be it due to a physical condition or aging, or the need to tow a trailer with a child or large pet. Walking is of course a great way to get around. It's always my first choice for travelling around my neighbourhood, but it's not for everyone. I'm thinking specifically of a friend of mine, who suffered leg injuries as child that make walking and standing very painful for him. However, the low-impact aspect of cycling lets him ride as far as any other cyclist, without the attendant discomfort. For people with balance issues or lower-body paralysis, trikes and hand-cycles are also of benefit.
Gas powered bicycles are of course much louder than the electric ones that are becoming very popular worldwide, but are actually LMS's under the law (low powered motorcycles) and are subject to the same rules and requirements. Most have engines under 50cc (often 49cc, to get in under the wire).
For a full understanding of the rules surrounding e-bikes and motor-assisted cycles ICBC has a FAQ on the topic:
http://www.icbc.com/registration/reg_rules_low_pwr_mtr_asstd_cycles.asp
The most important thing of course is to provide the options for people to do what's best for them. In New York City and many other places (Holland mentioned upthread) the creation of 'complete streets' facilitating cycling, walking, transit, and private automobiles seems to be the most successful approach.
Chris Keam
10-11-2009
correction
Made an acronym error. low powered motorcycles or scooters are called LSMs (limited speed motorcycles). I remember well the time a junior reporter in a newsroom I used to work at almost went to air one day with an Afghan roadside bomb referred to as an IUD!
logical
10-11-2009
GETTING RID OF GORDO
For all you folks that are unhappy and distressed by the machinations of Gordon Campbell & company: ask yourself - Did I bother to vote? Or was I among the nearly half of the elegible voters who didn't bother? If you didn't bother you have no right to complain. If you find election day polls overwhelming, try advanced polls. You don't have to prove you won't be able to vote on election day.
rac
10-11-2009
Region Perfect for Cycling
Urbanismo
In Kits, around 10% of people cycle to work and that was in 2006. With the Burrard Bridge improvements, that has probably increased significantly by now.
As well, the weather in Vancouver is better for cycling than Copenhagen where 24% of people commute by bicycle in the winter.
In many parts of the region, there is just not the density nor the land use that supports walking. It will take years build the in fill development to make walking practical. Until then, cycling is the only reasonable alternative to driving. Of course, cycling routes will need to be improved.
Big Bucks Auto
12-11-2009
the perpetual transit battle
As a New Yorker, public transit has always seemed like an issue that is either very difficult to deal with; very expensive to solve; or (often) both. I discuss a wide range of topics concerning mass transit in metropolitan areas on the Big Bucks Auto Facebook page.