PPT joins the ATU for Transit Action Month!

On Tuesday, May 20, members of PPT and the ATU's Local 85 joined transit supporters from around the country in our nation's capitol to call for federal transportation funding.  The rally and lobby day was organized by the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transit Workers' Union as a part of their Transit Action Month campaign.

Speakers at the rally included elected and union officials, Rev. Al Sharpton, and PPT's own Alicia Williamson, who shared our Transit Bill of Rights and the scoop on how we mobilized thousands of riders, workers, and supporters around it in order to help get a comprehensive transportation funding bill passed in Pennsylvania last fall in spite of some pretty significant political obstacles.  "Which just goes to show," she said, "that an organized ridership working in solidarity with organized labor GETS THE GOODS.  Workers fighting together get the goods.  We did it in Harrisburg; we can do it here."  She also thanked the ATU for "being a union that makes things happen, for making our transit systems better and safer and more equitable, and especially for helping to bring riders and drivers together to fight for what's right because we're not just workers and customers in a business, we're co-owners in a public service that benefits everyone whether or not you ride." 

PPT was proud to stand with the ATU to call for more public support and funding for public mass transit.  Most importantly, Transit Action Month has helped us build communities and coalitions to improve OUR transit system. Fix it. Fund it. Make it fair!

Ready to Rally!  PPT and ATU members at Union Station

PPT communications manager Alicia at the podium, speaking for PPT (above)

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ATU & PPT member Mike Harms with PPT organizer Molly Nichols and ATU International's President Larry Hanley (wearing a PPT button!) (below)

PAAC's ULI Panel and MindMixer Forum

PPT was happy to be invited to present this morning to PAAC's Urban Land Institute advisory panel on the future of our transit system.  We told them about us and our Transit Bill of Rights and suggested that PAAC sign onto it.


What would it look like for Port Authority to join us in affirming and realizing these rights?  Well, for starters...

• Making sure that public transit planning and decision-making processes are inclusive and transparent
• Giving riders and drivers a more substantive and formalized role in transit planning 
• Making the board (including who they are, how and why they were appointed) more visible
• Communicating with the public about how their feedback is considered and addressed
• Besides maintaining and enhancing existing service to those who are already best served by our transit system, also prioritizing and actively working towards the restoration and expansion of service to those underserved neighborhoods in our community
• Ensuring that the voices of current residents of neighborhoods affected by transit-oriented development projects are given equal weight to those of public officials and outside developers in planning processes
• Supplementing data-driven policy with place-based qualitative analysis and studies
• Lowering fares and creating simple and affordable fare structures
• Working with and mobilizing communities to help find solutions that meet their transit needs

Read more about the U.L.I. process HERE!

You can also have your say about public transportation in our region by registering for the Port Authority's MindMixer forum - sign up and speak out today! http://paac.mindmixer.com/

PPT Brings the Community Transit Survey to Baldwin!

Twenty-one PPT volunteers, including eleven Port Authority riders and ten drivers, took to the streets of Baldwin on Saturday, May 10 to see if residents wanted their bus back and if they were willing to take action to get it, and the answer to both was a resounding "yes."  We surveyed over 300 people in the neighborhood, all of whom agreed restoring public transit service was a vital need for their community.  We heard stories from workers whose daily commute has increased to four hours round-trip following the cut of the Spencer route, from seniors who have taken to hitchhiking down the hill to get to local businesses, from landlords who are unable to fill their rentals because there's no transit access, and many more.

We'll be doing our part to make sure all these voices and those of the many other under-served neighborhoods around the county are heard by decision-makers.  Help us to communicate the transit needs of our communities by sharing our online survey and volunteering to survey your neighbors!