a forgotten issue

As I've watched interviews and forums and read news articles and web sites featuring candidates for mayor as Election Day approaches, I've found it disturbing and frustrating that many of the candidates have little or nothing about issues other than education and public safety.  Those are important topics, but there are many others they can't afford to ignore. We need to know their ideas (and whether they have any ideas) regarding other topics such as transportation.

If our transportation systems don't function well, our city doesn't function. Transit and other non-car ways of getting around are critically important. There isn't enough space for everyone to drive and park. Many people can't afford the cost of owning, driving, maintaining and parking a car for daily transportation. The city works much better if fewer people drive.

This week, Active Transportation Now held a mayoral candidate forum on the topic of transit, focusing on CTA. If you'd like to watch a video of this forum and hear ideas from those candidates who chose to attend, here's a link.

It's worth doing some homework on the candidates. We can't afford to end up with a mayor who doesn't think that transportation is important and can't be bothered to answer questions about it.