The lunatics are running the asylum. That is the sort of reaction City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan has been getting to what she calls her newly assembled sustainability "dream team."

Sadik-Khan is not the only one abuzz. With being new in the job and her new staff culled from experts in the transportation community, there is a growing sense of excitement among advocates and experts about what they see as a fundamental shift in the Department of Transportation (DOT).

"The planets are aligned," said Robert "Buzz" Paaswell, director of the University Transportation Research Center at CUNY. "I think she will achieve more than most people think."

"She's assembled a team to deliver the sustainability plan," said Michael Horodniceanu, chairman and CEO of Urbitran, an engineering, architecture and planning firm. "They get good marks from me on that."

Transportation advocates echo those sentiments.

"For the first time maybe ever we have an activist DOT," said Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives. "It's a perfect storm."

Prior to becoming commissioner, Sadik-Khan was a vice president at a leading planning firm, Parsons Brinckerhoff. Her selection and its timing—Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Unaff.) appointed her in April, seven days after unveiling PlaNYC 2030—indicated to many that a change was coming from Iris Weinshall's approach to transportation planning, which was often criticized for sustaining a "cars first" status quo.

"The team I put together for sustainability weren't just transportation advocates before they came to work for the administration," Sadik-Khan said. "They were experts in understanding the dynamism of our transport network and seeing opportunities where some may have seen unmanageable problems."

She said the key was to be revolutionary. "It's a vision for the future that's not dictated by how things have been done in the past," she said.

Under Sadik-Khan, DOT has added a division of planning and sustainability, which oversees the department's office of freight mobility, public space planning, bus rapid transit, congestion pricing, urban design, clean fuels and studies of congested corridors.

To head the division, Sadik-Khan hired Bruce Schaller, a transportation consultant and a notable expert on congestion pricing. Schaller took on the daunting task of overseeing the implementation of PlaNYC's transportation component, which includes improving the transit infrastructure, overseeing congestion pricing (if and when approved) and bringing the streets into a state of good repair.

"When I had the opportunity to join the administration and work on the implementation of [PlaNYC] 2030, it was something I could hardly say no to," Schaller said. Next, Sadik-Khan plucked Andrew Wiley-Schwartz from his position as vice president of Project for Public Spaces, an urban planning and design nonprofit. At DOT, his responsibilities will include making PlaNYC's public space initiatives a reality.

Jon Orcutt, a 13-year veteran of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, was brought on in June to serve as Sadik-Khan's policy advisor.

But the hire that has generated the most buzz was Jan Gehl, the noted Danish urbanist, who was brought on to consult on PlaNYC implementation.

"In Jan we've engaged one of the best public space strategists in the world," Sadik-Khan said. "And it's always helpful to have someone from the outside help articulate that vision, to help speed the plow toward getting things done."

Looking to the future, advocates and experts say the department will be judged based on how well they implement congestion pricing. The plan, which is expected to be given a final look by the State Legislature this March, will be the legacy of Sadik-Khan and her team.

Sadik-Khan will also have to develop innovative parking strategies, improve pedestrian safety and orchestrate traffic movement outside the congestion zone after pricing comes into effect, said Paaswell.

A strategic plan is in the works, said Sadik-Khan, which will articulate the need for more resources for additional traffic enforcement agents and bus rapid transit lines. More bicycle lanes will also be created—which she may end up using on the many days she bikes to work from her home on the Upper West Side.

Council Transportation Committee Chair John Liu (D-Queens), a frequent critic of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and various inadequacies in the transportation system, said he is very optimistic about what Sadik-Khan will be able to do in the two-plus years left in the Bloomberg administration.

"I'm very happy to see the extra energy and thinking outside the box that she's brought with her," he said. "Janette's the perfect example of the need for new blood every so often."