Real-life experience confirmed that if you know how to read the street, you can make it function better by not totally reconstructing it but by reallocating the space that's already there. Her approach was dramatic and effective: Simply painting a part of the street to make it into a plaza or bus lane not only made the street safer, but it also lessened congestion and increased foot traffic, which improved the bottom line of businesses.

As New York City's transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan managed the seemingly impossible and transformed the streets of one of the world's greatest, toughest cities into dynamic spaces safe for pedestrians and bikers.

Describing the battles she fought to enact change, Streetfight imparts wisdom and practical advice that other cities can follow to make their own streets safer and more vibrant. She earned her law degree from Columbia University School of Law.Like a modern-day Jane Jacobs, Janette Sadik-Khan transformed New York City's streets to make room for pedestrians, bikers, buses, and green spaces. Department of Transportation and was a senior vice president of the global engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff. Prior to her appointment by Bloomberg, she worked for the U.S. “When you change the street, you change the world.” “Streets are what make a city great and not so great,” she said.

In 2016, Sadik-Khan wrote Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, a book about street design, the public realm and mobility in Los Angeles, New York and other cities.ĭrawing on her six years as commissioner and her current work as an international consultant, Sadik-Khan reiterated her call to recapture streets for pedestrians, citing the gains in safety, economic growth, more efficient rapid transit and sheer liveability that result. She chairs the National Association of Transportation Officials, implementing new, people-focused street design standards, which have been adopted in 40 cities across the continent. She served as New York City’s transportation commissioner from 2007 to 2013 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, overseeing historic changes to the city’s streets-closing Broadway to cars in Times Square, building nearly 400 miles of bike lanes and creating more than 60 plazas citywide.Ī founding principal with Bloomberg Associates, she works with mayors around the world to reimagine and redesign their cities.

Street fight janette sadik khan