Streetfighting woman: inside the story of how cycling changed New York

As transport commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan faced down critics to transform New York with 400 miles of cycling routes, a bike share scheme and the remodelling of Times Square. Any city can do it, she tells Peter Walker

Janette Sadik-Khan, who in alliance with her then-boss, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, arguably did as much to transform the city's streetscape as anyone in its recent history, recalls an early moment when she wondered whether people were ready for such rapid change.

It was August 2008 and the city was experimenting with a so-called summer streets programme, where almost seven miles of central streets were closed off to cars for three Saturday mornings in a row. The idea was not new - Bogoti introduced its equivalent, the Ciclovii, in the 1970s - but it was entirely untested in New York.