What do you believe are the greatest transportation challenges facing the City of Chicago right now?

Transportation is key to freedom of movement and the ability to participate in our communities. It sounds obvious but when transit isn’t reliable people can’t rely on it. And when people can’t rely on it, they don’t use it. We can’t afford to let one of our greatest assets turn into a system of last resort. We support increased funding and service for public transit, including paratransit. Additionally, traffic safety in the community has been an opening to talk about alternatives to driving and reclaiming the streets for people. We support slow and safe streets and pedestrian safety measures like daylighting and municipal sidewalk plowing.

Do you or members of your family regularly use sidewalks, bike, take transit, drive, or a combination of any/all to get around? Does this correspond with your preferred/ideal modes of getting around? If not, what barriers do you and your family face in using your preferred mode of transportation?

Before my evenings were spent doorknocking, my weekday routine included taking my 5-year-old to pick up my one-year-old from daycare on a combination of walking and transit, which gave me a lot of time to think about ways to improve reliability, safety, accessibility, and comfort for pedestrian, bike, and transit trips. In my neighborhood, the bus is an excellent option for getting around and in the ward more generally we have great east-west corridors with bus lines on them. However, with decreased service and a lack of reliability, these trips have become more challenging.

Can you share a personal experience that changed your opinion about a transportation related policy matter?

I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 30. Not driving changed the way I planned but also the way I spent my time. I did extensive fieldwork all around Chicago by bus and developed ways to organize notes while traveling. When I had a long transit commute I read so much. These things helped me realize that travel time could be a form of leisure time, which is not something I experience while driving. It made me think about how important it is to make transit more reliable, predictable, and desirable as part of a larger strategy for increasing ridership.

Chicago is a snowy city, and even one stretch of uncleared sidewalk can make it impassable – particularly for folks with disabilities, the elderly, and parents with young children. What is your position on implementing a universal city-wide sidewalk snow/ice removal service?

Fully and enthusiastically support!

It is now widely recognized and understood that interstate highways were used to physically divide urban communities from one another – often along racial and class lines. How do you propose we overcome these divisions to restore the urban fabric of Chicago and reconnect our segregated neighborhoods?

When disinvestment is so severe that it affects the health, safety, wellbeing and even life expectancy of the people in our city, it becomes more than an economic development issue: it’s a matter of justice. For this reason, I’d look to work happening in the environmental justice space to think about how to comprehensively document and address the ways that public services have been hollowed out and people have been asked to individually navigate the challenges of everyday life.

What role do you believe transportation plays in Chicago’s collective greenhouse gas emissions, climate responsibility, and overall environmental health?

My son did a project for school about improvements to the bus system so I will happily take this one! About a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions in our city come from transportation. Reducing short car trips is a great tangible goal to inform and engage residents and get people more used to taking transit. Reducing heavy trucking, especially idling trucks, is another approach for reducing transportation emissions.

What is your position on the Illinois Department of Transportation’s current proposals for rebuilding North DuSable Lake Shore Drive? Do you believe the proposed designs will reduce congestion, improve transit access and make pedestrians and cyclists safer? How do you think the current proposals will impact access to the lakefront?

Creating a transit exclusive lane would be my preference (a preference based on commuting to Hyde Park for many years). I think exclusive transit priority will serve as a strong incentive to get folks to ride transit, especially on longer north/south routes. In general, I take a strong stance for progressive revenue policies and allowing car-based on tolling is a financially regressive policy.

What barriers do you believe the Illinois Department of Transportation presents to Chicago pursuing better safe streets design standards and transit investments? How do you plan to work with City Council, the Governor, and State legislators to overcome these barriers?

I was happy to see the announcement about CDOT and IDOT planning to work together more intentionally to address public safety. While the MOU lays out good working terms, it still requires aldermen to push for improvements. I would look for places where we could make pedestrian safety improvements that previously required study or authorization but now are pre-approved. From the state, I would look for a roll back of the farebox operating ratio for the CTA and look for better connectivity between Chicago’s transit system and the regions. I would look for a lowering of the minimum speed limit to give Chicago more tools to work with and I would also look for more ways that transportation and infrastructure money can fund transit and invest in safer streets.

The 99-year parking meter deal enacted by former Mayor Richard M. Daley has been a barrier to enacting safe street designs by privatizing large portions of Chicago’s streets. What is your plan to address this?

I was hopeful about the idea of reversing the deal through an antitrust lawsuit and generally like the idea of invalidating the deal in a way that won’t cost the city large financial penalties.

Studies show us that speed and distracted driving kill. What do you think are the most effective ways to reduce driver speed and increase safe driving behavior?

Last year in our ward we grieved two young children, the ages of my two youngest, who were killed in traffic. Our current alder has put up “slow down” signs with her name all over them but in our recent community forum all she could say about traffic safety was that she couldn’t stop drivers from speeding.

Viewing traffic safety as the sum of individual decisions rather than something that can be achieved through intentional policy and resource allocation is a failure of leadership.

We support safe, slow, accessible streets built at the scale and pace of people instead of cars. This includes maintaining pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and building bike lanes and infrastructure that keeps people safe. We support the Bike Grid and are heartened by the promise of greater collaboration between CDOT and IDOT.

What is your position on the City passing ordinances that attempt to regulate the size, weight, and/or safety features of personal and private vehicles?

I think that will be a challenge for the City to do from a regulatory standpoint but I’m interested to learn more.

What is your position on establishing a dedicated funding stream for safe and universal pedestrian and bike infrastructure in Chicago?

I tend to think that dedicated funding streams take some of the flexibility away from local governments. What I’d like to see instead is some of the infrastructure money that is currently disproportionately invested in driving infrastructure shift to bike and pedestrian infrastructure. This can be accomplished at the City level through capital budgeting and supplemented at the ward level with menu funds.

What is your position on creating select pedestrian-only streets?

In our community, we treasure our community open spaces including parks, forest preserves, the North Park Village Nature Preserve, trails, and the river. We value the freedom and safety that comes with pedestrian only spaces. Given this, I think the residents of the 39th ward would be open to and interested in pedestrian-only streets. The process for selecting these should be community-led.

What policy solutions would you implement to ensure CTA buses operate on schedule, frequently, and quickly?

I would work to increase ridership because ridership drives service levels. I used to catch the bus from the Jefferson Park Transit center and would talk to some of the staff there when my kids and I were waiting for the bus. What they told me is that we need more bus drivers, staggered schedules and more reliable tracking.

Considering the role the CTA, Metra, and Pace play in providing public transportation within the city, what are your plans to address the impending fiscal cliff – a deficit of over $700 million – that the agencies will be facing in 2025?

The fiscal cliff scenario is based on the idea that ridership will not rebound and the system will cost the same amount of money to operate. The Chicago Transit Authority needs a recovery plan to bring back ridership, which can help it transition to a more sustainable funding plan. Otherwise, the system will continue to be decimated by funding and service cuts. I think one immediate action (and for clarity this is a state issue) would be to suspend the 50% farebox recovery ratio for the system. If ridership is down almost half and that revenue needs to be half of the total operating cost then the system is operating in conditions of serious neglect and underfunding. I would also increase ridership by advocating for free CTA access for all CPS students. Once ridership rebounds it can sustain higher service levels and operating revenue will have a chance to recover, which could stop or postpone the fiscal cliff.

What is your position on establishing a network of Bus Rapid Transit lines in Chicago?

I support bus rapid transit (BRT) because it is a cost effective way to increase the convenience and desirability of riding transit. Supplementing the existing transit system with bus rapid transit would increase connectivity between different parts of the city in a way that could allow people greater freedom of movement and more choice about where to live, work, and build community.

I think BRT could make a big difference in the 39th ward. The 81 (Lawrence Avenue) bus is one of the five most ridden lines in the city. It connects the Blue, Brown, and Red lines. It is also frequently late or unpredictable because of the traffic on Lawrence Avenue. I think it would be a great candidate for a rapid transit line.

Will you commit to securing the funding necessary to implement CTA's plan to become 100% accessible according to ADA standards? (yes/no)

Yes