Gwinnett County lawmakers approve a tax-hike referendum for the March ballot. The times – and maybe even the suburbs! – are a-changin: Lawmakers in Georgia’s historically anti-transit Gwinnett County approved a ballot initiative for a one-cent sales tax hike to bring heavy rail and bus rapid...
| Read more >Are water main breaks getting fixed as quickly in black neighborhoods as majority-white ones? Is snow plowed as promptly? Is the city approving tax incentives for black- and white-owned businesses in an equitable manner? Those are the kinds of questions Baltimore agencies will have to wrestle...
| Read more >A federal law has done little to advance transportation fairness for low-income communities. Progress is up to local leaders. Questions of fairness have always been central to public transit. Decisions about whether to raise fares or cut service or about the geography of transit expansion have...
| Read more >Those who fear displacement don’t see it that way. What do we think about when we think about transportation equity? There is regional equity, modal funding equity, ridership equity, and then there is social equity. Fundamentally, social equity relates not simply to treating all people fairly,...
| Read more >San Francisco MTA (SFMTA) reforms also single out neighborhoods with significant minority populations. As reported in the San Francisco Examiner, City Hall is making plans to improve Muni service specifically aimed at low-income neighborhoods, people with disabilities, and communities of color....
| Read more >New micromobility services enjoy “fairly broad public support” and have high adoption rates. As dockless electric scooters enter more and more U.S. cities, these new modes of urban transit continue to outrun the ability of cities to study and regulate them. A new nationwide survey, “The...
| Read more >Dorchester is home to nearly a fifth of Boston’s population, but only has about a dozen bike-share docks – that’s if you count the southernmost one at the Franklin Park Zoo. The current inventory leaves out neighborhoods farther south including Ashmont Hill, Neponset, Codman Square and Lower...
| Read more >City of Seattle officials hope new bike share regulations widen access in low-income areas and ease parking woes. As they prepare to potentially allow double the number of dockless bike share bikes on Seattle streets, city transportation officials hope to address two big issues: equity and parking.
| Read more >The One Bird program comes as other micromobility startups are proposing programs for more environmental and social equity. Bird, the rapidly expanding scooter startup, just announced a new program to subsidize rides for underserved communities and promote transit equity.
| Read more >Lyft made a big move to not only live up to its founders’ lofty ideals, but to stake a claim as a more multimodal, sustainable transportation company that supports transit equity and safer streets. Lyft’s cofounders outlined Lyft’s new approach to integrating bikes and scooters into its suite of...
| Read more >After evaluating a pilot program, the city is adjusting its expectations for bike-share operators. Seattle will soon have new rules that will govern how bike-share companies operate in the city long-term—and could pave the way for additional bike-share companies coming to Seattle. For instance,...
| Read more >How many jobs are within reach if you take the bus instead of driving? The answer says a lot about the transit system and economic opportunity in your region. If people can’t rely on transit to get to work, they’re either going to drive, or they’ll be shut out of employment opportunities...
| Read more >With a rare look at trip data from the ride-hailing giant, a UCLA researcher finds promising equity results. For decades, racial discrimination by cab drivers has left black riders, in particular, waiting longer for pick-ups, having their destinations refused, and flat-out ignored, studies show....
| Read more >Kids go to school to get an education and increase their future job opportunities. But how they get to school is a crucial, underappreciated detail that can make a world of difference to the communities where schools are located. Earlier this month, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced...
| Read more >At the Meeting of the Minds Mobility Summit last week, speakers emphasized the need for equitable access to transportation and how microtransit can be a good avenue for autonomous vehicle usage. The growth of autonomous vehicle (AV) usage around the country can benefit cities and their public...
| Read more >With so many Baltimore riders relying on the bus to get to work or school, Samuel Jordan, president of the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition, doesn’t see any reason the city shouldn’t have the best system in the country. The fact that so many riders don’t have any other option is what has...
| Read more >Little benches are popping up around the city, carrying what organizers hope will be a loud message. Handwritten in permanent marker across each of the handmade, unpainted benches' seats, the message reads, "This bench supports bus riders more than the city does." Cam Hardy heads the Better Bus...
| Read more >Uncertainty around federal funding to extend the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line to the city’s southern limits has sparked discussions on whether to build the $2.3 billion extension at all or find alternatives to improve transit for Far South Side residents. South Side resident Michael...
| Read more >Dockless bike systems, launched in the U.S. in 2017, have spread to dozens of cities. In addition to providing a transportation service with no government subsidy, they are addressing some of the limitations of traditional docked bikeshare systems and are attracting a more diverse group of...
| Read more >New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council speaker Corey Johnson have reached a deal, as of yet unannounced, to provide reduced-fare transit cards to low-income residents, the New York Times reported Thursday. Under the terms of the agreement, those living below the federal poverty...
| Read more >The City Council and Mayor Bill de Blasio reached an agreement in principle early Thursday morning to fund the Fair Fares plan, according to two sources. Under the tentative agreement, $106 million from the city’s budget would pay for half-priced MetroCards for the rest of the year to nearly...
| Read more >During his keynote speech at the Transport Chicago conference, Equiticity founder and president Oboi Reed called for increased ownership of the transportation planning process in areas populated by “black, brown, and indigenous people of color.” He argued that one reason why...
| Read more >The new dockless bike-share companies that have taken off in the District are attracting a different kind of customer than the traditional Capital Bikeshare system: Their riders are more racially diverse, slightly younger and less affluent, according to transportation officials and an academic...
| Read more >The Regional Transportation Commission Board recently approved making bus passes more affordable for everyone and extending reduced-fare eligibility to benefit Veterans and seniors. The RTC is also simplifying transit-fare options to make buying a bus pass easier and to encourage more people to...
| Read more >Detroit transit is famous for all the wrong reasons. To get to the sprawled-out suburbs where the jobs are, people without access to a car have to make multiple transfers on routes operated by different agencies, often with long, long walks in between. Despite recent campaigns to create a...
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