Mayoral Candidates - Who Is Bike Savvy? Thoughts?

When asking around, I heard these three candidates are some potential good bike-friendly options:

Mendoza

Lightfoot

Eniya

Let's use this thread to discuss, bring in articles, quotations, and proof of bike-savviness. Cool?

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Permalink Reply by Charlie Short 2.9 on January 15, 2019 at 8:41am

You also don't want anything earmarked when it comes to bike lane funding. If you set aside any one funding source for any one infrastructure project, there is a tendency to not invest in that project except when funding is available. Look at bridge, viaduct and sidewalk improvements; there are dedicated funds occasionally available for these things, so they are often not covered with general operating funds, either from the city, county or state. 

Permalink Reply by Charlie Short 2.9 on January 15, 2019 at 8:37am

There are about 4400 miles of streets. There used to be a figure that said 5000, but it's definitely about 4400.

Permalink Reply by Argonne69 on January 15, 2019 at 8:49am

Yeah, a little too quick on my part. The Chicagoland area has over 54,000 miles, but only 4000 or so within the city boundaries. There are ~280 miles of bike lanes, or roughly 6%.

Permalink Reply by Jeremy on January 15, 2019 at 2:15pm

I believe it is state law that prevents photo enforcement of tickets.

It would be so much better to have traffic enforcement employees with a GoPro go to known areas of violations (parking in bike lanes, parking in bus stops, failing to yield to pedestrians, etc), spend a few hours recording violations, then go to an office and spend some time uploading the video to a database (to be viewed in traffic court if appealed), and mail out the tickets.

Permalink Reply by Eric Pounder on January 16, 2019 at 9:23am

Wouldn't that mean that red light tickets aren't enforceable?  All the candidates at last night's forum were looking forward to working with JB on transportation issues, so if that's the problem perhaps we can get it overturned.

Permalink Reply by Jeremy on January 15, 2019 at 2:05pm

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/wisniewski/ct-biz-ma...

That article in the Tribune has some pretty good quotes from Lori Lightfoot.  On the other hand, she also likes speeding and driving through red lights.

As for Susana Mendoza, there was that time she, on a bicycle, chased down a guy in a pickup who caused a crash, but she seems too connected to the political machine (Michael Madigan and Ed Burke) for my liking.

Those are my top two choices (for now).

Permalink Reply by Angela Ford on January 16, 2019 at 5:12am
This is a great question. I have really enjoyed reading the comments. I'm going to take a step back and listen more to how the candidates view my community and our neighborhoods. The disproportionate ticketing of Black bicyclists stemmed from Rahm's finite decision of making us the villains in the Chicago story, period. Any candidate that continues that narrative will prevent/deter us from riding.
Permalink Reply by PurpleFemme on January 16, 2019 at 1:47pm

When Amara Eniya came to Rogers Park some weeks ago I asked her how she planned to improve bus service in the city. She shared that for a few years she primarily got around the city on bike. She still bikes for transportation and for recreation. That made me feel more confident voting for her knowing that she's had years of experience biking on the streets of Chicago. She was also able to connect the issue of shitty bus speeds to equity and economic development.

Biking and transit make up such a big part of my daily lived experience that I can't vote for anyone who doesn't get it. 

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 17, 2019 at 4:05am

The things she said at Tuesday night's transit forum really sent the message that she gets it. 

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 24, 2019 at 5:57am

Anyone else have more useful info, or has it been overshadowed by the aldermanic dirt?

Permalink Reply by Jeremy on February 6, 2019 at 3:52am
https://susanamendoza.com/futurenow/transportation/#1548635251205-9...

Susana Mendoza has a small mention about bikes on her website.
Permalink Reply by JeffB on February 12, 2019 at 7:49am

Saw this in the Tribune today:

Mayoral Candidates Talk Transportation

Not a ton of detail and this is all that was said about bikes:

   "Candidates had broad divisions on bike lanes. Ford said they should not be a priority. “That’s the last thing we should do,” he said.

Preckwinkle, by contrast, pledged at least 100 miles of new bikeways. Mendoza also wants to expand bike lanes and bike share. Daley said he supported expansion of protected bike lanes, but said that the city needed to account for existing traffic and make sure it can keep cyclists safe."

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