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

1. The CTA is in meltdown as a result of a series of bad policy decisions by the mayor and a profound lack of interest in the concerns of rank-and-file workers by management. 2. We need a system for bicyclists which protects them and allows safe passage across the city. 3. We need to invest substantially in shifting the transit culture of Chicago further away from auto dependence.

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?

My wife and I use public transit regularly. We borrow a vehicle when transit access or a specific need (such as moving a large piece of furniture) requires it. Our transit access has been devastated by the road work on Stony Island Avenue associated with the Obama Center and now travel is much more challenging. When we do use a car on occasion, it is usually an unpleasant experience. Driving in the city really ought to be kept at an absolute minimum.

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

First, I will describe an accretion, rather than a specific event. In the past two years, the reports on the level of violence that bicyclists are experiencing by drivers has either gone up substantially or I have become more aware of it. In either case, by the time I was announcing my run in late summer, I knew that protected bike lanes had to be the very least we do for those who travel by bike.

Next, I will tell you about one specific experience: A dear friend of mine was struck and killed by a car this summer one block away from her home. It was a hit-and-run killing. My focus on lethal violence has been gun violence because of where I live and my community of friends and associates, but this really made the lethality of automobiles something I think about every time I think about transit. We have to move this city away from the ubiquitous use of cars. If I can make a small difference in that direction, it will be in memory of Hannah that I do it.

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?

It's not very expensive, and it could dramatically change the quality of life for thousands. To fund it in part or wholly, we should attach a fee to tire sales and another to the wholesale purchase of road salt, even when the ultimate user of that salt is going to be the city of Chicago. We should also gradually introduce systems for heating sidewalks.

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?

Reparations is defining model of action for my campaign, and I am focused especially on recompense for housing discrimination. Equity must precede integration as much as is practicable. We must compensate Black Americans who have been discriminated against in Chicago in housing and thereby lost wealth. That will require convening a committee and quantifying harm and proposing a method of redress.

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

Literally, about a third of our emissions are from transportation. The ability to rethink how we travel through the city could also be a change in culture in which we are more accustomed to adjusting our consumption patterns for the sake of the planet. And less cars would mean our alarming asthma rates on the South Side would be ameliorated.

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?

No. It's putting lipstick on a pig. We need a do-over, with a binding popular vote selecting from a range of real solutions and a citizen oversight board ensuring the will of the people is respected.

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?

IDOT pursues contracts that reward people and groups with whom they have relationships. The environment is only reluctantly a consideration.

We have to increase the power of ordinary people to get the results we want.

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?

Pass a law that allows the renegotiation of any contract that can be proven to do substantial injury to the fiscal health of the city.

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?

Crowd streets with other activity, make sidewalks and roads colorful and engaging, introduce more interruptions in roadways to break the pattern of assuming roads are meant to be open, fast, and car-centric

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?

In favor

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

In favor

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

response

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

Forensic audit, transparent data streams, more power to the union

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?

Government needs to come to terms with the need for the level of revenue that we could get from taking over utilities and introducing public-owned companies. We need to end TIFs and reform CPD to the degree that our lawsuit liability is lessened, including by ending qualified immunity.

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

In favor

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

Yes