High Frequency

In November 2020, Austin residents voted in favor of Proposition A. The $7 billion plan will expand bus service and build new light rail. Prop A also broke ground by pairing transit investments with housing funds to prevent displacement.

João Paulo Connolly is the Director of Housing and Community Development at the Austin Justice Coalition. AJC is a racial justice group that educates and builds community power for people of color in Austin. In this episode, João Paulo discusses the anti-displacement fund and the equity dashboard written into Prop A. He also shares how transit advocacy can incorporate housing justice.

In Chicago, racial disparities run deep. A history of redlining, disinvestment, and movement of jobs to the suburbs have resulted in disparate life outcomes for Black and white residents. In transportation, this has manifested in longer transit commutes for Black residents, and a disproportionate number of cycling tickets given out in Black and brown neighborhoods, among other ways.

Olatunji Oboi Reed is CEO & President of The Equiticity Racial Equity Movement. Based in Chicago, Equiticity advocates for mobility justice for Black, Brown, and Indigenous people of color. In this episode, Oboi discusses how Equiticity is tackling barriers to transportation access by collecting data about existing barriers, and developing legislation and policies that will codify and track the equitable distribution of resources across the city.

In 2019, New York’s MTA announced a plan to hire 500 additional police officers, citing the need to reduce fare evasion. Transit advocates, community organizers, and police reformers quickly pointed out the racially discriminatory patterns of fare enforcement, and that the additional police presence would lead to more discriminatory enforcement within the system. Analysis of NYPD data by the Community Service Society demonstrates that fare summonses and arrests are disproportionately issued in high-poverty Black neighborhoods.

In this episode, Brooklyn Movement Center Deputy Director Anthonine Pierre discusses how over-policing limits the movement of Black and brown New Yorkers, particularly on public transit. BMC is a community organizing group based in Central Brooklyn, and a member of Communities United for Police Reform, which recently led the #NYCBudgetJustice campaign to reallocate funding from NYPD to social services and public infrastructure.

How do transit agencies weather a crisis? In February 2015, the public transit system in Boston completely shut down due to heavy snowstorms. As a result, the general manager resigned and oversight of the MBTA was delegated to the newly formed Fiscal and Management Control Board. Under the board’s leadership the past five years, the agency has advanced projects that riders advocated for.

In this episode, FMCB Vice Chair Monica Tibbits-Nutt reflects on the 2015 crisis and the parallels to 2020. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented challenge for the MBTA and every other transit agency. Monica shares how agencies will begin to re-think operations to prioritize operator and rider safety in the future.

Nathan Vass is a bus operator at King County Metro in Seattle. For several years, Nathan has written about his interactions with riders on his route. His stories, compiled in a book called The Lines That Make Us, offer a compassionate glimpse into the lives of riders.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, bus operators have encountered a new set of challenges. Many are working without adequate personal protective equipment, transporting passengers at significant risk to their own health. They have also struggled to get clear information on sick leave and the health of fellow transit workers. In this episode, we talk to Nathan about how he’s coping with these challenges, and about the steps that King County Metro has taken to address the concerns of bus operators.

Alex Hudson is Executive Director at Transportation Choices Coalition, a policy and advocacy organization based in Seattle, Washington. Since the 1990s, TCC has worked to build broad coalitions on various campaigns and initiatives including Sound Transit 3, a $53.8 billion plan to expand transit approved by Seattle area voters in 2016.

In this episode of High Frequency, Alex shares her wisdom about the elements of a winning campaign -- how to paint a big vision, garner support from elected leaders, and build a big tent coalition. She also shares lessons about communications tactics that have and haven’t worked when talking to voters about transit.

Maya Rosas is director of policy at the advocacy organization Circulate San Diego. In this episode, Maya discusses how Circulate successfully made the case for converting transit station parking lots into new housing. Last year, the momentum continued, with the San Diego city government reducing parking requirements near frequent transit stops. Maya shares her advocacy tactics and describes how Circulate uses research to cultivate relationships with decision makers and change public policy.

Beth Osborne is Director of Transportation for America. In this episode, Beth explains how the federal transportation program has failed to safely connect Americans with access to jobs and opportunities, despite the billions of dollars being poured into it. Since accomplishing its original mission of building the interstate highway system, the program has floundered, with misplaced goals and metrics for success. “Crumbling roads and bridges” has become common refrains for politicians, yet allocated funds often prioritize new projects rather than maintaining new ones. Many cities have outlined “Vision Zero” goals, yet pedestrian deaths have continued to increase in the past decade. In this episode of High Frequency, Beth walks us through the recommendations Transportation for America has developed for the federal transportation program: 1) prioritize maintenance, 2) design for safety over speed, and 3) connect people to jobs and services.

Who runs transit in your city? In many places, this is a complicated answer that involves a mix of different levels of government, transit agencies, and departments of transportation. In London, the answer is slightly more straight-forward. Leon Daniels is former Managing Director, Surface Transport at Transport for London (TfL). In this episode, Leon tells the story of what happened after the London government took responsibility for its transportation program in 2000 back from the central government. This maneuver resulted in many aspects of transportation such as taxicab regulation and bus service planning to be brought under one roof. Since that reorganization, Londoners have benefitted from increased frequency and improved service on public transit routes. In turn, TfL has also been rewarded with historic shares of transit mode share over the years. Finally, Leon shares some lessons from his experience at TfL as US transit agencies like New York’s MTA undergo their own reorganizations.

Stacy Thompson is Executive Director at LivableStreets in Boston. In this episode, Stacy discusses how her advocacy organization has pushed municipalities in the Boston region to prioritize buses. In 2017, the first in a series of “pop-up” bus lane in the Boston neighborhood of Roslindale. This pilot took advantage of the street cleaning schedule to give buses a “red lane” on space that had previously been reserved for parking. The pilot was a success, and has the concept has taken off across the city. Stacy imparts best practices on rider engagement and tips on working with politicians to reclaim our streets for people.