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

When the weather is nice, I use Divvy almost exclusively to commute to and from work. As it gets colder, I use the CTA to get downtown.

Both options provide a rider-level view of our public transportation systems. With neighborhood bike stations empty in the morning and overflowing in the evening, and too many bikes needing repairs and battery replacements, it’s often hard to find a Divvy when I need it. When I can find a bike, I’ve noticed that Chicago has a patchy, inadequate bike grid. I’ve also seen that most of our “bike lanes” are simply painted pathways lacking any physical separation or barrier.

Like many others in the city, I’m disappointed in our transit leadership. For many years after COVID, trains ran on reduced schedules, so 15-minute waits were punctuated by overcrowding. I’m glad to see the legislature’s action to fund our transit system, but I would push for far more than maintaining our existing transportation infrastructure – we need to go beyond funding what we already have and building out a new, broader system. Chicago needs more frequent, reliable transit, along with a plan to expand our bus and rail system to support more development and growth across the city and the surrounding region.

What are some transportation challenges in your district?

The 12th District suffers from the poor bike and transit infrastructure that I described above; we also face challenges on our residential streets and DuSable Lake Shore Drive (DLSD).

Our district is seeing increasingly dangerous traffic on residential streets, with side streets serving as high-speed shortcuts for corporate delivery fleets and individuals trying to bypass arterial traffic. I support infrastructure changes, including diverters, bump-outs, and raised crosswalks, to prioritize residents' safety over the convenience of through-traffic. Kids heading to school are particularly at risk from this traffic, and I’d like to see infrastructure that ensures safe routes to school for students who would otherwise face reckless drivers.

DLSD is essentially a highway through the city’s beaches and Lincoln Park green space, and it prioritizes cars over all other forms of transportation. We need to change that approach, and I agree with the broader vision for DLSD that Better Streets put together. I support rebuilding DLSD into a transit boulevard that serves cyclists, transit riders, and drivers.

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?

IDOT has fallen short of the role that it could play as a partner in moving our transit system away from the car-centric approach that dominated planning in our region for many years. For instance, IDOT used the Reimagine the Drive effort to essentially endorse the existing layout of DLSD.

This is a significant missed opportunity: regional and statewide leadership is necessary to move our state from a policy of moving cars quickly to one of moving people quickly using multiple forms of mobility and in an environmentally friendly fashion. Under the latter approach, we see IDOT seeking creative transit solutions to provide effective transportation alternatives. IDOT is also uniquely positioned to ensure that our state successfully transitions to electric vehicles.

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?

The General Assembly should do more than fund IDOT’s budget; it must also direct the state’s transportation future. Just as IDOT has fallen short in moving us away from our current approach, which focuses largely on automobiles, the General Assembly has largely failed to use its oversight and budgetary powers to demand a different direction.

We cannot rely on IDOT to voluntarily shift its focus from moving cars to moving people via a variety of mobility options. The General Assembly must legislate this priority by tying appropriations specifically to transit efficiency, passenger rail expansion, and multi-modal accessibility, rather than just highway maintenance and expansion.

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?

Illinois’ budget is heavily weighted toward investments in highways. More than 60% of IDOT’s budget goes to highway construction and maintenance, and just 15% is allocated to support and enhance public transit in the Chicagoland region. High-speed rail gets one-third of one percent of infrastructure spending.

We need to invest in transit infrastructure and in the capacity of IDOT, CDOT, and other transit agencies to effectively manage new transit spending. Illinois has underinvested in transit infrastructure and in the public servants who oversee and manage those construction projects.

I saw these challenges firsthand. When I worked for the City of Chicago, I helped reform the TIF system, which accounts for a significant share of capital dollars. I advocated for pushing more TIF funding into transit improvements.

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 someone who has worked in the executive branch of city government to implement complex policy, I know that a law is only as good as its execution. To ensure this new authority delivers on its promise of an improved transit system, the General Assembly’s role must now shift from legislation to oversight.

We need rigorous, regular hearings to ensure the governance reforms are actually streamlining decision-making rather than creating a new layer of bureaucracy. The General Assembly must also ensure that this new funding flows directly to operations—more frequent trains, cleaner buses, and safer platforms—rather than being absorbed by administrative overhead. Finally, success must be measured beyond the Authority's establishment itself. The General Assembly must set and enforce clear performance metrics regarding ridership recovery, safety, and reliability.

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

I support improving our existing passenger rail service by making it more frequent and reliable and expanding passenger rail to serve more destinations. When we make rail service more frequent, we see more passengers. For instance, ridership on the Borealis route between Chicago and the Twin Cities has exceeded expectations after transit officials invested in a second daily round-trip option.

But we should also expand passenger rail to serve more destinations. Currently, Chicago does not connect to Rockford, a striking gap in our rail system. Illinois invested to bring that online by 2027, and I would work to ensure that expansion occurs.

Similarly, we should broaden our rail connections to other cities like Moline and Champaign, with more frequent and direct rail service, to tie these cities into the Chicagoland economy and revitalize downstate economies.

We should plan for high-speed rail as well, with a focus on connecting Chicago to other hub cities like Madison, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Bloomington, and the Quad Cities. Illinois has already made some progress in increasing speeds on routes like Chicago-St. Louis, and we could do much more on this front.

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?

Illinois must provide responsible stewardship of its tax dollars, and that means moving money from wasteful and low-return areas into effective areas like transit. After all, investments in infrastructure don’t just help us reduce our reliance on cars; they also stimulate the Illinois economy and spur new growth.

I support efforts to streamline Illinois spending to ensure that infrastructure projects retain the funding they need. As someone who already has experience in local government, I know that efficiencies are available if we push for them. For instance, Illinois spends more than almost any other state on back-office and administrative educational expenses. If we simply spent as efficiently as the national average, we would save over $1 billion annually–money that could go back into critical investments in transit infrastructure.