While bike share is one of the most affordable transportation options in the city, the cost of a bike share membership can still be out of reach for many people. This means many low-income residents will continue to use public transit which has a low initial cost unlike a bike share membership...
| Read more >Northeastern University Archives led a discussion on transportation equity in Boston Feb. 13 and screened a documentary about the formation of the Silver Line, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s transit line that connects both Roxbury and the South End to downtown, the Seaport...
| Read more >Fifty years after the federal Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in lending, African Americans and Latinos continue to be routinely denied conventional mortgage loans at rates far higher than their white counterparts.This modern-day redlining persisted in 61 metro areas even when...
| Read more >Some cities are trying to make bike sharing more accessible — and to combat its elite image. They’re calling it bike equity. Bike sharing may be the ultimate symbol of gentrification, the province of avocado-toast loving, espresso-swilling — and mostly white — millennials. But some cities are...
| Read more >Representing the region's primarily white northern suburbs, Patterson is blocking a transit measure that would improve job access for black Detroiters. For 40 years, Detroit has struggled to muster the political support to build a coherent regional transit system. The desire by white...
| Read more >Over the past week, more than 1,500 trains were scheduled to pass through downtown Miami’s Government Center Metrorail station. As of Thursday afternoon, just 383 arrived on time. The vast majority—927, to be exact—arrived late or bunched too closely to a previous train. And the remaining 208...
| Read more >Renewable energy advocates in Jersey City, NJ rallied in City Hall to call for the electrification of New Jersey's public transportation system. The event, organized by Jersey Renews along with the Amalgamated Transit Union, came the day after "transit equity day," an effort by the labor...
| Read more >Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. helped Americans to understand that civil rights included not only the right to vote and to ride in any seat on a bus, but the right to a decent home, the right to a good job, the right to join a union and other rights necessary for equal access to a good life. He...
| Read more >Elmenar Lord, a longtime resident of Riverdale, Georgia, was forced to quit her job with the IRS in 2010 when her bus line stopped running. Without a car or license, she struggled to find work. She was forced to rely on government assistance programs like food stamps just to get by. Even routine...
| Read more >Transit Alliance is shutting down after 19 years advocating for better transit in Denver and the metro region. The organization was founded after a failed transit referendum in 1997, with the express intent of getting the $4.7 billion FasTracks transit funding measure over the finish line....
| Read more >Transit equity isn’t just about where you sit on the bus. It’s about whether you can get on a bus at all. The layout of rapid-transit systems determines the accessibility of jobs. Poorer people need access to those jobs so they could begin to move into the mainstream of American life — which...
| Read more >By now, the many ways New York City’s failing subway system has upended countless lives has been well documented. But a new report finds that no group has been hurt more than the city’s army of health care workers who fan out across the city every day to take care of older people, the frail and...
| Read more >The notion that property owners should pay extra for their proximity to the subway is called “value capture” and has long been debated in urban planning circles. Now Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, has made value capture a prominent part of his plan to salvage the subway system by proposing to...
| Read more >Some Americans are afraid to explore their own country out of concerns that evoke the Jim Crow-era Green Book. Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended many discriminatory practices allowed under Jim Crow laws, similar risks and concerns have lingered. Motorists still fear encountering racist...
| Read more >The arrival of dockless bike-share is changing the cycling landscape in some American cities. With the rapid expansion of these systems have come the inevitable complaints. Some are at least understandable – sloppily parked bikes can obstruct sidewalks. But a lot of the animosity toward dockless...
| Read more >Private firms are muscling-in on the elite end of the business. Uber and Lyft may be responsible for about a 6 percent shift in ridership away from transit. But they are also unprofitable, which means they may be unsustainable, even while charging fares that most citizens could not afford for...
| Read more >A fee-based plan may be the only hope for the city’s costly transportation crisis. Currently, there is still no precedent for a true congestion pricing scheme in the United States. That could soon change, if a much-anticipated report by Fix NYC, a traffic advisory panel appointed by New York...
| Read more >As states have stopped funding driver’s education, participation has declined – and it’s lower-income teens and teens of color who are missing out. Whereas taking driver’s education was a given in the late 1980s in Michigan since young drivers were trained through the public school system for...
| Read more >Aside from the immense potential for good that Transportation as a Service (TaaS) can offer, there are various pitfalls, disruptions, and downsides to take into account. Amongst the negative impacts that could result from shifting from personally owned vehicles to self-driving electric car...
| Read more >As NYPD boasts about confiscating bikes from people trying to support themselves and their families, cyclists continue to face the real mortal threat on NYC streets. As promised, Mayor de Blasio’s crackdown on electric bikes is in effect. NYPD precincts are boasting about confiscating bikes from...
| Read more >Given Divvy’s past ridership demographics, some might find it surprising that the most prolific bike-share user is African-American. Results from a 2015 survey revealed problematic numbers that showed that lower ridership in Chicago means that people of color are missing out on the mobility,...
| Read more >In one of its first actions of 2018, the Seattle City Council unanimously adopted a resolution affirming its commitment to racial equity and social justice in transportation planning. The resolution states that the Department of Transportation (SDOT) will provide “accessible and affordable...
| Read more >The number of Bay Area residents who have signed up for Ford GoBike’s discounted memberships has nearly tripled since September 2017, thanks to vigorous efforts to inform low-income communities about the Bike Share for All discount program. Almost 1,500 residents are enrolled via the $5...
| Read more >California is using the growing sums of money it receives from its emission cap-and-trade auction for good. In mid-December, California announced it would invest $663 million in a plan to clean up particularly dirty fleets, especially those operating in low-income and disadvantaged...
| Read more >In Phoenix, people with disabilities have an incredible resource called Ability360. Hundreds of people with a wide range of disabilities go to the Ability360 center each day for recreational activities like wheelchair lacrosse or adaptive climbing. They can get physical therapy, or connect with...
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