Polly Trottenberg says her seven years serving as New York City transportation commissioner provide “great perspective” for her new job as deputy transportation secretary in the Biden administration.

“It gives you sort of the big management chops, knowing how to manage big organizations, like a big federal agency,” Trottenberg told Spectrum News NY1. “But it also gives you a feeling for what it's like to be local government, to be on the front lines of: we need to fix your roads, we need to plow your street.”

What You Need To Know

  • Polly Trottenberg, who became Deputy Secretary of USDOT last year, most recently was NYC's transportation commissioner

  • Trottenberg is no stranger to Washington. She worked at the USDOT during the Obama years and as an aide to New York senators on Capitol Hill

  • In her new federal role, she is helping with the implementation of the $1 trillion infrastructure law. That money could touch all corners of New York

Trottenberg is no stranger to Washington. She worked at the U.S. Department of Transportation during the Obama years and as an aide to New York Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Chuck Schumer.

Most recently, she was Mayor Bill de Blasio’s transportation commissioner, overseeing an agency of 5,800 people. (USDOT, she notes, has roughly 55,000 employees.)

She argues her local experience is invaluable, especially as the Biden administration rolls out the new $1 trillion infrastructure legislation, signed into law last year.

That money could touch all corners of New York, from the Gateway train tunnel under the Hudson to projects reconnecting upstate communities that were split in two by interstate highways decades ago.

“In the era of interstate building, we did so much damage to so many of our cities. We divided communities,” she said. “And it's no secret, we did a lot of damage in low income communities and communities of color.”

Just last month, USDOT rolled out a plan to improve road safety.  

Trottenberg says her work on the Vision Zero program to end traffic deaths in New York City influences her approach to safety at the federal level. One key takeaway, she says: set big goals.

“It challenges you to bring together all the different parts of the puzzle. The engineering and the roadway design, the enforcement piece, the public health piece,” she said.

Trottenberg arrived in D.C. at a precarious time for public transit. COVID is still depressing ridership at the MTA and other systems.

She says the federal government needs to work as a partner with these agencies.

“In the long run, I think we're going to need to work together on policies that are going to continue to incentivize transit ridership,” she said.

 As for her goals in her post in Washington, Trottenberg says there is a lot to do.

“I want to see fewer lives lost on American roadways … I want to make sure we’re strengthening mass transit systems. I want to make sure we talk about supply chain - that we have a supply chain that’s resilient,” she said.

Also on her list: combating climate change and promoting equity through transportation projects.

Spectrum News NY1 also asked Trottenberg about the future of big NY infrastructure and transportation projects. That story can be found here.