Polly Trottenberg, Biden’s pick for deputy transportation secretary, transformed NYC streets
After serving as New York City transportation commissioner and also working for the federal government at several high-level jobs, Brooklyn resident Polly Trottenberg has been named to by the incoming Biden administration as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Trottenberg was the longest-serving DOT commissioner in the city’s history, having been appointed in 2014, when she resigned in December. Among the programs she, along with Mayor Bill de Blasio, sponsored were the city’s Vision Zero program, a multi-pronged effort to decrease traffic fatalities.
Among its components were speed-limit reductions, increased enforcement, increased use of speed cameras, quicker repair of broken traffic signals and pedestrian countdown timers, which tell pedestrians how many more seconds they must begin crossing the street.