Ryan Russo
Streetsblog Basics
Talking Headways Podcast: Talking with Ryan Russo (Yes, THAT Ryan Russo) About Bike Networks
The head of NACTO (and maybe the head of NYC DOT in waiting?) talks to America's leading transportation podcast.
August 26, 2025
Ryan Russo on NYC’s Bike Network Progress, Community Boards, and the Evolution of DOT
Russo discusses the state of bike network development, the potential introduction of different types of safety improvements to NYC streets, and how the public process for street redesign projects might be improved.
May 9, 2017
Q&A With Ryan Russo on the Early Days of the Plaza Program and Protected Bike Lanes in NYC
Few people have been so closely involved in the transformation of the city's streets over such a long period of time as Ryan Russo. So between his last day at NYC DOT and his move to the West Coast, I caught up with him to get an insider's perspective on more than a dozen years of change to NYC streets.
May 8, 2017
NYC Streets Maestro Ryan Russo Heading to Oakland
NYC DOT's top planner and a key figure in the ongoing evolution of New York City streets is moving on. Deputy Commissioner for Transportation Planning and Management Ryan Russo will be heading to Oakland as the city's first-ever DOT chief.
March 31, 2017
Ryan Russo on DOT’s “Mobility Report” and the Need for Better Bus Service
DOT's "New York City Mobility Report" [PDF], released earlier this week, is the agency's first overview of NYC transportation trends in three years. As the number of people and jobs in the city has grown prodigiously in the past five years, DOT reports, the subway system and, increasingly, the bike network have allowed more New Yorkers to get where they need to go. But there are signs of strain -- bus ridership is declining and bus speeds are slowing, and traffic congestion in the Manhattan core is rising.
June 10, 2016
NYPD and DOT Back Bill to Expand Right of Way for Pedestrians
NYPD and DOT both support a bill to give pedestrians more legal protection under the city's Right of Way Law.
April 4, 2016
The Transformation of Queens Boulevard, Block By Block
For many years, New York City's Queens Boulevard was known as the "Boulevard of Death." The street cuts through the heart of the Queens, expanding at some points to a chaotic 12 to 16 lanes of traffic -- which makes it extremely dangerous for human beings. From 2003 to 2013, 38 pedestrians and cyclists were killed and 450 suffered severe injuries.
January 27, 2016
Is DOT Setting Up the Amsterdam Avenue Bike Lane to Fail?
Up until a few years ago, when neighborhood residents approached DOT about redesigning a street for greater safety, they expected to get shot down by the agency's top engineers. In 2004, one former DOT official summed up the department's attitude as, "We will do pedestrian safety, but only when it doesn’t come at the expense of the flow of traffic."
September 10, 2015
What Planet Is DOT Living On?
Last week, Henry Melcher at the Architect’s Newspaper ran a thoughtful piece about the state of NYC DOT’s bike program that got buried almost immediately by comments from Bill Bratton and Mayor de Blasio about the Times Square plazas.
August 27, 2015
Streetfilms: The Sands Street Bike Path, a New Kind of Bridge Approach
Chalk up more bikeway innovation
to the folks at the NYC Department of Transportation. Nearly
complete, the Sands Street approach to the Manhattan Bridge is now
safer and more enjoyable thanks to a New York City first: a
center-median, two-way protected bike path. The facility is a
perfect solution to counter the dangers posed by a tangle of roads and
highway on-ramps that burden the area. Dramatic before-and-afters tell
the delicious story.
September 25, 2009