TransitCenter

"Highway construction is a very big business. Nationally, the United States spends nearly $150 billion per year on road and highway construction, an amount that has increased by almost 50 percent in the past five years. The highway-building bureaucracy has created a powerful and well-organized political machine that mobilizes construction companies, engineering firms, truckers, and local business boosters. In pursuit of these goals, highway agencies depend on traffic models. These models are bewilderingly complex, their results are offered with false certainty, and when they are challenged in court, judges routinely defer to “agency expertise.” To understand how these impenetrable models work, let alone contest their accuracy or validity, is a daunting task. The models thus serve as powerful technocratic weapons in securing funding, dismissing environmental concerns, and blocking outside scrutiny. Concrete keeps pouring into new highway lanes, regardless of their utility for drivers or their damage to the world around them." https://lnkd.in/ePssfGRi

“So often in the United States, we think about things like, ‘What is the most convenient way for every single person in a car to get from Point A to Point B with as few obstacles as possible? But that leaves so many people behind." This might actually be one of the biggest social benefits of using your car less: It will, in turn, open your eyes to how little room has been left for anything else. 'Reimagining how we’re going to truly allocate our public resources — our public dollars, our public services — to serve everyone is so important,' Sledge stressed. Looking around, you’ll realize there is almost never a justifiable reason for your suburb or city to lack protected bike lanes or sidewalks or crosswalks — other than because they weren’t expected or demanded in the first place. What a failure of imagination?that?is." https://lnkd.in/e3aUtD8i

If funding transit doesn't resonate with you, then this should: "Even those who never or rarely use the system rely on others who do for a smoother experience on the city’s roads. In densely populated rowhouse neighborhoods, a surge in car traffic prompted by fewer SEPTA services could lead to more competition for limited parking spots, while the region’s roads would likely see gridlock spike as those who previously relied on public transportation are forced behind the wheel." This persistent policy issue is often seen as car vs. transit (us vs. them) problem when really it's a transportation system issue that affects everyone.

Very proud of the Transportation Equity Dashboard (TED), a collaboration between TransitCenter and Willem Klumpenhouwer, PhD. And don't miss the Transit Access Stories. They connect the dots between long-running transportation policy and post-Covid public transit service trends to what regular people in 7 cities can actually reach by public transit. (Data source credits go to Willem and TED) Transit Access Stories: https://lnkd.in/grKuWJQa Transit Equity Dashboard: https://lnkd.in/gFrABgSm

NEW EPISODE! Project 2025 and the Stakes for Transportation There’s been a lot of talk this election season about Project 2025, the initiative from the Heritage Foundation to prepare for a potential second Trump administration. Understandably, much of the conversation about Project 2025 has been about the stakes for abortion access, rights for LGBTQ+ people, protections for civil servants, the Department of Education, Social Security and much more. But there’s also a 10-page chapter about the Department of Transportation, written by a former Trump administration official, that outlines a lot of ideas and plans that could spell doom for many vital progressive transportation projects, change how funding is distributed, and deeply harm the nation’s ability to address climate change. Kevin DeGood, the director of Infrastructure Policy at the Center for American Progress, joins The War on Cars to walk through what’s in this document and what’s at stake for transportation in this election. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

We're so proud of our Communications Cabinet, a group of incredible transit communicators that is helping to change the narrative about transit across the country!

Chicago Transit Authority faces a painful tradeoff between ridership goals and racial equity goals. The only way to do both is to have more funding. Here's how I explained this to the Chicago Transit Board this morning: https://lnkd.in/gQRUX5jD

"The Washington region’s steadily increasing access to jobs and opportunities via transit over the last two years has largely gone undocumented. Some of the most significant boosts in transit access have happened in corners of the region that have needed it the most for decades, including Northern Virginia, Montgomery County, and Southeast DC.?TransitCenter’s newly updated?Transit Equity Dashboard?makes it easy to explore the data behind the region’s ridership recovery, whether you are a policymaking professional, enthused advocate, or a data dilettante." Wyatt Gordon Greater Greater Washington https://lnkd.in/e2VDNUkG

Important article by UIC Associate Professor Kate Lowe in the Chicago Tribune this morning on transit’s fiscal cliff and what is at stake for the entire Chicago region. ?? “We need to grow the collective financial pie for transit, at the national, state and regional levels, which would benefit us all. Addressing the fiscal cliff is a starting point. Increasing public transit investment beyond it would yield collective equity, environmental and economic benefits for riders and nonriders alike.” https://lnkd.in/eRZxMS56

"We asked Baltimore Area voters how they would allocate a hypothetical $100 budget across six categories of government spending on transportation. On average, the voters polled wanted much more balanced spending whereas state and local leaders consistently spend disproportionate amounts on highway expansion." https://lnkd.in/evvMqAjA