Last week, I met the mayor of Chicago in a cold, dark place.
The place was the Lakefront Trail, before sunrise, when the temperature was in the 30s and it was so dark you could still see the Big Dipper. Rahm Emanuel and I met at Fullerton Avenue. We both arrived on bikes, our eyes watering from the cold. I wanted an interview about transportation, so I was willing to put up with an unusual venue. He is in the last eight months of his two terms as mayor and in a chatty mood.
Trying to ignore the wind, I asked about whether billionaire Elon Musk can really build an express train to O’Hare International Airport; the prospects for a new state capital construction bill; whether the Trump administration will give the city more transit money; raising the gas tax; and the long delay in building the Navy Pier Flyover. Emanuel blamed the last of those items on the state not delivering money in time, describing himself as “beyond frustrated.”
We first talked about how Bicycling magazine this year dropped Chicago’s ranking as a top bike city from first place in 2016 to sixth. The magazine noted that there had been a decline in the number of new protected bike lane miles. It also docked Chicago for its small number of people who commute by bike, particularly women. Only about 1 percent of Chicago’s women get to work on a bike.
Emanuel had touted the first place ranking in 2016 in a news release and recalled that the city was in 10th place in 2010. But he says his focus is not on rankings.
“My No. 1 goal is safety and mobility and making it a part of the transportation network for the city, which it was not before,” Emanuel said. “It just wasn’t. We were kind of starting flat-footed, and we’ve made significant progress.” The city has 177.5 miles of protected bike lanes, buffered bike lanes and off-street trails.
Emanuel said the city also is working on making biking safer in construction areas. Cyclist Angela Park died over the summer after being struck by a truck in a construction zone in Greektown.
Bicycling magazine said that in ranking cities, it looks at issues like whether riders reported feeling harassed by police over nuisance infractions. The Tribune has reported that the vast majority of bike tickets, mostly for riding on the sidewalk, are issued in majority-black neighborhoods. Chicago police have said they use traffic stops as a way to fight crime in violent districts, and that 10 percent of stops for bike violations resulted in arrests for drugs, guns or other issues.
Community advocates have complained that the practice discriminates against bicyclists of color and discourages them from riding.
In response, Emanuel said that the city dropped the price on the Divvy bike-share program and added bike lanes, Divvy and dockless biking to largely black and Hispanic communities. “We’re not done, but we’re way ahead of where we were,” he said.
Emanuel said he would not judge how the police are handling bike tickets without looking at individual cases. He praised the work of Ernest Cato III, who is commander of the Austin police district, which has seen a lot of bike tickets but also a drop in shootings. Emanuel said that cyclists need to follow the rules of the road.
“For their own safety, they have to follow it, and the safety of others around them,” he said.
O’Hare express line
Emanuel expressed his continued enthusiasm for Musk’s proposal to run a high-speed, underground transportation service between the Loop and O’Hare. The mayor has not wavered despite skepticism from some engineering and transportation experts, who wonder how Musk’s Boring Co. can dig a 17-mile tunnel and create passenger service in a few years for just $1 billion. There also has been negative news about Musk, including a now-settled fraud lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Emanuel pointed out that digging a tunnel is nothing new — “There’s a tunnel under the English Channel!” He also cited Musk’s other more complex technological achievements with the Tesla electric car and his rocket program, including the successful landing of the first stage of a rocket back at the launch pad.
Emanuel said the express line is a necessity for the city’s economic future and that Musk, not the city, would figure it out and pay for it. He said ground would be broken on the project before the end of his term in May.
“And even if this doesn’t work, we’re going to figure out a way to get this done,” Emanuel said, though he declined to speculate on a Plan B. “I’m on Plan A,” he said.
Emanuel cited accomplishments in transportation over his two terms — the expansion of the bike network, paving almost half the city’s streets, securing $1 billion in federal funding for the CTA’s Red and Purple Line modernization, billions of dollars in repairs for CTA tracks and new stations, and the planned $8.7 billion O’Hare modernization project.
Under his most recent budget proposal, introduced Wednesday, the city would invest $5 million to make CTA bus service faster on busy routes, starting with the No. 79 79th Street and the No. 66 Chicago Avenue lines.
Emanuel said his big goal now is to help get lawmakers in Springfield to pass a state capital bill for transportation.
“Illinois is the only state in the Midwest that hasn’t done one in 10 years,” Emanuel said. He said he has talked with the legislative leadership, with Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker and mayors around the region about the need to “get this done while the iron is hot.”
Emanuel favors funding infrastructure spending by increasing the gas tax, which has been at 19 cents a gallon since 1991. He said voters will understand the need if lawmakers are upfront. He said he also thinks the state should consider taxing vehicles by how many miles they travel, which would address the issue of how the growing number of electric and hybrid vehicles cuts into gas tax revenues.
“I think we have to be honest,” Emanuel said. “If you want a transportation system that efficiently gets you from your work to home to be with your family and vice versa, we have to invest in the future and we have to have resources. And I don’t think we’re going to get a federal transportation bill because they’re talking about a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow that doesn’t exist.”
President Donald Trump has promised $1.5 trillion in new infrastructure spending, but that idea has gone nowhere.
“Given where the feds are, without a transportation bill, Illinois is playing with fire if they don’t get a transportation bill,” Emanuel said. He said he wants a portion of capital funding to be for “new starts,” like the extension of the CTA Red Line to 130th Street.
Emanuel said the city still should be able to get some federal money out of the Trump administration. “It just won’t flow with love, like it did when Ray LaHood and Anthony Foxx and President (Barack) Obama were there,” he said, referring to Obama’s two secretaries of transportation.
The Flyover Delay
About 20 minutes into the interview, we got back on our bikes and rode south to check out the unfinished Navy Pier Flyover.
Emanuel warned that he would ride faster than me. I did not realize this would mean he would be Dave Stoller, the protagonist in the bike movie “Breaking Away,” and I would be … not Dave. While Emanuel was on a light Parlee, I was on a 20-year-old Giant Cypress hybrid, loaded down with notebooks and office clothes in panniers. Soon Emanuel and his security detail were out of sight. Fortunately, there was a nice pink and golden sunrise to watch over the lake, all by myself.
When we reconnected at Navy Pier, Emanuel apologized for going so fast. And then it was time to talk about the long-delayed flyover, which led to some colorful language.
“I can’t say how honked off and p—ed off I am,” Emanuel said.
The pedestrian and bicycle bridge, which will stretch from the Ohio Street Beach to the south side of the Chicago River, was started in 2014 after more than a decade of planning. The city had originally predicted it would be finished this year.
Emanuel blamed the delay on the state stalling on allocating local transportation funds during the budget crisis as a way of putting political pressure on the city. “The state screwed around with the money for two years,” he said.
Guy Tridgell, a spokesman for Illinois Department of Transportation, said that without a budget the state could not make the appropriation.
A source familiar with the Chicago Department of Transportation’s thinking said the state slowdown was a factor in the delay, but then IDOT worked with the city to allocate funds for the project. Another factor in the delay is the need for extensive repairs to the Depression-era Lake Shore Drive bridge over the river, according to CDOT.
Emanuel refused to say which of the candidates running for his job is strongest on transportation. But he would say that the next mayor needs to invest in the city’s transportation future. “The future just doesn’t come,” he said. He said Chicago needs to compete against cities like London, and that means building a modern mass transit and aviation system.
Emanuel, who a few days later finished the interview in his not-dark-and-freezing fifth-floor office at City Hall, declined to say if he is planning for any kind of role in the transportation field after his term is up — all he would say is that he is writing a book on the importance of cities. He wants to spend the next several months focusing on his current job.
“Then I’ll focus on Amy and me and where we’re going to go next,” Emanuel said, referring to his wife, Amy Rule.
Transportation song quiz
Last week’s song was about a transportation-related job that might not make you rich. It was later used in a cartoon about sharks. The song was “Car Wash” by Rose Royce. Mark Horn in St. Charles was the winner.
This week’s car song is about getting something started. His prospects were good. What’s the song, and who did it? The winner will get a Tribune notebook, and glory.
mwisniewski@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @marywizchicago