Mayoral candidate answers on transportation safety; don't forget Bike Party Friday!

[Kirk Westphal]

Bike Party Friday!

I hope to see all you lovely people at Bike Party this Friday for the SWIM edition! 😎☀️ Details here. It's a ride-at-your-own-risk, family-friendly slow-roll around the city, with a stop for an optional swim in this edition. If you haven't been, I highly recommend it!

WBW questionnaire

Note: this forum is unmoderated and not subject to rules around political discussion. These are my thoughts only. If you have different evidence/thoughts about candidates' approaches to safety and infrastructure, please post them in a separate email instead of replying-all.

If you're an Ann Arbor voter who hasn't voted yet and have questions about which candidates are strongest on biking and walking, I hope the following excerpts from WBW's 2026 candidate questionnaire are helpful. (Excellent work, WBW board!) 

Whichever way you vote, PLEASE VOTE because every vote counts in these primaries.

The full answers are attached and linked here too. Please read them.

The following candidates elected to answer the survey, which I think indicates their interest in our mission:

Mayor: Yousef Rabhi, Christopher Taylor

Ward 1: Cynthia Harrison

Ward 4: Aidan Sova

Ward 5: Jenn Cornell

(Full disclosure, I've posted elsewhere that I endorse Taylor, Harrison, Aldrich, Hall, Sova, and Cornell for housing reasons.)

Since the only seat with comparable material is the mayoral seat, I'm pasting in the full responses from two questions that I find most revealing about the differences in candidates. I highlighted phrases that I find problematic.

Q4. Ann Arbor has made changes to street designs throughout the city to improve

safety. Some of these changes have included reducing the number of vehicular travel

lanes, adding protected bike lanes, ‘bumping out’ curbs at intersections, adding

sidewalks, and replacing intersections with roundabouts. How and to what extent do you

believe that these sorts of changes impact public safety in Ann Arbor?

Yousef Rabhi (mayoral candidate)

We should be willing to pursue evidence-based solutions that save lives, while carefully

evaluating their impacts on residents and businesses. We must make sure that these changes are done with significant community input. I promise not to impose any sort of top-down implementation, to take community input seriously, engage the traffic and safety engineers early and often and think holistically to bring a balanced approach to street design changes.

Christopher Taylor (mayoral candidate)

These changes work. Reducing travel lanes, adding protected bike lanes, bumping out curbs, building sidewalks, and converting signalized intersections to roundabouts consistently lower speeds, shorten crossing distances, and reduce crash frequency/crash severity. Every project must be guided by crash data, expert analysis, and community engagement. The throughline is safety first: when we design for the most vulnerable users, every user benefits.

Q8. The AAATA's long range plan calls for two new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) spines

through the city - one running roughly east/west along Washtenaw Ave and Huron St,

and one running roughly north/south along State St. and Plymouth Rd. Do you support

reconfiguring these streets to enable this plan? If so, what steps would you take to

deliver tangible progress toward this goal within the next 4 years?

Yousef Rabhi (mayoral candidate)Transit expansion is a direct path to my goal of making the bus system faster, more reliable, and free for low-income riders. I support exploring all options to make transit in our community successful, including BRT.

At the same time, these changes must be guided by data and meaningful community

engagement. We need to understand impacts on traffic, businesses, emergency response, and neighborhood access and work collaboratively to address concerns. Over the next four years, I would work with AAATA, regional partners, and City Council to secure funding, advance corridor planning and engineering, and move these projects from concepts to implementation. Reliable transit is essential to making Ann Arbor more affordable, accessible, and sustainable.

Christopher Taylor (mayoral candidate)

I support AAATA's long-range plan, including BRT on both the Washtenaw and Huron corridor and the State and Plymouth corridor. Better, faster transit is good for riders, drivers, climate, and housing affordability. On Washtenaw and Huron, I will continue to advocate at Council and with regional partners to move the project from concept to design. On State and Plymouth, I will work closely with AAATA and partners to align corridor planning, land use, and street design so the project can advance. 

The statements from Rabhi unfortunately reflect many of the anti-road-safety talking points we've heard for decades: congestion, business viability, emergency access, and calls for  "more community input." (Candidate Ryan Bartholomew in Ward 3, who didn't answer the questionnaire, has raised "serious concerns" about the Platt Rd reconfiguration and bike lane — claiming without evidence that it's causing speeding and crashes on roads near it.) 

Besides, the question of whether Ann Arborites would tolerate a few extra minutes of "congestion" in exchange for dramatically safer streets has been asked and definitively answered. A statistically-valid survey found a resounding YES. (Note that safer roads with lower maximum speeds do not necessarily equate to slower travel times. For example when road narrowing is accompanied with roundabouts, travel times can go down.)

Likewise, businesses generally perform better on safer, more walkable streets, and there is no evidence that emergency response suffers — and may actually perform better. As for demands for "more community input," there comes a point when repeatedly reopening settled policy stops being public engagement and becomes a veto against evidence. If every proven safety countermeasure must survive endless rounds of relitigation, progress becomes impossible. We see what community resistance to safety measures has wrought in this country.

More background: Rabhi's donors and earliest supporters have long fought against making streets safer and building sidewalks near schools.

Leading critics of the city’s housing density plan such as local real estate agent Ann Arbaugh and retiree John Godfrey of the “Pause the Plan” coalition are among Rabhi’s donors, along with former City Council members Jack Eaton, Elizabeth Nelson, Anne Bannister, Sumi Kailasapathy, Kathy Griswold and Ali Ramlawi, all of whom have been critics of Taylor and his allies.

Ann Arbaugh is one of the promoters of a recent petition against making Washtenaw safer with dedicated bus and bike lanes. She is an outspoken Rabhi supporter and hosted a "listening session" for his candidacy early this year.

Not every candidate agrees with everything their vocal supporters want, but I find these questionnaire responses and affiliations with pro-car figures deeply problematic.

Many of us have criticized the speed of the current city council's progress on road safety and will continue to do so. But it is abundantly clear to me that the Rabhi slate would inject more delay and public misinformation into an already too-slow process, and potentially even reverse some of the changes we've fought so hard for.

I'm very open to discuss any of this over email (write...@gmail.com) or by phone (734) 845-9220. 

Kirk

[Bruce Geffen]

Thank you for all this information, Kirk.  The only issue I have is this one statement of yours...

(Candidate Ryan Bartholomew in Ward 3, who didn't answer the questionnaire, has raised "serious concerns" about the Platt Rd reconfiguration and bike lane — claiming without evidence that it's causing speeding and crashes on roads near it.) 

You don't live here along Platt at this point of concern.  I do!  Being in my home since 1968 minus 15 or so years after 1979), and coming back as the "new" owner since 2000.  You don't see what we see on a daily basis.  The section between the Huron Parkway/Platt Road split heading South to Packard is a NIGHTMARE since the reconfiguration.  There is at least one accident of some type every week in this section.  During the last couple of weeks of school, there was one T Bone accident that was so violent, BOTH vehicles had to be totaled, and thankfully, due to the safety features now in vehicles, no one was injured or worse.  There may not be data on it yet, but rest assured, any one of you can bring yourselves to my home at 2636 Gloucester Way and plant yourself on my front porch between 3 and 6 PM and witness for yourselves all the near misses, impatient drivers, and accidents.  Motorcyclists on "crotch rockets" floor it and take to the bike lane to jump the traffic line.  Many drivers on a consistent basis jump into the center lane and speed to jump the line to get ahead to reach the light at Packard and Platt for a left turn.

A number of us have put in See Click Fix It tickets for the HAWK signal at the South end of our neighborhood because most drivers ignore pedestrians, especially those with kids, crossing and speed through to make the light at Packard and Platt.  Even with the HAWK at both Edgewood and Norwood, pedestrians crossing Platt are at high risk.  Do I have data for this...NO!  But I, along with my neighbors including Ryan Bartholomew who also lives along this stretch of Platt Road, live it every single day in the afternoon.

Before you throw it out there about "claiming without evidence" that this section as a serious concern is going against the bike lane and is anti road safety is flat out wrong!  Again, I invite you and anyone else to come out and sit on my porch at 2636 Gloucester Way to experience what we do every single weekday.  

Bruce Geffen

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[Peter Houk]

Hey Bruce. I hope you have been well!

You should fill out a traffic enforcement request if you haven't yet. 

https://www.a2gov.org/police-department/traffic-enforcement-request/

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wbwc/CABnN_qRoURkoeEs7NuscgjCFPCabcGjZnqvB%3D6VzVToQ3miy5w%40mail.gmail.com.

[Bruce Geffen]

Thank you Peter!  All's well here.  I think several residents along this short corridor have done so, but I will also make sure one gets completed.  

I need to add that many vehicles have taken to cutting through the old East Ann Arbor neighborhood, traveling those streets at high rates of speed, then darting out into the lineup of vehicles from Edgewood, Oakwood, and Norwood, which are the main cause of these traffic incidents.  They also cut through Lookout Circle racing to jump the line by one block to get to the Packard light.  We have little kids here!!!!  In the morning, it is going the opposite direction heading North.  And just no more than half an hour ago, a neighbor and I were chatting it up out front, traffic is done for the most part for the day, and an experienced cyclist all kitted up and visible narrowly missed getting tagged taking a left turn from Oakwood onto Platt and heading South as he tried to get into the designated bike lane for that direction.  He was being patient, waiting for cars to clear, and this one with several after, sped up as he was crossing given traffic was clear for the most part.

Bruce Geffen

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wbwc/CALADLW0z0ZPidza-4qY0_RzO_hBvTm9Dadt141Fx%3Dke70Ktz5A%40mail.gmail.com.

[Nicholas Adams]

Thanks for the information Bruce. I have friends that live right in the area discussed who have noted the same concerns. 

Best,

Nick Adams

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wbwc/CABnN_qRD5L%3D_evWMT4-DH7q0zroC_wQ-h4SUGwwyYhHoDbMuBw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Bruce Geffen]

I appreciate your feedback, Nick.  I know there are many young families and young professionals in our little quadrant who feel the same way after this configuration.  We are comprised of mostly non motorized users who support the City's efforts to slow everyone in motorized vehicles down, but in this case, the City engineers who developed this have created more dangerous conditions for all users along the corridor.  Calling out Ryan Batholomew for a (probably partial/sound bite) statement he made about this corridor and tagging him as part of the anti road safety voices is erroneous and disingenuous.

Bruce Geffen  

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wbwc/CAJEaaW64B6_88GAHAqSzsiaAwPAngCmd7LWdm%2BuT%2Bhn9OQuz1w%40mail.gmail.com.

[Peter Houk]

It does sound like something different needs to be done here.  But I don't want any fixes to be led by a future mayor who would "balance" roadway safety with other perceived benefits.  Let's improve Platt, but if we want to achieve our Vision Zero goal, we can't trade off the safety features in the process.  

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wbwc/CABnN_qQbnDdYVehxy-ZXoqGewku%2BvfyV3uH3wBreDuSpzF6pGg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Kirk Westphal]

Thanks for these details, Bruce. It's unacceptable for people to drive recklessly anywhere. 

I don't dispute what you or anyone observes. Research shows that undoing dangerous road widenings (via reconfigurations/diets), while safer overall, can have the effect of distributing slightly more traffic onto parallel routes. Should the city have proactively installed speed control measures on routes parallel to Platt, or have monitoring in place to measure impacts? I haven't heard of the city doing that before (like on the lower portion of Platt that was dieted long ago) but it's probably a good idea. Either way, the city should have the tools to measure and rapidly respond to dangerous driver behavior. This has been a frustration for many of us. There is no doubt that the volume of cars will keep increasing on public roads; it's up to us to make sure they're slow and safe and that cyclists and pedestrians have protected places.

Back to the point: it is wildly unacceptable that any candidate suggest undoing proven road safety measures instead of deploying more of them. More than one challenger candidate is fear mongering about road diets when canvassing. 

Ryan said this in a Ward 3 forum. Judge for yourself.

"We have many millages, that's true. One of them is the public safety and mental health millage. That's where a lot of the bike lane funds came from, ironically endangering some of the public safety... I'm still a proponent of bike lanes but ensuring it is a good path. Like maybe we have one concrete path that goes from our neighborhoods here in Ward 3 downtown, and then we maybe, you know, fix the road diet particularly here on Platt."

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wbwc/CALADLW3ZWM6y9ofdGMfyWMm-H6sHVD7KBpd4A3tDveJSq%3DOuqQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Bruce Geffen]

I agree on not trading safety features, Peter.  However, the current configuration has made it less safe for all users.  I'll be putting in a Traffic Enforcement Request this evening.

Bruce Geffen

On Wed, Jul 29, 2026 at 11:03 AM Peter Houk <pete...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wbwc/CALADLW3ZWM6y9ofdGMfyWMm-H6sHVD7KBpd4A3tDveJSq%3DOuqQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Bruce Geffen]

You're welcome for this input, everyone!  Thanks to you all for your suggestions and perspectives!  One thing I did mention to our City Council right from the jump after this reconfiguration of Platt in this little corridor is I had never seen so many non motorized users going up and down Platt until this change was made.  No matter what side you're on with these candidates for Mayor and our Ward 3 City Council, someone is going to get seriously injured or worse before the City takes a serious look at this corridor and reevaluates the engineering and design.  

Bruce Geffen

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wbwc/CAAYd4F8mscpCeQ7_HiK65GZbS4wpiFXheFrQCyPneA%2B5EDOK%3DQ%40mail.gmail.com.