I like the work the city has done in recent years to deemphasize cars and better prioritize public transportation and plan for a more bikeable and walkable city in the future and want to continue and expand that trend. We need to continue building out and improving safe transportation corridors for bicycles: this should include protected lanes, improved signaling, safer intersection design, and better connectivity between existing routes. I think AI has some promise for managing traffic flow and congestion and something we should continue implementing with smart signaling. I think we need to continue investing in our public transportation system, move toward it being completely electric, expand the light rail system, and work toward a high-speed rail connection with Phoenix. I’d be open to revisiting the prohibition on traffic cameras, so long as they support public safety and city services and not the profits of a private company.

As a city, I think we should consider income-based fines for traffic and civil offenses in our jurisdiction. I think we could also look at local vehicle and bicycle registration systems to generate funds for public infrastructure and perhaps address issues around bike theft. These could perhaps be viable alternatives to bond initiatives and increases to sales tax which disproportionately impact working- and middle-class families. Unfortunately, I think a lot of factors which impact transportation costs are beyond the city’s control – but I’m certainly open to additional suggestions or ideas about this topic.

Public transportation is a public good and cannot be expected to pay for itself through rider fees. I think we need to better communicate and demonstrate how a robust and effective public transportation system supports and encourages economic development and in doing so, make the case to our community why they should invest in it through fees, taxes, bonds, etc. We should be expanding routes and adding services, but unfortunately our current budget situation makes that very challenging. I think a long-term plan for higher-density development along well-developed public transportation corridors, perhaps with a special tax district overlay to fund it, may be one approach.

I think we also need to ensure that public transportation is clean and safe so that more people feel comfortable utilizing it and could do more to enforce public safety on buses and at bus stops. This ties into issues of homelessness – which we also have a lot of work to do on – but public transportation should not really be used as shelter.

Related to fare-free transit, I’m not opposed to continuing it, but if it makes financial sense to implement tiered fares which ask those who can afford to pay to do so, while not burdening those most in need, and if it can be done in such a way that it doesn’t cost more to implement than what would be collected, I would be open to considering that too.

Yes

I generally support collaborative approaches to getting things done and would be open to continuing the city’s participation in RTA Next. However, I think we need to have an in-depth review of why projects in Tucson were not completed within the timeframe of the initial RTA. I think we need to identify bottlenecks and red tape which add cost and slow our public infrastructure projects. We also need to look at how we can improve contracting and procurement to ensure it’s effective and aligns with our desired outcomes. I think the recent leadership change at RTA is a move in the right direction.

I don’t live too far from downtown and would hope to ride my bicycle to council meetings when possible. I would like to upgrade to an electric bicycle in the future and lean into that as more of a primary means of transportation. I’d like to say I’d take public transportation, but I don’t think it would be a viable option: from my house to city hall is anywhere from 37 minutes to 1 hour and 7 minutes via public transport – it’s otherwise a 10-minute drive or 20-minute bike ride. I do believe that fewer cars and more public transportation / bicycles is the future we want, but it’s going to take a long time to transition away from a country built on cars.