In this episode of "High Frequency," host Kapish Singla explores the state of transit funding with Yonah Freemark, senior research associate at the Urban Institute. Based on insights from the recent Urban Institute report, “Surmounting the Fiscal Cliff,” the interview delves into the reasons behind transit’s current fiscal cliff, and the policy choices that have perpetually put transit agency finances on precarious footing. The episode advances sustainable funding solutions that could finally disrupt this vicious cycle of underinvestment, and ensure that the current crisis is transit’s last fiscal cliff.

Central Maryland Transportation Alliance is an advocacy group working to improve and expand transportation options in the Baltimore region. Using data and storytelling, CMTA has forefronted how unreliability and breakdown issues on buses and trains have negatively impacted workers and students throughout the region.

In this episode, I interview Brian O’Malley, President & CEO at CMTA, to discuss how his organization built a winning coalition to secure state funding for the state of good repair needs of Baltimore’s transit system to address the breakdowns. Their advocacy led to the passage of the Transit Safety and Investment Act in 2021, which requires the state of Maryland to provide minimum annual funding for maintenance of the system. CMTA’s efforts demonstrate the power of organizing legislators and community groups to challenge the entrenched political prioritization of car infrastructure in transportation funding.

ACT-LA is an advocacy organization that strives to create equitable transit systems and neighborhoods in Los Angeles. In recent years, ACT-LA has campaigned on securing safety alternatives to armed policing on LA Metro’s buses and trains, and helped to win an unarmed transit ambassador program that launched in October 2022.

In this episode, I interview Scarlett De Leon, Campaigns Director at ACT-LA, to discuss her organization’s vision for creating community safety on transit. In 2021, the group released its “Metro as a Sanctuary” report that audited Metro’s policing contracts, and analyzed the racially disproportionate impact of over-policing in the system. ACT-LA’s report and subsequent pop-up activations demonstrated what care-based safety solutions that forefront rider dignity could look like.

Ride New Orleans is an advocacy organization with a mission to win equitable public transportation for all residents across the New Orleans region. For over a decade, Ride New Orleans has advocated for better bus service, particularly service that would improve access to jobs. Years of advocacy by Ride will pay off in September 2022 when the New Orleans RTA launches a bus network redesign that is largely informed by the needs of riders. The “New Links” redesign will be the most transformative change to transit in the region since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, and depleted local transit service in its aftermath.

Ride New Orleans actively pushed to have a seat at the table when the community engagement outreach for New Links began. In this episode, I speak with the organization’s Executive Director, Courtney Jackson, about how Ride hosted “therapeutic engagement sessions” in collaboration with decision-makers that served to amplify the rider experience and empower the rider voice. Courtney also shares how Ride combines data and storytelling to demonstrate the urgency of frequent, reliable transit service in their advocacy campaigns.

“People like data and numbers, but folks have hearts. Humanizing our transit system really makes decision-makers pause and reflect. And in that pause, they [decision-makers] start to see the importance of the work that they do and that humanizes their work.” - Courtney Jackson

In February 2022, Pittsburgh’s Mon-Oakland Connector Project—an autonomous shuttle proposal that would have spent $23 million of taxpayer dollars—finally died. Cause of death? Years of organizing by the advocacy group Pittsburghers for Public Transit that called attention to the fact that the project did little to serve the actual mobility needs of Pittsburgh residents.

PPT is a grassroots organization of transit riders, workers, and residents who defend and expand public transit. In this episode, I spoke with the organization’s executive director, Laura Chu Wiens, about how PPT and allied groups successfully fought against the Mon-Oakland Connector and shifted public funds towards community-led solutions. Laura also shares her thoughts about how governmental agencies can build trust with and listen to communities.

“If the city was taking the time to finally address mobility needs, why wouldn’t it be that they would’ve started with the things that would be so impactful and so obviously needed rather than investing in this tech-based solution.” - Laura Chu Wiens

How do policies that make transit more equitable get implemented? That’s a question that Laurel Paget-Seekins, Leadership in Government Fellow at Open Society Foundations, is looking into. Laurel draws from her experiences as a transit advocate in Atlanta and former Assistant General Manager of Policy at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

In this episode, Laurel reflects on her time working with advocates in Boston to implement a low-fare youth pass, and her experience in Atlanta advocating alongside agency leadership to win more funding for bus service. Those collaborations led Laurel to think deeply about how the power to enact change is built from both the inside and the outside of government.

“How do we make sure that we're holding the government accountable while also trying to build trust in the institution of government? Part of that is understanding that our government institutions are essentially a collection of people who are managing a bunch of business processes, fiscal assets, and technology systems that are patched together through years of underinvestment. And so we have to get at those root problems, as well as the big policy questions to make government work.” - Laurel Paget-Seekins

In June, TransitCenter released the Transit Equity Dashboard. The dashboard uses maps and graphs to show how transit access varies by race, class, and other demographic factors in 6 major urban regions.

TransitCenter Senior Research Associate Mary Buchanan led the development of the dashboard. In this episode, Mary explains the importance of access to opportunity metrics, and how these metrics can be used to measure equity. Mary also shares major findings from the dashboard, and explains how this type of data can bolster advocacy efforts for more equitable service.

Ron Thompson is Policy Officer at Greater Greater Washington. Ron joins us to reflect on what the dashboard tells us about inequitable transit access in the DC region. In particular, he describes the East-West divide in the city, and how it affects access to hospitals for Black and Latinx residents.

King County Metro, the largest transit agency in the Seattle region, is guided by the principle that “mobility is a human right.” For Metro, that means reducing barriers to frequent, reliable transit that connects people to jobs and other opportunities.

Chris O’Claire is Mobility Division Director at King County Metro. In this episode, Chris details how the agency applies an equity lens to service planning and fare policy. Chris also tells us about Metro’s Equity Cabinet and how it has led to more inclusive decision-making at the agency.

At the onset of the pandemic, LA Metro made deep cuts to its bus service despite retaining the highest proportion of bus riders among large transit agencies in 2020. Over the past year, a coalition of transit advocates put pressure on LA Metro to reverse the cuts. The advocacy culminated in a commitment from the agency in January 2021 to restore service to pre-pandemic levels later this year.

The win follows years of advocacy to make bus service a higher priority at LA Metro. Investing in Place is a Los Angeles advocacy organization that has been changing the conversation on bus investments. In this episode, Jessica Meaney and Scott Frazier of Investing in Place discuss the campaign that led to the January 2021 commitment. Jessica and Scott also reflect on the political nature of transit advocacy, and share their thoughts on what an equitable transit system looks like.

Cities across the US, including Miami, have been redesigning their bus networks to better serve today’s riders. Many decades-old networks have simply not kept pace with changing residential and employment patterns.

Az Chougle is the Executive Director of Transit Alliance Miami, a non-profit organization that advocates for walkable streets, bikeable neighborhoods, and better public transit. In 2019, Transit Alliance Miami became the first advocacy group in the country to lead its city’s bus network redesign process. In this episode, Az details the group’s innovative community engagement efforts, and discusses how Transit Alliance worked to ensure the redesign benefitted Miami residents who rely on transit the most. He also outlines the benefits and drawbacks of advocacy groups taking on this work.