Mayor Brandon Johnson returned to WBEZ 91.5 on Thursday to answer listener questions live on the midday talk show Reset with host Sasha-Ann Simons.
Constituents and listeners from around the Chicago area called in to ask about Johnson’s accomplishments and policy proposals, several of which focused on transit. One caller from West Elsdon on the city’s Southwest Side asked why Chicago has so few bike lanes outside the North Side. “They’re coming” to the West and South sides, said Johnson, himself an avid cyclist. Another caller in Rogers Park lamented the post-pandemic experience of riding the Red Line, pointing out that many schoolchildren use the CTA as “school buses” amid passengers who smoke and sometimes relieve themselves on train cars and station platforms.
“It is a civil rights issue, frankly,” Johnson said. The mayor spoke of increasing public safety on transit infrastructure, not just with security staffers and police but mental health ambassadors…