Mayoral transition plan for transportation echoes priorities of advocates, including 20/10 mph speed limit

Last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s transition team released a sweeping 223-page report of policy recommendations across multiple sectors, including transportation. 

The transportation subcommittee that penned the corresponding section of the report is comprised of transit agency representatives, community stakeholders and advocates, including members of Active Transportation Alliance, Access Living, and Better Streets Chicago—three of six organizations that banded together as the Safe Streets for All Coalition, which formed to amplify the call for safety for people on foot and bikes in the months leading up to the mayoral election. The subcommittee is chaired by state representative Kam Buckner, whose mayoral run featured the most progressive and comprehensive transportation platform of the nine candidates. 

The resulting twenty pages of transportation recommendations in the report reflect the priorities of a group committed to transforming our current car-centric roadways into a safer, healthier, more equitable system for all. An introductory context section acknowledges how the combined damage of transit disinvestment, destructive highways and a concentration of industrial freight in low-income Black and Brown neighborhoods has saddled residents with poorer health outcomes and less connection to the necessities of life. It also acknowledges the blow Covid-19 dealt to public transportation in ridership and revenue, and the urgent need for new, consistent sources of funding to restore and improve Chicago’s transit system.

Read more HERE

2023 Mayoral Transition Report HERE

Leave a comment