Before Slow Roll Chicago cofounder Oboi Reed could get back to work advocating for transportation equity in black and Latino communities, he first had to overcome the medical condition that Sir Winston Churchill reportedly called his “black dog”—clinical depression. In early 2016, about a year and a half after he helped launch the bike group, which promotes cycling in the south and west sides as a strategy to improve health and economic outcomes and reduce violence, he experienced a crippling depressive episode that put him out of commission for the next year and a half.
On August 7 the Active Transportation Alliance sent out an invitation to a Vision Zero Chicago summit that would double as a fund-raiser for the group’s advocacy efforts. In an August 16 Slow Roll blog post, Reed argued that the $50 entry fee, weekday-morning event time, and downtown location practically ensured that few west-siders would attend, and noted that there were no people of color on the announced speaker lineup. He called on Active Trans to cancel the summit and create a new event with full input from residents in the Vision Zero plan’s focus neighborhoods.
Four board members from Active Trans released a statement on August 29 arguing that equity and racial inclusion are central to the group’s mission. They pointed to statements in the organization’s current strategic plan. “We believe that mobility equity is fundamental to human and civil rights,” it states. “We are committed to reversing . . . disparities by making equity a foundational principle of our work.” They added that they brought up these tenets because of the concerns recently raised by Reed and others. “We value these principles but recognize that we can always do better.”
Reed’s overarching message, which could have a ripple effect in other cities, is that residents of the black, brown, and low- to middle-income communities most ravaged by traffic violence need to be the designers and owners, rather than simply the customers and consumers, of the Vision Zero product. “That’s not the position we’re going to be in,” he says. “Not in Chicago, not on my watch.” v
