NACTO 2012: Leading City DOT Commissioners Talk Transportation Politics
The panel, captured in its entirety by Streetfilms, featured NYC DOT’s Janette Sadik-Khan, Chicago DOT chief Gabe Klein, San Francisco MTA director Ed Reiskin, Boston transportation commissioner Tom Tinlin, and Philadelphia deputy mayor of transportation Rina Cutler.
To get things rolling, here’s Hayes, a lifelong New Yorker and self-described bike-riding partisan:
At the most micro level, transportation is incredibly political … But at a broader level it’s completely absent from our national political conversation. And this is bizarre.
Select highlights from the 53-minute panel after the jump.
- 09:00 – Reiskin: We need to make public transit accessible, reliable and enjoyable
- 11:30 – Klein talks about young people and transportation’s vitality to a city
- 15:14 – Cutler: “Money matters.”
- 17:23 – Tinlin: “Mayor Menino has said, ‘The car is no longer king in Boston.'”
- 23:50 – Klein talks gas prices in Netherlands vs. U.S. and transportation infrastructure
- 31:03 – Sadik-Khan: We need to find partners in creating public spaces in NYC
- 33:30 – Hayes refers to cars as “speeding machines of death”
- 36:56 – Sadik-Khan: “Two-thirds of New Yorkers get around without a car, less than half own a car.”
- 48:21 – Hayes asks the panel about public criticism from the media and advice for future commissioners