The Tribune Editorial Board’s editorial responding to the opposition to the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Redefine the Drive plans advances a common and pernicious viewpoint ( June 16). This position argues that opposition to car-centric planning is ideologically driven, eco-radicalist whining — and that decisions made in service of the safety and livability of our city’s neighborhoods should be shelved in favor of decisions that maximize convenience for the drivers speeding through them. In the course of making this argument, the editorial board advances three especially troubling perspectives.
First, the board defames “traffic calming” measures as a conspiracy to force drivers into using transit, biking or walking by making driving prohibitively inconvenient. The board need only review the trends in traffic fatalities to see that encouraging drivers to drive less aggressively is, in fact, an honest and good faith effort to save the lives of Chicagoans — regardless of their chosen mode of transport. Next, the board argues that “car drivers don’t really have anyone representing their interests.
” This statement is so blithely detached from the political realities of federal, state and local budgets that it inspires breathlessness ahead of laughter. If you rightly believe that a government’s priorities can be found through its checkbook, then you need only to follow the money. Consider the $806 million price tag on IDOT’s Jane Byrne Interchange.
