Image Description: Group photo at spring training has 100 people holding up signs and smiling with fists up.
Transit for All means every community – urban and rural, large and small – and thats who the movement is fighting for!
150 transit riders and transit workers from across Pennsylvania and the United States gathered at the end of March to build organizing skill and strengthen community.
The movement keeps on growing! For two days at the end of March, 150 transit riders and transit workers gathered in Pittsburgh for the third-annual Transit for All Organizing Spring Training. Attendees and speakers came from all across PA and the United States. Their purpose was clear: they were there to build organizing skills to strengthen a movement that’s fighting for transit for all – whether in rural communities, small towns or big cities.
The training was organized by Pittsburghers for Public Transit, who leads the Transit for All PA! campaign. The program was jam-packed with opportunities for attendees to learn new skills, learn from victories won in other cities, and meet inspiring new friends from other communities!
Read on for a recap of the two-days or check out photos here!
Day 1 Recap: Welcome to Pittsburgh & the Transit Justice Movement
image description: County Executive Sara Innamorato addreses transit riders and transit workers at the 2026 Transit for All Organizing Spring Training Welcoming Happy Hour
On Friday, attendees from out of town met at the PPT office for a Transit Tour led by PPT Members. The Transit Tour ended at the Welcome Happy Hour hosted at Aslin Brewery in the Strip District.
More than 100 people were in attendance for delicious food and drinks. Some people were new to transit organizing but many were veteran organisers for better public transit. Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato even stopped by to welcome people to town and encourage advocates to keep organizing for better transit access!
Day 2 Recap: Training Day!
Image Description: Four panelists sit behind a table. One is speaking dynamically and moving their hands as the others smile and laugh. A sign language interpreter is translating in the background.
Day 2 was where the magic happened. Folks woke up bright and early to join for an 8am breakfast and some artmaking with Arts Excurions Unlimited, a community arts group from Pittsburgh’s Hazlewood neighborhood.
By 9am the plenary kicked off, led by Veronica Coptis, Senior Advisor, Taproot Earth. She began the day by driving home a theme that would be central to the training: that rural and urban communities must work together to change a system that moves us all. Veronica leads a number of rural organizing projects and shared that regardless of the community she’s working in, transportation is always a top need. Veronica was joined by Andrew Slack, a PA-based facilitator who led a panel discussion with Kearasten Jordan and Laura Pauls-Thomas, both Transit for All PA! Organizing Fellows from Lancaster, about transit needs in PA’s rural communities and small towns.
image description: Alisa Grishmand and Dr. Jose Badger present on a Transit for All Organizing Spring Training panel
After the Plenary discussion, the energy didn’t stop. There were 7 workshops throughout the day, led by PPT Members and transit organizing experts from PA and across the US:
Narrative Change: Our Stories Build the World We Want, led by Nadia Awad, Content Director, Narrative Initiative, Andrew Slack, PA-based narrative strategist, facilitator, and storyteller, and Clair Hopper, Digital Organizer, Pittsburghers for Public Transit and Transit for All PA!
VoteTransit: Bus Mayor Elections and Beyond, led by Betsy Plum, Executive Director of Riders Alliance (New York City), Barb Warwick, Pittsburgh City Council member, District 5, and facilitated by Laura Chu Wiens, Executive Director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit/Transit for All PA!
Mobile Workshop! Field Communications: Storytelling from the Street, led by Joe Conniff, Video Editor, Educator, and Producer, withremote support from Marcelese Cooper, Teaching Assistant Professor in the Film and Media Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh
Bargaining for the Common Good: Worker/Community Solidarity, led by Connor Chapman, University of Pittsburgh Graduate Workers Union and Pittsburghers for Public Transit and Ronni Getz, UPMC Magee Women’s Hospital, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania
Organizing with Disability Justice at the Center, led by Anna Zivarts, a leading author, transit rider organizer and founder of the Nondriver Alliance out of Washington state, and Dr. Josie Badger, director of the national RSA-Parent Training, Information, technical assistance center (RAISE), and founder of several orgs including the Pennsylvania Youth Leadership Network (PYLN), the Children’s Hospital Advocacy Network for Guidance and Empowerment (CHANGE), and J.Badger Consulting, moderated by Alisa Grishman, founder of Access Mob Pittsburgh and PPT Board member
image description: Two attendees from Transit Riders United in Detroit socialize talk together
Big Tech in Transit: Automation, Microtransit, Surveillance, and Data, led Dr. Sarah Fox, Assistant Professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University; Director, Tech Solidarity Lab, Sue Scanlon, Transit Operator, Pittsburgh Regional Transit; Pittsburghers for Public Transit board member, and Ziggy Edwards, Leader, Mon-Oakland Connector Campaign
Transit Isn’t Just Urban: Organizing in Small Systems & Everywhere, led by Connor Descheemaker (they/them), Statewide Campaign Manager, Transit for All PA!/Pittsburghers for Public Transit, andT4APA! Organizing Fellows Angela Adler and Laura Pauls-Thomas (Lancaster), Benjamin Felker-Quinn and Andria Ahrens (Lehigh Valley)
Attendees took a break from that great lineup and enjoyed some delicious lunch, snacks, and event took time out for a Movement Moment: Grounding, Accessible Yoga Practice led by PPT Member Mona Meszar, who is a yoga instructor, massage therapist, and community activist!
Spring Training was a blast! And now with these new skills and connections, transit riders and workers are ready to grow this movement.
Missed the training or want to get involved? Join us at the next transit organizing meeting to join the community!
image description: photo of a red PRT bus on the left, on the right text says “Public Transit Must Be The Star” with an NFL Draft logo & red star
On April 23-25 of this year, Pittsburgh will take the national stage by hosting the NFL draft. This will be an unprecedented opportunity to showcase our region: the event is estimated to draw between 500,000-700,000 attendees across three days, around twice the total population of the City of Pittsburgh. The NFL draft events will be located primarily at the Point and at Acrisure Stadium, and success will depend in part on whether hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors will be able to efficiently access the festivities.
Because our beautiful region is hemmed in with rivers and hills, the arterial roadways and bridges to reach these sites are limited. If the majority of these hundreds of thousands of event attendees plan to drive themselves Downtown or to the North Shore, the NFL Draft will be an unmitigated disaster, with delays lasting for hours in all directions. It is therefore critical that both event workers and the NFL Draft visitors are both supported and incentivized to take public, mass transit.
In other words, well-advertised, easy to use, and abundant transit service must be the heart of any winning strategy for the NFL Draft.
There are a number of key stakeholders who must play a role in order for transit to be the easy and obvious choice for stadium and hospitality workers, local attendees and out-of town visitors through the NFL draft days. Below we offer our recommendations for each:
PRT must provide both robust regular transit service and event shuttle service. Pittsburgh Regional Transit should ensure that all routes, throughout the County, run at least as frequently as their current rush hour service during the entire event. Frequent transit service needs to serve local residents as well as out-of-town visitors. Hundreds of thousands of Pittsburgh area residents are anticipated to attend and work the Draft events and staff local businesses, and visitors to the City will be staying in every available hotel room and Airbnb across the region.
Transit workers should be provided additional compensation during the NFL draft in order to incentivize workers to pick up extra shifts and to diminish call offs.
Marketing: Pittsburgh Regional Transit must have a marketing campaign to encourage transit use during the NFL draft.
PRT should deploy a slogan like, “PRT is your ticket to the action”, “PRT is your valet to the game,” “PRT makes it easy,” or ”Transit riders get the red carpet,” which would be memorable and would show that PRT has plans to support rider access to the event.
PRT should communicate clearly on its channels – social media, Ready2Ride, its website- and third party apps to help riders navigate the system during the event. There should be an NFL draft landing page on the PRT website that includes fares/fare payment, and service/schedules/maps.
PRT should advertise at the airport, through Airbnb, at Downtown and North Shore restaurants/bars/coffee shops (WMATA in DC has advertisements on coasters in Washington DC bars), in local hotel “welcome guides to Pittsburgh”, and on bus shelters.
PRT’s canvass team could table at the Pittsburgh airport, on the North Shore, at Acrisure Stadium and at the Point to provide personalized information on fares and service.
Recommendations for the NFL/Visit Pittsburgh/Stadium Authority:
–The NFL Draft One Pass Mobile App should prominently feature a link to a (future) Pittsburgh Regional Transit NFL Draft landing page as the top recommendation for how to get around. Parking information should be secondary.
–Other portals for NFL Draft information including the Steelers App and the Visit Pittsburgh page should prominently link to and recommend Pittsburgh Regional Transit for locals and out-of-town visitors to get around during the Draft.
–Buses should get priority access to the front of the stadium. Reducing overall traffic congestion, excessively long commute times and walks to access the event – by rolling out the red carpet for public transit- will make for a successful event and happier attendees.
Recommendations for City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and PennDOT:
–Buses must not be stuck in mixed traffic during the event. There should be a careful audit of where buses experience delays during stadium events and events at the Point, and specific interventions made to address them. For instance, one lane of Reedsdale Street should be made bus-only, and one lane on North Ave should be made bus-only. The bus only lanes downtown -particularly Liberty Ave- should have no exceptions for cars during the event, and should have traffic enforcement officers to ensure that they are kept clear for buses. The HOV lanes on 279 should remain open for buses throughout the three days of the NFL draft.
Conclusion:
The City of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Regional Transit have the opportunity to shine at this year’s NFL Draft, and we’re eager to see it happen.
We’re calling on Pittsburgh Regional Transit, the NFL and Pittsburgh tourism bureau, and our municipal champions to ensure that our transit service, PRT’s communications and marketing efforts, and our region’s infrastructure is primed to make transit the easiest and best option for locals and visitors alike. Of course, these are not comprehensive recommendations—we trust that many other good proposals are being brought to the table. But we hope that together, these institutions can play their part towards making abundant, efficient transit the ticket to a winning NFL Draft.
Image description: Black text highlighted in yellow reads “Transit for All Organizing Spring Training 2026”, interspersed with blue-filtered images of transit advocates at rallies, holding signs, and boarding the bus. Smaller text below reads “March 20-21, 2026, Pittsburgh, PA”, with the Pittsburghers for Public Transit and Transit for All PA logos.
You’re invited: Join transit riders, workers, and supporters from across PA and the country for the 2026 Transit for All Organizing Spring Training!
Transit can transform our communities – but it is up to us as organizers to build the grassroots movement to make it happen!
This March, you are invited to join Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Transit for All PA!, and advocates from across the country at the third annual Transit for All Organizing Spring Training.
It’s going to be bigger and better than ever before. This organizing training day will have workshops led by local advocates and advocates outside of Pittsburgh, and will have topics relevant to transit organizers at all levels and all regions.
Join peers and leaders from Pennsylvania and across the country for a Transit Tour through Pittsburgh, a Happy Hour, and a full day jam-packed with an inspiring plenary, engaging workshops, field visits, and lots of community building with comrades from near and far. Learn more about our workshops below!
For transit riders, workers, and advocates, there’s no other event like this. Space is limited and pre-registration is required for all events, so reserve your spot now!
Pre-registration is required for all events. The last day to register for Spring Training is Friday, March 13th, 2026.
The hotel is very easily accessible from the airport via public transit. It is about a four-minute walk or roll from the Fifth Ave and Tennyson Ave PRT stop, which is serviced by the following routes:
54 Northside-Oakland-Southside
58 Greenfield
61A North Braddock
61B Braddock-Swissvale
61C McKeesport-Homestead
61D Murray
67 Monroeville
69 Trafford
71A Negley
71B Highland Park
71C Point Breeze
71D Hamilton
75 Ellsworth
81 Oak Hill
83 Bedford Hill
93 Lawrenceville-Hazelwood
P3 East Busway-Oakland
Discounted Room Block for Overnight Stays
We have secured a discounted hotel room block at the venue, so that those joining from outside Pittsburgh can stay overnight.
Discounted rooms are available for $189 per night, only for those who book before Friday, February 27, 2026.
ASL interpretation will be provided at all events.
Food and Drink
At happy hour on Friday, let PPT buy your first round! Drink tickets will be provided to all those who pre-register. Snacks will be available from 5:15-5:45, first-come-first-serve.
On Saturday, PPT will provide a continental breakfast for participants in the morning, lunch, and mid-day snacks—as well as coffee and tea, all day.
PPT will label provided food with common allergens.
COVID-19 Procedures
Masks are encouraged indoors at our events and will be available on-site at check-in. We also encourage everyone to take an at-home COVID-19 rapid test before arriving. Please stay home if you are feeling sick or have come into contact with someone who has COVID-19.
More Information
If you have any questions, please email info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org, and a member of the team will get back to you!
Come on a transit tour of Pittsburgh, tailored to you! Local transit advocates and members will lead this tour, beginning at the Pittsburghers for Public Transit office, and ending near our final destination: our attendee Happy Hour in the Strip District. Guides will lead us through local landmarks, service issues, our geography’s impact on the transit system, and new visions for the system’s potential.
5:00-7:00 PM: Happy Hour
Aslin Beer Company, 1801 Smallman St.
You’re invited to mingle with the crew before the big day of workshops! Join up for chit-chat, cocktails, snacks, and activities in Pittsburgh’s historic Strip District. We will be welcomed to the weekend by special remarks from Allegheny County Executive and transit champion Sara Innamorato!
Food will be served between 5:15 and 5:45 PM, first-come, first-served. Pre-registration is required, and comes with one drink ticket! RSVP at the form above.
9:00-9:45 AM Presenters: Veronica Coptis, Senior Advisor, Taproot Earth Andrew Slack, PA-based narrative strategist, facilitator, and storyteller T4APA! Organizing Fellows Kearasten Jordan (Lancaster) and Laura Pauls-Thomas (Lancaster)
Narrative Change: Our Stories Build the World We Want
Block 1 (10:00-11:30 AM) Presenters: Nadia Awad, Content Director, Narrative Initiative Andrew Slack, author, comedian, facilitator, and advocate Clair Hopper, Digital Organizer, Pittsburghers for Public Transit and Transit for All PA!
Our stories are like stars spread across the night sky: bright, but too numerous to make sense of each one. When our stories share values and themes, we start to create constellations of shared narratives. These narratives have the power to drive public opinion shifts and real policy improvements. Join this workshop to learn how our movement can use Narrative Change Theory to transform our stories into victories.
#VoteTransit: Bus Mayor Elections and Beyond
Block 1 (10:00-11:30 AM) Presenters: Betsy Plum, Executive Director of Riders Alliance (New York City) Barb Warwick, Pittsburgh City Council member, District 5
In New York City, Seattle, Boston and here in Pittsburgh, City leaders have shown that faster, more affordable public transit is a winning electoral issue. In this workshop, Riders Alliance Executive Director Betsy Plum will share how transit riders supported now-NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani to center transit justice in his campaign and how that helped propel him to a historic victory. Betsy Plum and Pittsburgh Councilwoman Barb Warwick will also lay out both the challenges and opportunities for transit riders to collaborate with—and hold accountable—municipal elected officials to make our transit dreams a reality.
Art-making Activity: Craft a Beautiful Rally Sign!
Lunchtime (11:45 AM-12:50 PM)
Facilitated by Arts Excursions Unlimited, exercise your creative mind and use your hands to create a sign for your next transit rally—one that inspires, moves, and (of course) looks great!
Movement Moment: Grounding, Accessible Yoga Practice
Lunchtime (11:45 AM-12:50 PM)
Facilitated by yoga instructor, massage therapist, community activist, and PPT member Mona Meszar (she/they), use this short, chair-based practice to ground in your body, and refresh your mind for the day ahead.
Mobile Workshop! Field Communications: Storytelling from the Street
Block 2 (1:00-2:30 PM) Presenters: Joe Conniff, Video Editor, Educator, and Producer Remote support from Marcelese Cooper, Teaching Assistant Professor in the Film and Media Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh
Our stories are our power, and organizing with stories can help the movement win big. Join this workshop to learn how to make in-the-field videos that develop our transit justice narrative and help us build power for this movement. We strongly suggest that participants take the Narrative Change workshop earlier that day, or have prior experience in our volunteer Communications Committee. Pre-registration is required; reserve your spot at the form above!
Bargaining for the Common Good: Worker/Community Solidarity
Block 2 (1:00-2:30 PM) Presenters: Connor Chapman, University of Pittsburgh Graduate Workers Union and Pittsburghers for Public Transit Ronni Getz, UPMC Magee Women’s Hospital, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania
Learn how unions and community organizations can join together to win demands far beyond traditional union labor contracts, advancing the public good! Explore case studies from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, unions whose members not only challenged the boss, but took on inequitable systems within their professions. Participants will learn strategies for developing demands that benefit workers and the wider community—as well as ideas for using these principles to boost labor’s demands before the next contract fight.
Organizing with Disability Justice at the Center
Block 2 (1:00-2:30 PM) Presenters: Anna Zivarts, a leading author, transit rider organizer and founder of the Nondriver Alliance out of Washington state Dr. Josie Badger, director of the national RSA-Parent Training, Information, technical assistance center (RAISE), and founder of several orgs including the Pennsylvania Youth Leadership Network (PYLN), the Children’s Hospital Advocacy Network for Guidance and Empowerment (CHANGE), and J.Badger Consulting Moderator: Alisa Grishman, founder of Access Mob Pittsburgh and PPT Board member
Disability justice is a core part of transit justice. In this workshop, organizers Anna Zivarts from Washington State and Dr. Josie Badger from New Castle, Pennsylvania will share practical ways to organize for better transit in both rural and urban communities—led by disabled riders themselves. They will discuss how to build strong coalitions and support disabled transit riders to move into leadership and decision-making roles, putting the principle “nothing about us, without us” into action.
Big Tech in Transit: Automation, Microtransit, Surveillance, and Data
Block 3 (2:45-4:15 PM) Presenters: Dr. Sarah Fox, Assistant Professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University; Director, Tech Solidarity Lab Sue Scanlon, Transit Operator, Pittsburgh Regional Transit; Pittsburghers for Public Transit board member Ziggy Edwards, Leader, Mon-Oakland Connector Campaign
Across the United States, AI and private tech firms are playing an increasing role in our transportation systems- with serious consequences for transit workers and riders. In this workshop, CMU Professor Dr. Sarah Fox will share insights from her work alongside unionized transit workers to identify emerging tech challenges to transit jobs, and share strategies to ensure these technologies support worker rights, safety, and autonomy. A Pittsburgh transit worker and rider will also highlight lessons learned from the successful campaign – entitled “Our Money, Our Solutions” against the autonomous vehicle microtransit project “The Mon-Oakland Connector.”
Transit Isn’t Just Urban: Organizing in Small Systems & Everywhere
Block 3 (2:45-4:15 PM) Presenters: Connor Descheemaker (they/them), Statewide Campaign Manager, Transit for All PA T4APA! Organizing Fellows Angela Adler and Laura Pauls-Thomas (Lancaster), Benjamin Felker-Quinn and Andria Ahrens (Lehigh Valley)
We always say transit exists in all 67 counties across Pennsylvania, but what does that really mean, and who does it represent? Data shows us that there are just as high a percentage of non-drivers in our most rural communities as our most urban, and those in power need to serve those riders with reliable, accessible service for work, healthcare and communities. Right now, Transit For All PA is base-building in small cities to identify what service looks like, and what it should look like. Learn from six local organizers about what transit is like in their communities, and how they are reaching workers and peers to identify how to make it better.
About Our Presenters
Sara Innamorato, Allegheny County Executive
Sara Innamorato was sworn in as the first woman to serve as the Allegheny County Executive on January 2, 2024. The Innamorato Administration’s guiding principle is to build a strong Allegheny County for All – one that serves all 1.3 million residents – built on a foundation of dignity and respect.
Sara has been a champion for transit riders locally, appointing a Pittsburghers for Public Transit member to the Pittsburgh Regional Transit Board of Directors, directing her Department of Human Services to start a half-fare transit program, and leading efforts to expand transit funding from the state.
Arts Excursions Unlimited
Arts Excursions Unlimited is dedicated to increasing the cultural connectivity of the citizens of the greater Hazelwood community. They have collaborated closely with Pittsburghers for Public Transit to create art that transforms people’s understanding of transit justice & energizes a movement fighting for all peoples’ needs.
Mona Meszar is a Pittsburgh based massage therapist & yoga instructor whose work seeks to center TLGBQIA communities, as well as those involved in anti-repression and anti-fascist organizing. Regardless of who you are or what you are facing, choosing stillness and rest is an active choice. It gives us the agency we require to reclaim our space and time from the banality of capitalism, white supremacy, and militarism. She seeks to help others find the strength, resilience, compassion, and persistence to heal from that trauma.
Veronica Coptis, Senior Advisor, Taproot Earth
Veronica Coptis is a rural organizer in Appalachia from Greene County, Pennsylvania. For the last nine years, her most important role has been raising two spirited children and instilling in them strong values to fight for everyone’s freedom. For over 15 years, she has been organizing around the intersection of environmental/climate justice and economic justice. Veronica is currently the Senior Advisor with Taproot Earth, a frontline-rooted organization based in the Gulf South that works in Appalachia and amplifies solutions from the global Black diaspora. Taproot Earth invests in frontline communities, facilitates processes that build power and cultivates climate solutions advancing justice, democracy, climate reparations and community stewardship so we can all live, rest, and thrive in the places we love. In her early organizing Veronica worked with the Center for Coalfield Justice and the Mountain Watershed Association. She also owns Redneck Strategies LLC, which provides strategic guidance, facilitation, and training services. Additionally, she is the treasurer of the Rural People Rising Political Action Committee, creating independent political infrastructure to support everyday people taking the bold step to govern our communities.
Andrew Slack, PA-Based Narrative Strategist, Facilitator, and Storyteller
Andrew Slack is a narrative strategist, facilitator, and storyteller from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he lives with his wife and son. His family roots run through Altoona, in the heart of rural PA, and Pittsburgh holds a special place in his story as Mr. Rogers Neighborhood helped shape his entire worldview and inspired him to co-author Save Santa’s Home, a children’s book that playfully inspires young people to advocate for climate action. Growing up with a beloved grandmother who lived with a significant disability from polio deepened his understanding of how access and dignity are inseparable.
Andrew came up through sketch comedy and theater, performing across the country and producing some of the earliest viral videos on YouTube. Twenty-five years ago, he cut his teeth in activism at a spiritual center for peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, helping people who had been traumatized tell their stories. He went on to co-found the Harry Potter Alliance, spending a decade inspiring over a million fans to become first-time activists through the power of shared stories. His work connecting popular culture to social change, from The Hunger Games to economic inequality, Superman to immigrant rights, has spanned over 30 countries and earned him fellowships at Ashoka and the Nathan Cummings Foundation.
Andrew’s writing and speaking have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, CNN, and the Hollywood Reporter, where he recently co-authored a piece on Superman as an immigrant with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas. He has spoken at TEDx, SXSW, Harvard, Yale, the Illinois Holocaust Museum, and over 100 other venues, and recently appeared on Doug Rushkoff’s acclaimed podcast Team Human. As an international activist, satirist, and narrative strategist, he has organized A-list celebrities and Indigenous leaders across the Global South; co-launched a satirical organization against oligarchy; and has advised the Ford Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, Netflix, the Teamsters, and the nation’s top immigration lawyers. His social impact campaigns have reached over 100 million views, and a curriculum he created around an Oscar-qualifying Indigenous animated short was distributed to over 20,000 educators. He now runs Imagine Better Stories LLC, working to elevate the stories we tell about ourselves and our world.
Nadia Awad is an interdisciplinary artist and writer, whose work focuses on narrative and justice. For over fifteen years, she has produced media on the lives of LGBT, HIV-affected, and MENA communities. She contributed 20 oral histories, many with Muslim and Arabic-speaking narrators, for the New York Trans Oral History Project, and created photographs and videos on trans athletes, HIV criminalization, and healthcare access for Lambda Legal. Nadia has written about film, memory, and power for The New Inquiry, The Journal of Palestine Studies, and Camera Obscura. Two forthcoming scholarly works, Terrorism in American Memory and a study on Middle Eastern asylum seekers, will feature her art. Nadia received a B.A. from York University. She lives in New York with her partner, and an ever-expanding collection of succulents.
Clair Hopper, Digital Organizer, Pittsburghers for Public Transit & Transit for All PA!
Clair Hopper is a disabled human person who makes a happy living designing data systems and communications for a very cool organization. She comes to Transit Justice work via Climate Justice work, having lived through many climate-change-induced megastorms in her adoptive hometown of Houston, Texas. She spends her free time touching grass at the beautiful Garfield Community Farm, and sewing.
Betsy Plum, Executive Director, Riders’ Alliance
Betsy Plum is the Executive Director of Riders Alliance, New York’s grassroots organization of subway and bus riders fighting for reliable, affordable, world-class public transit. A strategic organizer and policy expert, Betsy has led the charge to win and defend transformative victories for riders—including the historic implementation of North America’s first congestion pricing program, alongside sustained organizing to elevate buses as a core component of the city’s transit and political agenda. Under her leadership, Riders Alliance has mobilized thousands of New Yorkers, shaped major state and city decisions, and built lasting political power for the millions who rely on public transit every day.
Barb Warwick, Pittsburgh City Council member, District 5
Barb Warwick is the Pittsburgh City Council member for District 5. She first became engaged in City politics through her neighborhood’s fight against the Mon Oakland Connector, a proposed road for private autonomous shuttles that would have run through a public park. Working closely with Pittsburghers for Public Transit as well as community and transit advocates across the city, the MOC was defeated. Barb then ran for City Council, where she quickly passed legislation to both protect City parks from private development and reallocate MOC funding to long-needed community projects, including traffic calming, new sidewalks, and renovating a local rec center. Barb continues to be a strong supporter of public transit in Pittsburgh, including funding bus shelters across the city and free transit passes for city employees.
Joe Conniff, Video Editor, Educator, and Producer
Joe’s entertainment industry experience spans across motion pictures, commercials, theater, indie web series, and other mediums. He has done locations work for Lionsgate, The Walt Disney Company, and Revolver Entertainment, and taught media arts and filmmaking to schoolchildren in Los Angeles.
Marcelese Cooper, Teaching Assistant Professor in the Film and Media Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh
Marcelese Cooper is an artist and educator originally from Santa Clarita, California, and has practiced throughout the Midwest and the South for nearly a decade. Influenced by their experiences as a young, black, queer individual, Cooper explores themes of identity, community, and the black/brown narrative through mediums like animation, performance art, and experimental video. They blend the DNA of dreams, science-fiction, and surreal art-house cinema in their work.
Connor Chapman, University of Pittsburgh Graduate Workers Union, Pittsburghers for Public Transit
Connor Chapman is a labor/community organizer based in Pittsburgh, PA. Committed to building strong labor-community coalitions, he believes that robust connections between unions and community groups are key to preserving and expanding access to public goods. With the PPT Organizing Committee, Connor helped develop trainings for PPT members that draw on tried and true tactics from the labor movement. As a doctoral candidate in sociology, he also organized with the Pitt Graduate Workers Organizing Committee (United Steelworkers), where he helped secure union representation for 2,300 graduate workers at the University of Pittsburgh.
Anna Zivarts, Founder, Nondriver Alliance; author, transit rider organizer
Anna Zivarts is a visually impaired parent and author of When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency (Island Press). Zivarts is a leader in the nondriver movement, organizing disabled transit riders in Washington State through the Nondriver Alliance and supporting the growth of the Week Without Driving, which she launched in 2021.
Dr. Josie Badger DHCE, CRC
Dr. Josie Badger received her Bachelor’s degree from Geneva College in Disability-Law-and-Advocacy, a Master’s from the University of Pittsburgh in Rehabilitation Counseling, and a Doctorate from Duquesne University in Healthcare Ethics. In 2012, Dr. Badger was crowned Ms. Wheelchair America. In 2014 Josie founded J Badger Consulting Inc. where she provides youth development and disability consulting services. She is the National-Transition-Director for SPAN Parent-Advocacy-Network, working with RAISE and the National Healthcare-Transition Center for Youth with ID/DD. She is the Campaign Manager of the United Way of Southwestern PA’s #IWantToWork Campaign, to improve the employment of people with disabilities, is the lead Field Organizer for the Family Care Act that supports paid family leave, and is the developer of SAIL, a statewide advocacy and lobbying training program. Josie recently founded PEACOCK, a nonprofit that will further support the needs of the disability community and our underserved populations.
Alisa Grishman, Founder, Access Mob Pittsburgh; Pittsburghers for Public Transit board member
Alisa Grishman is a disability activist and founder of Access Mob Pittsburgh, an advocacy group that utilizes positive approaches to making change, such as education and economic incentives. A self-described shameless agitator, Grishman has also been arrested multiple times fighting for disability rights with ADAPT, a national advocacy group. Her work has been recognized locally and nationally in such outlets as the Rachel Maddow Show, NPR, Huffington Post, Esquire Magazine, WTAE, KDKA News, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
Along with her direct advocacy work, Grishman co-runs Ballots for Patients and Care to Vote, sister efforts that respectively collect emergency absentee ballots from hospitalized peoples on election day and work with nursing and personal care homes to help residents register to vote and fill out ballots. She also sits on the board of directors of the Keystone Progress Education Fund.
In her free time, Grishman enjoys knitting and collecting antique books. She lives in the Uptown neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA.
Dr. Sarah Fox, Assistant Professor, Human-Computer Interaction, Carnegie Mellon University; Director, Tech Solidarity Lab
Sarah Fox is an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the Human Computer Interaction Institute, where she directs the Tech Solidarity Lab. Her work examines the impacts of AI and automation on essential work sectors, with a focus on developing systems that center workers’ needs and expertise.
Ziggy Edwards is a lifelong Pittsburgher who writes and edits for her local paper, along with the literary zine she co-founded.
Sue Scanlon, Transit Operator, Pittsburgh Regional Transit; Pittsburghers for Public Transit board member
Sue Scanlon has been a public transit operator for 25 years with Pittsburgh Regional Transit. She is also a 16 year member of Pittsburghers for Public Transit. She was part of the successful pushback campaign against Pittsburgh’s Mon-Oakland Connector which was a plan for an automated ‘bus’ to transport people from the Hazelwood neighborhood to CMU.
Connor Descheemaker (they/them), Statewide Campaign Manager, Transit for All PA!
Connor Descheemaker has over a decade of experience building and facilitating diverse coalitions to change policy, support local communities, and provide professional education and development. Born in Phoenix, they came of age as the area opened its first light rail line, and the changing city ignited their interest in mobility and community-building. There, they ran multiple all-ages art and performance spaces, and founded a business coalition to support walkable, sustainable, and affordable urban development. After four intermediary years in Seattle supporting architects in their professional development, and housing and transportation advocacy, they arrived in Philadelphia in 2022 to manage the Transit Forward Philadelphia coalition. There, they grew the group to 35 community-based organizations covering environmental justice, immigrant and refugee support, community development, political advocacy, and elder and disability rights. Now, they organize transit riders and workers across Pennsylvania to build rural-urban solidarity for accessible and reliable public transportation in all 67 counties.
image description: graphic with red background has photo collage along the top of transit supporters holding signs and smiling, white text reads We Want the Bus Line Refresh to Benefit All! Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s Bus Line Refresh logo is centered in the middle of the graphic.
Two weeks ago, Pittsburgh Regional Transit dropped their “Busline Refresh” Draft 2.0, a proposed redrawing of our transit system’s bus network. This will have major impacts on our entire region – not only on transit riders and transit workers yes, but also our schools, healthcare providers, employers, our road congestion and our county’s economy. It is very important that everyone carefully review and give feedback on Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s Busline Refresh online or at their upcoming meetings. Pittsburghers for Public Transit participatory research committee will be spending the next few weeks evaluating the proposal route-by-route. We’ll also be hosting Pittsburgh Regional Transit to review and discuss the draft plan in our April monthly meeting-you should join us there too!
Public Feedback Matters: Riders Spoke Up about Busline Redesign Draft 1.0 and Pittsburgh Regional Transit listened to a lot. Over the past year, transit riders and workers have been organizing to improve the Busline Redesign and make it more of a Busline Refresh. Together, we called we called for a Bus Line Redesign that Benefits All. In our 2025 report, A Roadmap to a Busline Redesign for All, we told the agency to scale back the proposed disruption to our routes – most importantly, not to fix what’s not broken. We also called on the Agency to provide riders with a commute “calculator” so that we could model the proposed changes to our trips, and to ensure that the proposed “microtransit zone” communities like McKeesport, the Southern Hilltop and Natrona Heights are provided with expanded fixed route buses, not irregular on-demand shuttles. Riders and workers drove this message home with a petition that garnered more than 1,000 signatures, and a rally held on a cold and rainy January morning before delivering public feedback at the transit agency’s board meeting.
To PRT’s credit, they heard you, and have incorporated this feedback in the new proposal. There’s still a lot to review, however, and we expect that there will be both gems and concerns about this Draft 2.0.
At that time, new routes that had just started were rolled back, and others were never implemented. In fact, Pittsburgh Regional Transit had to cut 15% of overall transit service due to a lack of dedicated, expanded state funding (eliminating 29 routes, reducing 37 routes, and closing a bus garage). Riders cannot be asked to endure major service changes only to have them abandoned halfway through the process.
Frankly, even just stable funding is not good enough- the resources should be in place to reverse our cuts.
We need more than this status quo. Our transit service is now beyond austere. Allegheny County currently has the lowest levels of transit service since the first half of the 20th century. Implementing this “cost-neutral redesign” will lock in the 20% service cuts we’ve experienced just in the last five years of the pandemic, and the nearly 40% cuts we’ve endured over the last 20 years.
With a cost-neutral redesign, Pittsburgh Regional Transit is shuffling deck chairs on the sinking Titanic and forcing unconscionable choices about which community will get more transit service at the expense of others, when all communities need and deserve more.
It’s Not Just the Funding- Pittsburgh Regional Transit Needs to Grow Ridership, Improve Reliability and its Communications Before Upending the System
Pittsburgh Regional Transit must significantly grow ridership and improve service reliability before implementing the entirety of the Busline Refresh. Major bus changes, no matter how positive those changes are, will cause ridership loss at the outset. The Agency cannot afford to upend our bus system and lose more riders when it is starting at such a deficit.
PRT’s ridership has declined the last two years in a row, to 59% of pre-pandemic ridership. By contrast, transit agencies nationwide have restored ridership to between 75%-85% of 2019 levels and are seeing ridership growth every year; PRT’s ridership recovery places them 136th out of 150 U.S. transit agencies (in the bottom 10%!) for restoration of ridership since the pandemic started.
There is no shortage of ways that Pittsburgh Regional Transit can meaningfully grow ridership now – even under its current fiscal constraints. They can start by becoming unabashed champions of their new fare programs (Allegheny Go and the PRTner pass) which will make it cheaper and easier for more riders to access the bus. They can also restore the 71 and 61 bus lines to Downtown which resulted in huge ridership loss, and they can capitalize on the massive influx of visitors for the NFL Draft and other huge events this year.
Moreover,until Pittsburgh Regional Transit can run its existing service effectively and reliably, riders have little faith that a wholly-redesigned bus system schedule can be successfully implemented.
In PRT’s 2025 annual service report, it showed that PRT’s bus system on-time performance hovers at 66%. That means that 1 in every 3 buses do not show up when expected. Riders need to trust that they can get to their jobs, their doctors’ appointments, their schools and childcare facilities on time and reliably through transit.
PRT can improve schedule reliability principally by writing more realistic schedules. Riders and transit workers have been calling on the agency to write more realistic schedules for years (see our 2022 report, Representing our Routes). PRT’s routes have been largely the same for generations, and every day the agency acquires more real-time data about how much time it takes for operators to drive these routes. All of this information should ensure that their schedule reliability and that their on-time performance gets closer to 100%.
Also, Pittsburgh Regional Transit must improve their communications around schedule changes. Even with much smaller changes than the Busline Redesign, riders are very frequently left stranded because of inaccurate information on bus stops or the printed schedule, on their website’s service change notices and even what is communicated to the operators around routing. Over the past year, that was a common refrain around the Downtown and Oakland construction detours, and even around regularly scheduled service adjustments. Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s rider communications around transit schedule and stop changes must be on point before they execute a system-wide change of this scale that will upend service frequencies and span, route names, and bus stop locations.
Pittsburgh Regional Transit Doesn’t Have to Wait to Implement Common-Sense Improvements
Finally, the smaller, good elements of the plan – adding service frequency, modifying existing routings- that can be implemented during a regular upcoming service change, should. Riders should not have to wait years for service improvements that will grow ridership, alleviate overcrowding or improve service reliability.
The agency already has the ability to change service frequencies and completely change bus routing during the thrice-yearly schedule changes. If anything, Pittsburgh Regional Transit is already overzealous in changing schedules (sometimes for more than 50 routes) in a “regular service change.” Nothing inhibits PRT from making critical adjustments or improvements to the bus routes and schedules immediately.
Other aspects of the Busline Refresh plan, including rebranding (PAT and Port Authority of Allegheny County, anyone?) and the relocation and elimination of bus stops (see our article from 2019!) are obviously already within their power to implement anytime.
We agree that change is needed: we have organized transit riders and workers for years to ensure that our transit system makes needed changes to address its concurrent ridership, service reliability, and funding crises. We have put forward solutions around service improvements and fare strategies that would grow ridership and revenue in our current funding “status quo” environment, and authored reports around service reliability that highlight schedule reliability issues so that they can be fixed.
The Busline Refresh is an important opportunity for transit riders and workers to weigh in on our bus network in the future. But while we weigh in on this plan, Pittsburgh Regional Transit must address its concurrent funding, ridership and reliability crises so that a good “refreshed” bus network builds upon a stable and resilient foundation.
image description: illustration of a red bus to the left of the image, small photo of smiling supporters to the right, text reads “Job listing Digital Organizer – Data Lead” with logos for Transit for All PA! and Pittsburghers for Public Transit.
The movement is hiring a new staff position! Check out the description below and apply if you’re a great candidate
January 2026
About Transit for All PA! and Pittsburghers for Public Transit
Transit for All PA! is fighting for more public transit that moves all Pennsylvanians. The campaign is led by Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PPT), which is a grassroots union of transit riders, workers, and neighbors. Together, PPT and Transit for All PA! organize for public transit that meets all needs, with no communities left behind.
PPT is a member-led grassroots union. Our members vote annually to elect fellow members to our Board of Directors, which manages our staff and finances. Members create and vote to approve our yearly campaign plans, and members work on our three volunteer-led committees to do the research, organizing, and communications projects needed to win our campaigns.
Together, we are creating transit systems that work for everybody, for our communities and our state, by organizing as poor and working-class people in a multi-racial movement for transit justice—and we need you with us in this fight.
Digital Organizer – Data Lead Position Summary
The Digital Organizer – Data Lead will build & manage our digital infrastructure, data strategy, online-to-offline organizing funnel to grow our movement and win our campaigns. The position will work in the organization’s small but mighty Digital Department, with the Digital Organizing Director and the Digital Organizer – Communications Lead. Close collaboration with the rest of the staff and our member leaders will be vital.
This is not an entry-level position; we require applicants to have a command of data management skills (such as managing databases, digital infrastructure and tools, workflows, and data hygiene) and experience with community organizing skills (such as facilitating meetings, trainings, events, and participation). It’s a big, broad job, and we work as a team to support each other and get it done.
The Digital Organizer – Data Lead will report to the Digital Organizing Director.
Primary Job Responsibilities
Digital infrastructure building & management: co-create systems to maximize the efficacy of our data via digital and old-fashioned community organizing.
EveryAction! Grow an organizational culture committed to building a powerful EveryAction database and advocacy/communications toolset to win our campaigns. Work with EA to develop systems/segmentation to support our organizing across the state. Train staff on their appropriate roles in the database. Troubleshoot issues when they arise.
Manage the organization’s tech stack – Sharpen the use of our tech stack (which currently includes Everyaction, Mobilze, Getthru, Google Workspace, Zoom, Twilio, Asana and some others) and digital/analogue data by fixing bugs, building workflows, and training staff.
Build a culture of effective data collection + hygiene– Train staff/members on systems & practices, and lovingly hold our team accountable to our program. Make the benefits of our data practices tangible – graphs, dashboards, effective workflows, clear purpose.
Membership program growth: Cultivate a PPT Membership program that builds strong, caring, personal relationships that move people to action and sharpen our fundraising with small-dollar donors. That means we will need you to:
Grow membership & solidarity – build systems to increase the number of members. Deepen new & existing members’ understanding of what it means to be part of this grassroots union.
Improve & maintain data/digital systems – Iterate on existing systems to track and report on membership program. Streamline program operations – recruitment, renewals, self-service, and more.
Increase revenue – Lead 2 large membership drives and 2 small recruitment campaigns throughout the year. Coordinate with the team on a fundraising calendar.
Deepen engagement and leadership development – Help members increase their involvement in our organizing & develop leaders who can take charge of making change in their communities.
People Organizing – Yes, this position will spend lots of time on a computer, but it will also require strong real-life relational organizing to be successful:
Create & lead our Data Volunteer Team (name is a work in progress) – establish a volunteer team work on data projects.
Large-event planning & logistics – lend a hand with large in-person and virtual events held throughout the year
Qualities We Are Looking For
Versed in Strategic Infrastructure. You have experience building and managing digital infrastructure to strengthen organizations. Systems and tools should be clear, intuitive, and accessible for staff and volunteers to utilize.
Accountability Focused. You are a rigorous systems thinker who can create digital infrastructure to accurately assess our current engagement capacity, identify opportunities for growth, and demonstrate the efficacy of different organizing and communications strategies.
Visionary and Committed. You are an organizer at heart, working towards justice for our communities. You are caring, invested, and accountable to your fellow staff, PPT’s democratically-elected board leadership, and membership.
A Swiss Army Knife. You are resourceful and creative, willing to do what it takes to make a project succeed. You can handle a lot in a fast-paced, multi-faceted work environment.
In(ter)dependent. Can work independently, self-managing your time, while maintaining close communication with remote teams. You are flexible and know that organizing doesn’t always happen between 9 am and 5 pm – and you respect your time and your team’s by taking flex time to keep everyone at a 40hr work week. You believe in people and know everyone can contribute in different ways to win a better world.
Deep personal investment in the intersectional struggle for transit justice, housing justice, disability justice, racial justice and environmental justice
Experience in multi-racial, multicultural settings
Spreadsheet prowess and admin-level proficiency in 21st-century office tools: Google Suite, Zoom, Asana etc
2-3 years of managing digital systems and infrastructure for an organization like CRMs, websites, and tools for digital activism
1+ years experience in creating training materials and training organizational staff.
Access to reliable internet, phone, and remote office arrangements.
Preferred Qualifications
2-3 years of community organizing experience (paid or volunteer), preferably with grassroots member-led base-building organizations or unions, moving people to volunteer, donate, attend events, or take action for social change
1+ years experience in PPT membership and/or the Transit for All PA! campaign, and familiarity with Pittsburghers for Public Transit’s/Transit for All PA!’s community and organizational culture.
Ability to write and speak a second language, preferably Spanish
Location and Travel
Our staff must be willing to work a flexible schedule, including nights and weekends – while also valuing rest, humanity, and taking time for our own needs and the team’s.
The Digital Organizer – Data Lead can live anywhere in Pennsylvania, but will need to be able to travel to Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and other parts of PA 4-5 times a year. If the hire lives in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, some level of in-office time with local staff will be required. The hire will need to have some flexibility and give input on our “workplace norms” as we grow to operate at a statewide level.
Salary and Benefits
This is a full non-exempt position. Salary is $65,000 a year, and includes high-quality, zero premium and zero deductible family health care, free transit pass, unmatched and matched 401k retirement contributions, and generous paid leave time. PPT is committed to an access-focused culture centered around Disability Justice principles and believes in a workplace culture with a healthy work-life balance.
How To Apply & Hiring Timeline
Please email a resume, cover letter, and writing/work samples to Dan Yablonsky, PPT/T4APA’s Digital Organizing Director, at dan@pittsburghforpublictransit.org. To ensure your email is received, please include “PPT Digital Organizer – Data Lead” as the subject line. References will be asked for candidates who advance in the process. Candidates will only be contacted if our hiring team chooses to pursue an interview.
Pittsburghers for Public Transit is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, familial status, sexual orientation, national origin, ability, age, or veteran status.
All applications received by February 20th, 2026 are guaranteed to be reviewed, but applications will be accepted until the position is filled. The target start date for this new hire is March 20, 2026.
Image Description: PPT Staff pose for a photo at the 2025 Year-End Victory party
Together, Transit Riders & Workers Are Building New Constellations of Power! PPT Members celebrated our year in style.
After a long year of successful organizing, PPT Members were ready to have a good time at our Victory Party & Year-End Celebration in Friday 12/12!
2025 was a year of highs and lows. PPT Members and transit riders & workers across the state celebrated massive growth with the statewide Transit for All PA! campaign. More than 45,000 riders and workers (from every single State House Voting District in Pennsylvania) mobilized to uplift public transit in the state budget negotiations like never before. Riders fought back 45% service cuts in Philly, 35% cuts in Pittsburgh, and laid the groundwork for a statewide movement that will expand public transit service in every corner of PA.
PPT Members also celebrated wins at home too, with successful organizing drives to protect and improve our bus stops, win free transit for every City Worker downtown, and level up our organizing skills together at trainings that brought together organizers from all across the city, county, state and country.
The PPT Family mourns the loss of freedom fighter, Paul O’Hanlon, February 9, 1954 – November 30, 2025. Paul was a co-founder of PPT back in 20211 who was serving a term on our board when he passed this Fall. Paul was a lifelong organizer in the intersecting struggles of disability, housing and transportation justice. Read more about Paull on PPT’s blog.
PPT Members are ready to take all of this energy into our fight in 2026. Join as a dues-paying PPT Member today during our year-end membership drive.
Check out this year-in-review video from PPT Member Joe Coniff to show all that we’ve been up to in 2025:
Today transit riders, workers and advocates denounce the legislature’s abject failure to raise new revenue and pass a budget to meet the mobility needs of communities across all 67 counties in the Commonwealth. No budget is complete without addressing freedom of mobility, particularly for our older adults, people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations. Instead, this budget deal increases transportation spending by more than $100 million, none of which will be allocated towards public transit: this is an insult to the more than a million Pennsylvanians who take some form of transit to go to work, school, and medical appointments every day.
Confronted with the catastrophic costs of transit funding inaction on the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh area transit systems, the Governor, Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate had all agreed that public transit funding was a top priority in this year’s state budget negotiations. The Pennsylvania House passed five bipartisan bills that would have made meaningful progress towards funding transit. Instead, Senate Republican leadership derailed these bipartisan efforts, and SEPTA and Pittsburgh Regional Transit were forced to use their limited capital resources to fund transit operations, which delays critical accessibility and safety improvements. Almost immediately, SEPTA faced the consequences of this decision: the Federal Transportation Administration declared SEPTA’s 50-year-old Regional Rail cars an imminent fire hazard. And while legislators were dithering even on this inadequate action, 800,000 transit riders in the Philly area had to weather a month of service cuts and chaotic commutes.
The forced transfer of capital funds to operations also did not address the mobility crisis facing smaller communities across the state. Within the next 18 months, the already austere transit system budgets in the Lehigh Valley, Lancaster, Westmoreland County, State College and more will hit their fiscal cliffs and begin cuts, harming Pennsylvania’s workers and vulnerable populations. Pennsylvania’s legislature and Governor have also entirely ignored the crisis facing our statewide shared-ride services, serving disabled and elderly populations in our most rural communities; in 2021, shared-ride programs operated at a $60 million loss in the 2020-21 fiscal year, the most recent year PennDOT’s report on the programs looked at. Costs have increased even as federal subsidies have waned, which means significant service cuts and fare increases are imminent for those with no other transportation options.
The Transit for All PA coalition has grown exponentially since the beginning of this year; we have built a movement of over 45,000 transit advocates who hail from all 253 legislative districts in Pennsylvania. We held more than 175 rallies, canvass events, and public meetings across the Commonwealth in the last 10 months, culminating in a 350 person rally and transit advocacy day in Harrisburg in June. And our coalition has proposed a commonsense transit funding solution – now the Transit for All PA legislative package championed by Senators Nikil Saval and Lindsey Williams, Representatives Jessica Benham and Aerion Abney (HB1523, HB1524, SB795, SB796)– that would raise sufficient, dedicated revenue to restore and expand mobility options for every community in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania budget has passed 135 days late; there are now only 230 days until our next state budget is due. Over the next 7 months, Transit for All PA will amplify the voices of transit riders across our Commonwealth in support of sustainable, expanded transit funding. The coalition’s message: our legislators must get back to their jobs so that PA workers can get to ours. Moreover, in 357 days, many of the leaders who negotiated today’s budget will be on the ballot, including Governor Shapiro. We intend to educate transit riders to hold the Governor and legislators accountable in their roles and at the ballot box, as we continue to work towards passing a budget that will finally move all Pennsylvanians.
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The budget is passed, but our fight for transit continues. Tell your elected officials that public transit moves their constituents and they must step up as champions:
image description: Hilltop Fellows pose while canvassing bus stops to connect with riders
PPT’s new Organizing Fellowship in the South Hilltop Communities is building new leaders to grow our movement and win better transit service.
In October, PPT launched a new organizing fellowship in the South Hilltop. With generous help from multiple organizations including the Hilltop Alliance, Brashear Association, Ms. Charlene Saner and Councilman Anthony Coghill’s office, PPT recruited 7 fellows from across the South Hilltop area to explore public transit access, infrastructure, financial barriers, and equitable development.
Examples of these topics include:
Canvassing in your community to meet riders and build your base,
Learning about bus shelter and sidewalk expansion and improvement,
Winning improved service through Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT’s) Bus Line redesign process,
Enrolling South Hilltop residents into the half-fare program, Allegheny Go, and advocating for a fully free program,
Zoning/land use relationship connecting access to housing and quality transit.
[place holder for brief intro + photos of our fellows]
Every few weeks we’re publishing interviews with our fellows with our takeaways, which we’ll add here. See all our reportbacks below!
Image description: South Hilltop Fellows comparing maps of present and past service
Start of Fellowship: Reportback on Sessions 1-2
7 amazing fellows were recruited in two classroom sessions. The first was an introduction to past and present PPT campaigns with special guest Teaira Collins speaking to winning weekend service on the 93, followed by a brief training on powermapping. Our second classroom session covered transit service, exploring what visionary service could look like with buses that run frequently, are accessible to all riders in the county, and run late and on weekends when we need it. We were able to compare maps of service past and present with former Program Manager of Service Planning and Schedules, Fred Mergner. We talked about the connections that people wish were easier to get to by transit from the Hilltop, including to grocery stores, church service in the Hill District, and family in Hazelwood.
Key Takeaways from the Hilltop Fellowship so far:
Our newly launched fellowship in the South Hilltop aims to build transit rider power and find ways to advocate for safer, more accessible, and more reliable transit
Our fellows identified the disconnect between PRT’s planning of service with riders’ lived experiences
Effective rider advocacy requires overcoming feelings of powerlessness to change civic infrastructure
Image Description: On a dark evening, PPT Hilltop fellows wearing green reflective vests and winter coats measure sidewalk on Brownsville Road, with cars and a gas station in the background.
Midway Through: Reportback on Sessions 3-8
As we pass our South Hilltop Fellowship halfway point, we have reports on the interesting aspects we’re learning about in our weekly classroom sessions and field visits. Since our first blog post, we’ve covered transit service (frequency, reliability), bus-stop and bus-shelter audits, land-use and development (including Transit-Oriented Development – TOD), and the half-fare program for SNAP recipients – AlleghenyGO. Through this time, our fellows have been engaged in learning about the various considerations when installing a bus shelter, what makes an accessible sidewalk, how planners can incorporate a robust transit network into plans for equitable development, and so much more! Interviews with 3 fellows below, give us a snapshot of what we’re learning about, and how we can keep up the fight for a safe, reliable, and accessible transit network in our city.
Key Takeaways from the Hilltop Fellowship so far:
Takeaways for Bus shelters and sidewalks (Sessions 3-4)
Safety and dignity for all riders is a must!
Public agencies need to coordinate with each other
“Nothing about us without us” – Disability advocacy
Easier to organize with others who share the same passions than by yourself
Takeaways for Land Use and Development (Sessions 5-6)
Processes for routine maintenance of public infrastructure
Role of residents and local organizations in making a neighborhood more livable
Engaging the youth is important
We get used to the conditions around us and don’t question how it could be better
Zoning changes a neighborhood experience
There should be more avenues for community residents to talk to agencies either directly or through community based organizations
Fellowship has made the connection between issues clearer and provided necessary information and confidence to be an advocate at local community meetings
Takeaways for Service and AlleghenyGO (Sessions 7-8)
Inefficient and infrequent bus scheduling, particularly around school start times, creates major daily hurdles for students and commuters alike.
While programs like AlleghenyGo are a valuable and cost-saving asset for riders, poor communication and a lack of real-time updates from transit authorities remain critical blind spots.
Advocacy for improved service should start with community meetings to gather consensus on key issues, such as adding shuttle routes or adjusting schedules to reduce overcrowding
There is a stark disconnect between local development efforts and transit planning, as improved housing isn’t supported by reliable public transportation for new residents.
Image Description: Mon Valley Organizing Fellowship Participants & Facilitators smiling near a bus shelter after a trip on the 59 Mon Valley. The group is framed by red starbursts. There is a drawing of a yellow bus with text stating “Next Stop, Mon Valley Transit Fellowship” in the right corner.
PPT’s recent Organizing Fellowship in the Mon Valley shows that when advocates skill up, they can organize their communities and win!
This year, Pittsburghers for Public Transit launched it’s first fellowship program for transit advocates in Mon Valley communities, led by staff and PPT Board facilitators. Why now, and why focus on these areas? PPT members voted as a part of our 2025 strategic plan to place additional time and resource into supporting transit riders in Mon Valley communities by sharing our learned experiences in working to win improvements to transit infrastructure (finding ways to get our sidewalks repairs, extended, restore bus shelters, and preserve stops) by educating elected officials and department leaders in the City of Pittsburgh on how they can make using transit an easier and more dignified experience. Through this program, we aimed to equip transit riders with ways to educate and activate municipal leaders to support robust policies that foster more connected communities.
PPT has worked along residents in the Mon Valley to stop service reduction on routes that are some of the highest for commuters in the state of Pennsylvania and riders have turned out to community meetings, rallies, and have made strides to not only stop changes to routes that would slash service, but make gains for weekend service and projects that would make traveling between communities and the City of Pittsburgh faster. Unfortunately, many places have not seen significant economic investments for residents over time. As a result, riders often travel far to access full-service grocery options, pharmacies, medical facilities, recreation centers, and more. Transit is more than the bus, but an essential lifeline.
Fellows met weekly for 4 months to learn about community organizing and transit advocacy
For this program, fellows focused most of their time in Homestead, McKeesport, Duquesne, and Rankin, where they reside. Each week, we dove into a specific aspect of transit access in relation to PPT campaigns through both in-person and virtual discussions. During our in-person days in the field, we compiled a list of bus stops with high ridership numbers that would be eligible for a bus shelter. We also conducted a citizens’ audit of stops in each borough, speaking with people waiting to gather their transit service needs. Related to service, we rode the well-loved 59 Mon Valley route and chatted with riders waiting at the bus stop in North Versailles about their travel destinations and how the service frequency affected their experience. Fellows meet with a representative from the Steel Valley COG to explore how local-level policies influence street design and planning by elected officials. Additionally, we discuss the potential for equitable transit-oriented development on county-owned land in collaboration with Pittsburgh Regional Transit staff. Fellows learned about fare equity and the Allegheny Go program. We monitored the county’s enrollment progress, identifying opportunities to boost enrollment through discussions of benefits and facilitating on-the-spot enrollments.
During our short time, our fellows and facilitators cover tremendous ground in learning about how we can make the kinds of connections we want to see for more people-focused, transit-grounded decision-making to create thriving places and spaces.
Our Mon Valley Organizing Fellowship set us up for victory on the Waterfront Bus Stop campaign – join our next Organizing Fellowship to win better transit in your community!
When we organize, we win! – and our Mon Valley Organizing Fellowship proved that. Almost immediately after our Fellowship ended, it was announced that the property owners at the Waterfront wanted to remove the two bus stops in front of the Giant Eagle and Target. This move was a disgrace to transit riders. These two stops are some of the most used stops in the Mon Valley – serving more than 2500 riders every week!
Organizers from the Mon Valley Organizing Fellowship snapped into action and began circulating a petition to keep the stops at the Waterfront. Their work in the fellowship helped establish a network to get the word out about opportunities to fight for improved transit. In less than a week our petition had collected 1400 signatures, and won the endorsement of US Congressperson Summer Lee! Our Organizing Fellows made the news speaking up for the bus stop. And within a week more, it was announced that County Executive Sara Innamorato had reached a deal with local leaders and the property owners to keep these bus stops!
You can be part of this Organizing Fellowship success story! Join us at our Press Conference Parade on October 20th to declare that transit riders have power. We’re here to stay at the Waterfront – and all throughout Allegheny County! RSVP here
We’ll be launching new PPT Organizing Fellowships in communities around our County (and state!) in 2026, so be sure to stay tuned for the next opportunity to sign up!
Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s Board Meeting is scheduled for Friday, 9/26 at 9:30 am, and we want to make sure they hear our voices loud and clear. Register with us by Tuesday, 9/23 and we will make sure you’re signed up and prepared to speak online or in-person at the PRT Board Meeting.
And so, while we continue to organize for NEW transit funding out of Harrisburg that serves all PA, we are calling on Pittsburgh Regional Transit to take action now to improve schedules and transit service, and to build a system worth fighting for.
In developing your testimony for the PRT Board meeting, we urge you to share the following:
Who are you, and why are you organizing for better transit.
All the work that you have done- this year, over decades, to win state funding so that we can have the transit service that we deserve. We know that just over the last 9 months, over 30,000 people have taken action with us in every single legislative district in the Commonwealth, to win a budget that funds transit for all PA. That includes multiple rallies in Pittsburgh, Philly and Lancaster, an ALL-DAY lobby day in Harrisburg, public testimony to PRT about the impact of the cuts, over 400,000 emails sent to legislators, postcard campaigns, op-eds, canvassing riders, phonebanking, petitioning with transit workers, and developing funding research and advocacy videos with us. We want Pittsburgh Regional Transit leaders to hear how you have played a key role in this fight, despite working a full time job, or raising children, or managing a disability, or however else you could have chosen to spend your time.
That Pittsburgh Regional Transit needs to ACT NOW to make our transit service better – more reliable, more available and more comprehensible. While we no longer have to fear the immediate threat of more service cuts and fare increases, transit service (and communication about stop changes) continues to be poor. You should share stories about your recent experience with transit service or communication about stop changes. We regularly hear about buses that are chronically late or that don’t show up, overcrowding on routes, schedules that don’t match up for a transfer, service cuts that have made a route unusable. PRT continues to make decisions about service changes everyday that affect the availability and usefulness of the system- we need them to use that power to build a system that works for us.
Pittsburgh Regional Transit Board members and leadership need to know that even though the service cuts are on pause, their work is only just beginning. Riders deserve better transit than what we have today, and PRT has the power to deliver it – through better scheduling, by reinvesting funding that they have been squirreling away from cuts into more service, by having clear signage and communication to operators when bus stops are relocated.
Through all of our actions, we’ve shown that we’re committed to our transit system; now we need PRT to prove that they are committed to us.
