Janette Sadik-Khan

One of the leading voices on urban transportation policy, Janette Sadik-Khan is internationally respected for her transformative redesigns of New York City streets and rapid-implementation strategies that are being replicated today in cities around the world. ​ ​She was Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation from 2007–2013 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, leading one of the most sweeping revitalizations of the city’s streets in a half-century.

During her tenure, New York City added nearly 400 miles of bike lanes and the first parking-protected bike paths in North America. The department she led set in motion more than 60 plazas across the city, including the historic plazas that shut Broadway through Times Square, sparking economic recovery throughout the area. She worked with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to launch the city’s first six rapid bus lines and oversaw hundreds of intersection and street redesigns that contributed to the city’s record-low traffic fatalities. Sadik-Khan oversaw the 2013 launch of Citi Bike, the nation’s largest bike share system, which to date has been used more than 22 million times and is doubling in size to 12,000 bikes.

​She currently advises mayors of cities around the world as a principal at Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consultancy established by Michael Bloomberg to help cities around the world improve the quality of life of their citizens. She assists mayors and their teams in developing street redesigns in cities from Los Angeles to Mexico City to Rio and Athens.

​As chair of the National Association of Transportation Officials (NACTO), an organization of transportation commissioners and directors in 38 cities, she led the development and publication of NACTO’s Global and Urban Street Design Guides and the Urban Bikeway Design Guide. The new standards in these documents have been recognized by USDOT and adopted by 40 cities worldwide.

​Sadik-Khan was a Senior Vice President of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a leading international engineering firm. Previously, she worked in Washington, D.C., as a Deputy Administrator at the US Department of Transportation. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Occidental College, and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.