Janette Sadik-Khan, Bicycle Visionary Creating a Legacy

Frank Bruni a columnist for the New York Times published an Op-Ed in tomorrow's paper titled: Janette Sadik-Khan, Bicycle Visionary. In his view cycling represents a classic chicken and egg problem.

And for that it has received, from some of its citizens, an unwarranted degree of ill-considered grief. Biking, it seems, is an uphill ride, due largely to mathematics and a sort of Catch-22: with only a small percentage of Americans using bicycles as their primary method of transportation, there's no huge public outcry for - or immediate political benefit to - remaking city streets so that they're a little less friendly to cars and a lot more hospitable to bikes.

But without that hospitality, primarily in the form of better bike lanes and more bike racks, biking isn't convenient and attractive enough to win all that many converts and thus a political constituency.

Unless you have a champion for the cause like Janette Sadik Kahn. Under here tenure bike lanes in the New York have doubled since joining the city as DOT director in 2007.

Bruni cites one example of the swift action the city has taken by describe their new bike share (or rental) system. He writes, "The city has also plotted a far-reaching and potentially game-changing public bike share program, whose details and timetable are expected to be announced this month. In a swift manner all the more impressive given government sclerosis these days, New York is truly transforming itself."

And its not just bike infrastructure that has regenerated the life of New York's city streets. Street furniture on Broadway, crosstown express busses, coverd bike parking, and safer street crossings for pedestrians have made locals and tourists alike stand up and take notice. Thank you, Janette.