Chairman of the City Council Transportation Committee, John C. Liu, praised outgoing DOT commissioner Iris Weinshall and called for an innovative thinker as her successor.

You’ve already weighed in
on what you’d like to see in the next DOT commissioner. Now members of
the City Council and Transportation Alternatives have weighed in too,
with a press conference yesterday highlighting qualities they would like to see in the city’s next Transportation Commissioner. Here is Council Member Yassky‘s press release.

Council Member David Yassky
(D-Brooklyn) and transportation advocates today urged the Bloomberg
Administration to appoint a new Department of Transportation
commissioner with the credentials and experience to tackle the traffic
congestion and pollution problems that are plaguing New Yorkers.

"This
City has been fortunate to have such a hard-working DOT commissioner in
Iris Weinshall for the past five years," Council Member Yassky said.
"But now that she is moving on, we must look toward the next five years
and beyond and choose a commissioner who will tackle our quickly
increasing environmental and transportation challenges. Our next
transportation commissioner will be making decisions that will effect
the health, business and general quality of life of all New Yorkers,
make sure she or he makes the right ones."

Council
Members and advocates called on the Mayor to meet his 2030 PLANYC
sustainability goals by appointing a DOT commissioner with a mandate to
reduce automobile traffic while improving surface transit, walking and
bicycling options.

"There is so much a transportation
commissioner could do to improve the quality of life of New Yorkers by
reducing traffic and encouraging transit use," said Gene Russianoff,
senior attorney for the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign. "We need a
dynamic leader – like Commissioner Thomas Frieden has been in the area
of health – to improve air quality and neighborhood life by taming city
traffic."

"Commissioner Weinshall has steered the Department for many years and her shoes will be hard to fill," said Council Member John C. Liu,
Chairperson of the Transportation Committee. "New Yorkers need a
Transportation Commissioner who can get up to speed quickly and also
change the internal inertia that sometimes dampens
innovation, especially if we are to truly create a system for the free
flow of people and goods in the City."

"It is crucial the
Administration selects a new Department of Transportation commissioner
who will make pollution, traffic congestion and parking issues a
priority," said Council Member Bill de Blasio. "The next
commissioner will play a vital role in making sure the City reaches its
future goals of increasing and improving our transportation
alternatives."