Public Transit and Mobility Justice with Sally Thomas and Laura Shantz

We're excited to bring you the first of a series of episodes we've been working on, diving into sustainable transportation issues and solutions here in Ottawa. In this first transportation episode, we chat with accessibility and transit advocates Sally Thomas and Laura Shantz about public transit and mobility justice.

Sally Thomas is a Paralympic athlete and accessibility advocate who is focused on improving her community for everyone. She works with Ottawa Transit Riders and Healthy Transportation Coalition to push for more equitable and green ways to get around our City.

Laura Shantz is a transit advocate who believes that everyone deserves to get around with dignity. She works in civic engagement and believes that public transit and active transit are part of the solution to mitigating climate change. Laura is also running for Ottawa City Council in ward 12, Rideau-Vanier.

We chat about the role of public transit in climate action, and how we can address inequalities in our transportation system to make it easier and safer for everyone to get where they need to go. "Public transit opens doors. It really is an essential service, it's delivering mobility, it's delivering freedom, it's delivering dignity in getting around and those are things that are essential to the lifeblood of our city."