Mobility Justice
Whose streets? Black streets. Planners and urbanists, it’s time to reckon with the racism rampant in city building. Here are four actions to take. (Streetsblog)
Why we must talk about race when we talk about bikes. Systemic racism can’t be fixed without tackling it within cycling. (Bicycling)
Video: How do we respond to anti-Black racism in urbanist practices and conversations? Public spaces are not neutral. (Canadian Urban Institute)
How to end anti-Blackness in cities. Black designers and planners are mobilizing their industries to eradicate racism in urbanism. (Curbed)
‘Safe Streets’ are not safe for Black lives. A transportation planner warns pedestrian-friendly street redesigns that happen without diverse public input can end up harming the communities they serve. (CityLab)
How planes, trains and automobiles worsened America’s racial divide. For decades we’ve built racial inequities into our roads, subways and sidewalks. Better transportation policies now could play a big role in dismantling structural racism. (Politico)
Black and disabled. How Racial discrimination is amplified by ableism. (Reset)
Listen: Equality in transportation planning. Greg Lindsay sits down with Dr. Destiny Thomas, Founder and CEO of Thrivance Group, to discuss and challenge conventional (white) narratives about transportation planning.
What’s new
SDOT showing up for equality. No street, no public place, no design, no project is indifferent on the question of race. (SDOT)
Report: Powering the transition. Community priorities for a renewable and equitable future. (Puget Sound Sage)
$2 million awarded for Everett Link transit-oriented development. FTA funding will help ensure Everett has maximized transit-oriented development opportunities. (Daily Journal of Commerce)
In response to financial impacts related to COVID-19, SDOT takes immediate action to pause several projects. A list of suspended projects. (SDOT)
Everett Transit rethinks its future. Is it time for a merger? (Urbanist)
Senior meals program handles increase in demand. Spokane Transit Authority also offered several weeks of its paratransit vans and drivers to help cover the extra deliveries. (Spokesman Review)
Sound Transit capital program realignment process slowed down to mid-2021. Due to COVID-19 and the recession, Sound Transit will need to make difficult decisions on project cuts and delays. Check out TCC’s survey results and joint comments to the Sound Transit Board on program realignment. (Urbanist)
With COVID-19 taking a toll on Pierce Transit, it’s time to rethink how we fund it. Time to plan for the pandemic’s impacts on transit and prepare for the future. (News Tribune)
Designs for Redmond link stations revealed. Sound Transit has published an update on the Redmond extension project, where residents can offer feedback on the designs. (Redmond Reporter)
Lime Bikes return to Seattle. Six weeks after Jump and Lime bike share companies merged and temporarily paused operations, the company is bringing shared bikes back. (SDOT)
Limited fixed-route bus service returns on Intercity Transit. Intercity Transit’s fixed-route bus lines return to action. (Olympian)
Via-to-Transit pilot returns. The on-demand shuttle service connecting riders to transit hubs, resumes service to Rainier Beach, Othello, and Tukwila International Boulevard light rail stations. (King County Metro)
A bus driver steers through crisis. King County Metro operator Clay McClure is one of the many essential workers who help transport Seattle’s residents to and from destinations during the coronavirus pandemic, risking his own health and safety to help others. (Crosscut)
I ❤ Transit Virtual Fest Continues!
I ♥ Transit Virtual Fest will continue during July! Join us on Wednesdays in July for our series of events. Let’s build long-term support for transit together.
Transit Fest Events
Mobility Justice Power Hour July 8th | 3:30-5:00 pm PDT We’re blocking off time on our calendars to have individual reading time to educate ourselves about the intersections of whiteness, racism, and transportation. Stay on after 4:30 to discuss what we’ve read. RSVP
Transit Chat: Tribal Transportation July 15th | 2:00-2:45 pm PDT Tribal transportation is a vital part of Washington State’s transportation system and centering Indigenous voices needs to be a high priority for our state. Join us for a discussion about tribal transportation structure and funding in Washington State, transportation safety and access on tribal land, COVID-19’s impacts, and ways to support tribal transportation work. RSVP
Transit Trivia July 29 | 3:30-6:30 pm PDT Can you name all the transit agencies in Washington? Do you know a bus route number by it’s start and end location? Do you like prizes, fun, and meeting fellow transit nerds? If you answered yes to these questions, then Transit Trivia is for you! RSVP
Next stop
Survey: Stay Healthy Streets. Which Stay Healthy Streets in Seattle should become permanent? Weigh in. (SDOT)
Video: Tribal transportation planning and pedestrian safety. Why are pedestrian fatalities are so prevalent in tribal communities? (America Walks)
Webinar: Walking towards justice in Indian Country: Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Learn how the dark history of colonization, complex jurisdictional issues, and racialized indifference have created the circumstances in which these crimes are regularly perpetrated and rarely prosecuted. (America Walks)
Help Sound Transit make your ride better. Join the new Sounding Board to make your voice heard. (Sound Transit)
Climate leaders live: Carbon pricing 101. This webinar will give an overview of carbon pricing, how it’s supposed to work, and the lessons learned from folks who have policies in place. (Climate Solutions)
Artist-led projects to address pandemic-related transportation challenges. Check out selected projects that address COVID-related transportation challenges and systemic inequities and do so in unique, creative ways, with the support of local artists. (Smart Growth America)
Webinar: This book is a bridge! Sharing results of a unique collaboration between transportation professionals and artists in residence at WSDOT. The first program in the nation to embed artists within a statewide government agency. (WSDOT)
Webinar: Policing can’t be reformed. This webinar will explore what “defund” means, its connection to police abolition and how “anti-Blackness” must be confronted before any system can provide safety and justice. (PolicyLink)
Transformative Talks recap: Open for whom? A justice-focused conversation about Open Streets, focusing on people, not infrastructure. (Untokening)
What we’re reading
Fear of public transit got ahead of the evidence. Many have blamed subways and buses for coronavirus outbreaks, but a growing body of research suggests otherwise. (Atlantic)
4 things every sustainable transportation advocate should know about the INVEST Act. Our Congresspeople are reportedly likely to vote on a major infrastructure bill soon — and if they succeed, it will have big consequences for the future of sustainable transportation in the U.S. (Streetsblog)
Why the curb-cut effect is key to beating COVID-19. Never has this idea been more relevant — and urgent. (PolicyLink)
The spaces that make cities fairer and more resilient. Our shared economy depends most on what happens in between. (New York Times)
A call to courage. An open letter to urbanists. (Canadian Urban Institute)
COVID-19 has created more cyclists: How cities can keep them on their bikes. As physical distancing measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 begin to relax in some countries and people return to work, the fears surrounding transportation and commuting continue to weigh on the minds of many. (The Conversation)
How cities are trying to avert gridlock after coronavirus lockdowns. Officials are trying to prevent a return to urban gridlock and pollution as residents begin to travel again. (New York Times)
Coronavirus and Latino health equity. What the coronavirus pandemic means for Latino health equity and efforts to help vulnerable communities. (Salud)
Pandemic travel patterns hint at our urban future. A snapshot of global transportation data during six months of coronavirus reveals diverging paths for cities. (CityLab)
House’s massive infrastructure bill brings housing, land use, and transportation together. The Moving Forward Act would include a new kind of transportation bill, billions to invest in new or rehabilitated affordable housing, and support for more inclusive and equitable development around transit to help give more Americans access to opportunity. (Smart Growth America)
In Seattle, protests over racial equity turn to land ownership. To help resist gentrification, the city’s Africatown Land Trust is leading a campaign to transfer underutilized property to the Black community. (CityLab)
Mission in motion
Re-envisioning policing and enforcement in transportation
Police reform is at the forefront of current civic and policy discussions that support the Black Lives Matter movement. Policing has been life threatening to Black and Brown communities in America. If we are working to ensure that everyone should have the right to move freely and safely through our public spaces and transit systems, we need to rethink our enforcement and policing systems.Here are other resources to start this critical work:
- Video: TCC’s recent transit chat on re-imagining policing and reform in transportation
- Check out Seattle Neighborhood Greenway’s Re-Imagining Traffic Enforcement task force for a local response
- An overview of our Sound Transit fare enforcement reform work
- How cars transformed policing (Boston Review)
- Walking while Black (LitHub)
- The US’s jaywalking laws target people of color (Guardian)
- Cities for fine and fee justice (PolicyLink)
- Public transit faces its own police reckoning (CityLab)
- What role should police play in traffic safety? (MinnPost)
Staff pick
Selina Urena, Development Manager
I was sad to miss the live “24 hours round the clock” presentation by Jim Labayen, a Senior Program Coordinator at Bike Works. I am grateful that they shared the presentation online and I encourage all of you to check it out! Jim’s story is “about grit and perseverance despite feeling like the underdog, as well as about the critical need to promote diversity and representation in the cycling community.”
Bike Works is a rad nonprofit organization in South Seattle that uses the bicycle as a tool for change. Even though I don’t work at Bike Works anymore, they will always be close to my heart. So check out their bike shop and other programs – it’s not far from light rail or the King County Metro route 7!
Meme in motion
How Tokyo’s subway stays on-time, clean, and safe.
Every month we like to express our gratitude to those that keep us rolling. Thank you: Alex K., Alex W., Andrew A., Andrew B., Ann M., Anne W-R., Brynn and Joe B., Carl O., Charla S., Conrad W., David R., Ethan M., Jasmine B., John R., Josh F., Karen U., Kate G., Kevin M., Kristina W., Matthew L., Michael H. and Ann C., Nicholas M., Rebecca S., Rob B., Sam and Jess Z., Tammy K., Teri M., Toby C., and of course the folk that choose to give anonymously.
If we missed anyone our apologies and thank you for your support. Want a little extra TCC love? Support Transportation Choices Coalition and become a donor today!
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