What types of transportation do you use during an average week, and how has this shaped your view of transportation policy?

Typically driving or walking.

What are some transportation challenges in your district?

As a suburban district we face significant transport gaps as our lines are further out from the hub of the wheel and spoke system that is the CTA and Metra, though I have multiple Metra stops and major accessibility to most bus lines.

The Illinois Department of Transportation (“IDOT”) plays a significant role in transportation throughout the state, in Chicago, and Cook County. What is your opinion on their role with the Chicago Department of Transportation, Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways, local communities, and the impact that has?

The Illinois Department of Transportation should collaborate and set clear standards while being flexible with local departments of transportation. Their focus, particularly with transit, should be to ensure transit reliability, safety, and environmental and economic equity.

How do you view the Illinois General Assembly’s role in setting IDOT’s priorities for public transit, passenger rail, and strengthening accessibility in transportation?

IDOT builds the roads and runs the programs, but it’s the General Assembly’s responsibility to make sure the agency is building the future we actually want for Illinois.

States like Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia have passed legislation that has shifted their transportation infrastructure spending towards projects that prioritize safety, transit and cycling, and greenhouse gas mitigation. What’s your position on Illinois’ current transportation infrastructure spending, and if you could change anything, what would it be?

As legislators and as people we all have to make due with our ideal vision of society being largely incompatible with reality. If you could send me back in time with a time machine and let me do one thing, truth be told, I would un-invent the automobile entirely. I think our automobile centric society and culture has done irrevocable damage to our health, environment, and the cohesion of our civil society. But I don't live in that world. We can’t abolish cars, and we can’t rebuild our entire transportation system overnight. What we can do is make smart, cost-effective investments that shift incentives gradually: stabilizing transit, improving passenger rail where it’s feasible, and redesigning dangerous corridors to protect pedestrians, cyclists, and people with disabilities.

This fall, the Illinois General Assembly passed a historic investment in transit operations – as well as significant governance reforms in the establishment of the Northern Illinois Transit Authority. How do you view the Assembly’s role in ensuring both the short- and long-term success of this legislation?

As the chief of staff for the chair of the Transportation, Roads and Bridges committee I worked very hard on many elements of this, particularly in identifying mismanagement and shortcomings of current transit authorities. I am enthusiastic about the progress that has been made, and am sure that it is a longer term solution to the issues that face us now, but I do fear that the issue of ridership and the ability to return to past numbers is still going to be an issue in the future.

What is your position on investing to expand passenger rail service in Illinois, including the development of high-speed rail?

Illinois, and in particular Chicago, helped create the impetus to build the national rail network that already exists. We are the beating heart of the nation, and while national efforts for High Speed Rail have failed, Illinois finds itself in the not-at-all unusual position of being able to create that impetus for a national network again. If Illinois invests meaningfully in high speed rail, it could lead to spillover into neighboring states who see the benefit and wish to connect to the network. In this century as the last, Illinois could be the leader that the nation needs.

Federal funding for Illinois transportation projects – such as the Red Line Extension and Red-Purple Modernization projects – has come under threat from the Trump administration. How can legislators shore up funding for critical infrastructure projects under a hostile federal climate?

I don't think any state in the union is capable of completely backfilling the billions that come from the federal government, and for Illinois to do it would be an extraordinary effort. What we can do is make Illinois difficult to ignore in a hostile federal environment. We have to maintain our state matching funds, keep our largest transit projects on schedule, and leverage our congressional delegation in a bipartisan manner to show Washington that cutting Illinois transit funding means cutting jobs, and slowing economic growth. Injuring Illinois in this regard comes at the risk of hurting the country.