City Council Fighting Wrath Of Khan

The bike lane-loving DOT commissioner may have her wings clipped:

The City Council appears to be trying to stand up to Janette Sadik-Khan, the Bloomberg administration’s relatively radical and innovative transportation commissioner who has rapidly closed down car lanes and replaced them with bike lanes and open space across the city.

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The secret to her magic: the transportation commissioner has broad power to do as he or she likes with the roadways without subjective outside approvals, as, traditionally, such commissioners simply treated roads as roads. But by treating the roads more like canvases of open space that happen to accommodate cars, she is able to achieve quick, tangible results that are relatively low budget, and to go forward without approval from the City Council. (By contrast, the Council must approve any major land-use changes on private or city-owned land, making it far more difficult to quickly implement any major changes.)

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[Two City Council] bills would mandate the community board appearances and add new requirements for timeline (30 to 60 days of review), set up public hearings, and require DOT to provide certain information about its planned projects.