Sunday, April 6, 2008

NYC TRANSPORT COMMISH BUSTED FOR SPEEDING


Transport Commish busted for speeding while driving to lobby for congest plan
BY ADAM LISBERG and KIRSTEN DANIS DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Friday, April 4th 2008, 4:00 AM
Smith for News
City transportation boss Janette Sadik-Khan.The city's top transportation official was busted by cops for speeding and improperly using lights and sirens while driving to Albany to lobby for congestion pricing.

Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan was on her way to the capital on Wednesday when her driver was pulled over by state troopers on the New York State Thruway, her spokesman confirmed.
Sadik-Khan was rushing to Albany to try to persuade lawmakers to pass Mayor Bloomberg's plan to charge drivers a toll to enter Manhattan, one of her priorities in the year since she took office.

Her spokesman refused to say where on the highway the city-owned hybrid was pulled over, how fast the car was traveling and why the driver, a city employee, was speeding and using lights and sirens.
The traffic stop comes at a delicate time for Sadik-Khan and Bloomberg, who are trying to persuade a reluctant state Assembly to approve congestion pricing before a Monday deadline.
Opponents, who have cast the plan as an elitist measure that would hurt poor drivers, could seize on the embarrassing incident as a sign that privileged city officials don't sympathize with average motorists.
Bloomberg has forbidden his deputies to use lights and sirens on city cars except in an emergency.

In 2004, Deputy Mayor Carol Robles-Roman earned Bloomberg's wrath when a television station caught her using lights and sirens to cut through traffic on her way to work from her home in Riverdale. She was forced to give up the perk.
Sadik-Khan, a cyclist who in warmer months pedals to work from her home in the West Village, only recently bought her first car.

On the way to Albany, she was caught in a 3-mile traffic jam behind a gruesome wreck near exit 16 on the Thruway, where a horse fell out of a trailer moving at highway speed.
It was unknown if that wreck caused her driver to speed to try to make up time.
alisberg@nydailynews.com

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