Reimagining Public Transit and Transportation

My experience with public transit stretches across the 9th District. I regularly use several CTA bus routes to commute, as well as the PULSE Dempster line, several suburban PACE bus routes, and I use the “L” and the Metra to get around. As Senator, I use Amtrak to get back and forth from Chicago to the state capitol in Springfield during Session. No one will champion public transit as passionately and with the experience I have as a wide-ranging user of the systems.

I strongly believe public transit is a public good: in the richest country in the world, we are failing so many of our neighbors and our planet by designing their entire lives around cars. I depend on and am a lifelong user of public transit, including now as State Senator for the far north side of Chicago where I represent a district that includes 25 CTA train stations including the busy transit hub at Howard Station Red/Purple/Yellow Line terminus, 3 Metra stations, and dozens of CTA and Pace routes. Congress desperately needs more people who use transit because we are the ones who fight to protect, expand, and modernize it. Our transit systems are growing older when they should be getting faster, more interconnected, and more reliable. The freedom to move and get around is an essential one: transit must be safe, clean, fast, and universally accessible. Transit is also public safety, on an individual and environmental level: better transportation infrastructure protects pedestrians and cyclists from automobiles and protects our climate from excessive emissions. In Congress I would be a proud voice for fare-free transit: public transit is a public good. We need Clean Transit for All.

As a member of the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee, I worked hard to co-lead newly passed legislation that fully funds public transit in Illinois and sets the state on a path to far-reaching public transit modernization. SB2111 includes $1.5 billion in transit funding for Chicagoland and Illinois. I also specifically worked to get several provisions including capital funds to build bus rapid transit on the far north side of Chicago and elsewhere. I also pushed for more frequent service, an end to “ghost” buses, and a new transit ambassador program that will place professionalized customer service staff on public transit to boost safety, modeled after several other global cities.

I’m proud to have led passage of several more public transit bills in the Illinois Senate:

• Accelerated the timeline to bring online zero-emissions electric buses across the CTA, Metra, and Pace

• Co-led passage of reduced ride fares for critical transit dependents, like young people, survivors of domestic violence, returning citizens, and veterans

• Removed unnecessary free and reduced fare renewal requirements for riders with disabilities and senior citizens

• After the horrific Yellow Line crash in Rogers Park in 2023, I drafted and passed into law legislation that requires that Illinois rail transit agencies, including the CTA, make public on their website all federal safety recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board and progress toward implementing those rail safety recommendations

Public transit needs bold champions with a real understanding of what the freedom of movement means to working people and their local communities. I would bring a full transit vision to Congress: where bus rapid transit and electrified transit fleets are in every major city and suburb, reducing our cities’ carbon footprint; where buses regularly service suburbs and small towns across the 9th District and the country, because all people deserve transit; where high-speed rail is not just a goal, but the standard; where bike grids are designed for all major cities, with the help of federal funding, so that everyone from environmentalists to residents to daily commuters can opt for biking; where transit workers and operators work with dignity, safety, and strong collective bargaining rights. These investments would boost local and metro economies while reducing pollution, traffic congestion, and pedestrian danger. Our unique district needs a transit champion to represent our needs.

If you see me or think you see me on the Red, Yellow, Purple, or Brown Lines, bus routes like the 49B, 147, 155, 36, 22, 92, 81, 78, 93, 97, 84, 80, 151, 215, 290, 146, 148, 96, 50, 9, 11, 54A, 135, 136, 201, 206, 208, 225, 210, 213, 226, 250, 272, the Dempster or Milwaukee PULSE lines, or with my bike on the Metra Union Pacific North, Union Pacific Northwest, the Milwaukee District North, or North Central Service Lines - yes it's probably me and come say hello!