Image Description: Black and yellow text reads “ICE OUT” on a pixelated gray and black gradient background.
Organizing around transit justice is about ensuring that all people have the freedom to move—to travel safely and with dignity everywhere we need to go. All communities should have the ability to freely access their places of school and work, grocery stores, healthcare, and places of recreation and play.
ICE as an institution is structurally in opposition to that freedom of movement. It is a state instrument of violence, of repression and fear, of incarceration and isolation. We have seen the ways that they have systematically targeted our community of transit riders, which are disproportionately people of color, disabled people, low-income people, and immigrants.
We are humbled by the solidarity, courage and organizing muscle of all those in Minneapolis, and particularly celebrate the leadership of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 in protecting transit riders and workers from state-sactioned violence. We endorse the call for a National Strike on Friday, Jan 30th, and support the organizing at the County, State and Federal levels to defend against, to defund and abolish ICE.
We also stand in support of the proposed Allegheny County ordinance that would prohibit County employees and resources from assisting ICE, and protecting equal access to County services without regard to immigration status (real or perceived).
We encourage our community to sign onto a petition showing support for this ordinance. Click the button to tell the County that ICE is not welcome here.
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: photo of a newspaper clipping sourced from Claudette Colvin and published in a Guardian profile in 2021. There are two headlines reading “Girl, 15, Guilty in Bus Seat Case” and “Negro Girl Found Guilty of Segregation Violation,” as well as a photo of a young Black girl with tortoiseshell glasses, short curly hair wearing a sweater looking into the camera and lightly smiling.
PPT mourns the passing of the organizer, transit and civil rights icon Claudette Colvin, who took an arrest for refusing to give up her seat on the bus in civil disobedience, 9 months before Rosa Parks did.
Colvin’s story took too long to surface because she was at the time an unwed, pregnant Black girl; then, as now, some argued that the only people whose voices and actions should be recognized are those whose stories are seen as perfectly respectable and unassailable.
But that is wrong: we are all deserving.
We are all deserving of life free from injustice and violence, and Claudette Colvin deserved to be celebrated and supported for her courage – not despite the fact of her pregnancy and her youth, but especially because she was just a child of 15 when she was arrested for the civil disobedience, and one who was particularly vulnerable because she didn’t have a husband and because she was bearing a child. At great risk to herself, she stood up for justice.
Image Description: Photo of Ms. Lisa Gonzalez wearing a red PPT shirt, long black braids and glasses looking at the camera and holding a picture book of Claudette Colvin, with coloring sheets of buses in the background. Her photo is surrounded by peonies and other flowers.
This image above is that of our own transit and civil rights icon, Ms. Lisa Gonzalez, pictured here holding up a book on Claudette Colvin. For several years, she led a PPT table on MLK Day in which she would share Claudette’s story with children at the Kelly Strayhorn theater.
Today we also remember the late Ms. Lisa Gonzalez as well as Mr. Samuel Jordan, leader of the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition, who became a friend to Claudette Colvin and told her story to our generation of organizers in the fight for transit justice. He was a mentor and peer to PPT, and active in the national rider coalition, the TRUST (Transit Riders of the U.S. Together). Mr. Jordan himself passed away last August.
We cherish our movement storytellers as well as those whose courage was showcased in the histories they tell.
Ms. Claudette Colvin, Ms. Lisa Gonzalez, Mr. Samuel Jordan, presente-
Image Description: a yellow and white gradient background with black text reading “2025: PPT’s Biggest Year Yet”, decorated with a red starburst.
PPT builds Transit justice every day, every month, every year—and 2025 was no exception.
So what does justice look like for transit riders and for transit workers?
Transit justice begins and ends with all of us at the table—in Pittsburgh City Hall, in PRT’s boardroom, in Harrisburg, and in Washington.
Transit justice is about riders and workers setting the table– making the table large enough to hold all of us and our dreams- and not merely accepting the crumbs.
In 2026, more of you were at the table and set the agenda than ever before:
You testified at PRT’s service hearings and addressed the PRT Board of Directors around the Bus Line Redesign 1.0 and our transit service quality.
You spoke up for affordable housing and bus shelters and passing a budget for free transit for all downtown City workers at Pittsburgh City Council and City Planning.
Over 15 of you from the Mon Valley, the Southern Hilltop communities and transit workers committed to a months-long organizing fellowship, where through intensive study and practice have refined your expertise on the needs and opportunities around transit in your communities.
As part of the weekly research committee meetings or the statewide Transit for All PA calls, you developed our policy demand for service and state funding, putting pen to paper to make a plan for more transit, not less.
You met with dozens of City and state legislators telling your transit story, putting forward transit funding solutions and demanding more transit, not less.
You hosted the largest national gathering of transit advocates for a conference on transit skills-building
This year, transit was the defining issue in the state budget fight: state legislators have said never heard more about an issue—ever—than they did this year about transit.
That is because of you.
The Transit for All PA policy package for service growth and expansion—the legislative proposal that you and hundreds of your peers across the state developed and ratified—is the only transit legislation being considered by legislators for the next two years.
Your work has won us all a seat at a table. A table big enough for everyone, and a table big enough to hold our dreams.
That’s the transit justice we delivered in 2025.
2025’s Tangible Transit Organizing Wins
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win.” – Assata Shakur
We’re not just committed to grassroots organizing, we are committed to winning what our communities need and deserve. Here are some of the wins you racked up in 2025:
Averted the most imminent, catastrophic transit cuts in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia’s historythrough months of rallying, public testimony, participatory research on state transit funding policy, legislative visits, letter writing and more.
Conducted bus shelter audits and crowdsourced rider data to help the City identify and install new bus shelters, so riders have a dignified and safe place to wait. These shelters were made possible by the funds that you won in the 2025 City of Pittsburgh Budget- the first ever transit amenities line item in Pittsburgh history.
2025 by the Numbers
There’s no way around it: in 2025, PPT has grown bigger, bolder, and faster than ever before.
To give you a sense of this growth, staff measure the size of our Movement by the number of people in a contact database—in other words, folks who have agreed to be organized around our issues.
Thanks to the organizing prowess of PPT’s local and statewide members, our database contacts have grown an absolutely stunning 72% since December of 2024. That’s just over 32,500 people who joined the fight in 2025. Check out this (awe-inspiring!) graph that charts contact growth over the past year:
Image Description: a graph of red bars showing the growth of PPT & Transit for All PA! supporters: from just over 10,000 in Dec. 2024, to around 45,000 in Dec. 2026.
If that data isn’t juicy enough for you, take a look at these other stats showing this massive growth:
350,000+: letters Pennsylvanians sent to their state legislators in support of robust, sustainable transit funding
32,500+: new contacts added to the contact database in 2025
350: Pennsylvanians who traveled to Harrisburg for a rally and lobby day supporting state transit funding (legislative partners told staff that this was the biggest rally they’ve ever seen at the Capitol!)
50: PA Senate districts with Transit for All PA supporters (yes, that means supporters in every single legislative district in Pennsylvania!)
Most of all, our victory is in our clarity of purpose across so many differences. Our victory is in our smart, committed, caring community. Because the damn fascists are doing everything they can to divide us—by race, geography, by our abilities, by our income, by our nationalities. They wouldn’t try so hard if they weren’t so afraid of us, of how powerful we are together.
In 2025 we built a new constellation of power here at PPT. We’ve won many things, but more victories can and must be on our horizon in 2026.
In sum: cheers to you, to us, and to our collective liberation.
Image Description: a bus stop titled “Pressely St.” decorated with a red starburst, and pictures of 3 PPT members holding rally signs and smiling. Black and red text reads “Unveiling our new bus shelters: celebrating the Transit Stop Improvement Program”.
Join PPT and the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure for a Bus Shelter Celebration on Feb. 4th, Transit Equity Day, and the 2-year anniversary of the launch of PPT’s Shelter Campaign. We will be celebrating the launch of the first new bus shelter created as a result of our organizing and partnership with the City of Pittsburgh!
We will meet at the new shelter at the Cedar Ave and Pressley St inbound bus stop, on the City’s northside, sharing warm beverages, sweet treats, and reflections of the work we’ve done and the road yet ahead. There will be special speakers and opportunities to learn about PPT’s upcoming infrastructure initiatives.
Image Description: a yellow, black, and red timeline graphic showing the progression of PPT’s Bus Shelter Campaign, from the first bus shelter audits in Spring 2024 to Transit Equity Day 2026.
On a hot 90-degree day in July, four different teams of PPT members set out on a one-day Bus Stop Audit Blitz to help the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI) gather information on the conditions of bus stops. The goal was to identify enough stops to rehome several “orphaned” bus shelters living at inactive bus stops throughout the city.
29 high-rider stops across 14 neighborhoods in the city of Pittsburgh were visited. 10 of those stops were deemed eligible for bus shelters by PPT members who were trained according to Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s Bus Stop and Street Design Guidelines and DOMI’s criteria. This information was shared with the City to aid in their work.
Where we are now
DOMI’s 2025 Transit Stop Improvement Programallowed for the repaving of sidewalk pads at 6 high ridership bus stops and the subsequent installation of shelters at those stops. You can now wait for the bus in the shade and protection of shelters at the following bus stops:
Broadway Avenue at Hampshire Avenue (inbound)
Broadway Avenue at Hampshire Avenue (outbound)
Hamilton Avenue at Oakwood Street
Cedar Avenue at Pressley Street
Brighton Road and Woods Run Avenue
Sandusky Street and E. General Robinson
As a part of this program, DOMI created an Engage page where transit riders can read the detailed criteria of what constitutes a bus stop eligible for a shelter, as well as recommend stops that need sidewalk improvements. The biggest takeaway from PPT’s bus stop audits has been that sidewalk conditions in the city are poor to fair at best, which prevents the easy installation of bus shelters, benches, and other amenities.
The success of PPT’s collaboration with DOMI has not only been in the Transit Stop Improvement Program, but also in the city of Pittsburgh thinking of bus stops in a bigger way; viewing them for the role they play in neighborhood connectivity at all levels of mobility, starting with safe sidewalk infrastructure.
You can always share with PPT which bus stops you think need a shelter through our This Stop Needs a Shelter form. We share this information with our friends at DOMI.
Join PPT and DOMI for a Bus Shelter Celebration on Feb. 4th, Transit Equity Day, and the 2-year anniversary of the launch of PPT’s Shelter Campaign. We will be at the new shelter at the Cedar Ave and Pressley St inbound bus stop, on the City’s northside, sharing warm beverages, sweet treats, and reflections of the work we’ve done and the road yet ahead. There will be special speakers and opportunities to learn about PPT’s upcoming infrastructure initiatives.
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:
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.
Expect workshops and panels focusing on:
Solidarity between transit riders and transit workers
Organizing for better service in small transit systems
Facilitating great organizing meetings
Organizing around paratransit
And more!
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
Accessibility
The Courtyard Pittsburgh University Center has accessible onsite parking and an accessible main entrance. All meeting areas are accessible, and there are elevators throughout the building. More information about the hotel’s accessibility features can be found on their web page.
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.
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!
Tickets are going fast—Reserve your spot today!
Pre-registration is required for all events. The last day to register for Spring Training is Friday, March 13th, 2026.
image description: photo of Paul O’Hanlon participating in a sit-in action for increased transit funding back in 2011. Text reads “Paul O’Hanlon, February 4, 1954-November 30, 2025. May you rest in power”.
Our PPT family mourns the recent passing of Paul O’Hanlon, Board member and co-founder. His spirit will live in our organizing forever.
Paul O’Hanlon Memorial Service Saturday, January 10th, 2-4pm University of Pittsburgh’s William Pitt Union, Lower Lounge 3959 Fifth Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Friends, Colleagues and Family are invited to a celebration of Paul’s life and legacy.
Parking is available at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial or Carnegie Museum. Nearby bus routes include the 54, 61A, 61B, 61C, 61D, 67, 69, 71A, 71B, 71C, 71D, 75, 93, and P3.
Pittsburghers for Public Transit was founded with the fire of Paul O’Hanlon and the community that he inspired. Over the years, he helped this movement grow with his ideas, humor, and an unwavering sense of justice. He joined us in the protests, and he joined us at the parties. He taught us how to fight and love. His spirit will live in our organizing forever.
Paul was a powerful organizer for human rights, with a clear understanding of how our movements for disability justice, transit justice, housing justice and voting rights are connected and necessary. He was courageous, smart, committed and supportive, and he has mentored so many in bringing their power to the light.
We will miss Paul deeply, and we offer all of PPT’s love and community to his family in this difficult time.
Rest in power, Paul. Your memory will fuel our fight until every person can access the opportunity they deserve.
The PPT family is invited to leave your words of remembrance here, or record a video of yourself sharing your words of remembrance and upload it here. All written and video remembrances will be added to this page. Please note that we are also putting together a video presentation for the public memorial honoring Paul’s work in the field. Excerpts from our recordings will be used!
Read remembrances from PPT Members:
Dean Mougianis
It’s a cloudy Pittsburgh day in 2011 and I am on a bicycle in the back alleys of the strip district. I’m panting and wheezing, pedaling as fast as I can, dodging potholes that I hope won’t upend me. Partly, this is because I’m running late, trying to get to a protest of Governor Tom Corbett’s education cuts. But mostly, it’s because I am trying my damnedest to keep up with Paul O’Hanlon, who is making his motorized wheelchair bounce and rattle atop the broken pavement at a dizzying speed. We were both at a meeting of Occupy Pittsburgh, and I had decided I should accompany Paul on the trip. You know, look after him a bit. Silly me. He’s leaving me far behind and it’s all I can do to try to match his pace.
I think that’s all any of us could ever do. Try our feeble best to keep up with him.
I first met Paul on election day in 2008, in the “escalation room” of Election Protection – lawyers who volunteer their services to safeguard our vote. I was there as the dispatcher for “Video the Vote” a group trying to do the same thing with video cameras. (This was before everybody had cellphone cameras in their pockets.) There were a few dozen attorneys around a big conference table at a downtown law firm. They took calls from an 800 number. If the call seemed like it represented serious skullduggery, then it was escalated to a smaller group of more expert lawyers. Alpha lawyers you might say. Paul was without doubt an alpha lawyer, and so there he was – ready to battle electoral evil.
Mercifully, there was less skullduggery than anticipated that election. That left a lot of down time to sit and talk and get to know the person working next to you. The Paul I got to know that day was passionate, whip-smart, warm and sincere. The kind of person who leaves an impression on you – a serious Atticus Finch vibe.
As I indicated, our paths crossed again in the muddy confines of the Occupy Pittsburgh encampment. Well, actually, just before. He was there at a planning meeting, laying out the legal case for taking over the public space of Mellon Green downtown. When it came to Occupy, Paul seemed to be everywhere. Dispensing legal information, yes. But more importantly, movement wisdom. Paul had seen a lot advocating for disability rights, housing rights, education rights, etc and learned from every bit of it.
It was in the area of public transit where I came to know, and appreciate, Paul the most. He was part of the founding group of Pittsburghers for Public Transit. That same year of 2011 transit in Pittsburgh was facing a 40% cut. Cuts had been foisted on the public for years and this one would be devastating. Paul understood, along with others, that the public needed to be aware of a trend that was happening in darkness. And thus the Transit Twelve was born – a dozen activists who sat mid-road and stopped traffic in downtown Pittsburgh to raise awareness of the damage those cuts would do.
image description: photo of Paul O’Hanlon being arrested during a civil disobedience calling for expanded public transit access in 2011
The Twelve were arrested for their civil disobedience and carted off to be arraigned of course. Well, eleven of them. The police did not know what do to with the erudite and self-assured attorney in the wheelchair. They couldn’t just toss him in a squad car. The picture you see above is of Paul next to a police officer – a Paul miffed because he isn’t being arrested along with the others. The story I heard is that shortly after this picture was taken, Paul got impatient and just motored over in his chair to the public safety building, driving himself to his own arrest. I haven’t been able to confirm the story’s veracity – but it’s true to the Paul that I knew. That’s exactly the kind of thing he would have done.
Paul was on Pittsburghers for Public Transit’s coordinating committee (the precursor to the board of directors) for years. I watched him consistently guide legal and organizing policy with his careful and wise counsel. He was everything a great movement lawyer should be – thorough, precise, compassionate. And with all that brainpower, with all that experience, I never once saw him be condescending or less than completely open to the contribution of others. As is true with such a long list of issues – transit in Pittsburgh would be severely diminished without the efforts of Paul O’Hanlon.
Earlier this year, Paul had a medical setback that sent him to the hospital. The condition made it difficult for him to speak and even breathe. When I went to visit, he wanted so badly to hear about what everyone was doing in the movement space. And he had a take on all of it, spoken in his same measured and complete way, even though he struggled with every word. Because he labored so hard to speak, it was all I could do to stop myself from trying to finish his sentences. Paul, though, was going to say it the way he felt it should be said – no matter what that took.
Amazingly he bounced back from it. There he was out in the world again, buzzing around in his chair, making sure he didn’t miss anything. Sadly, so very sadly, that was short-lived. Last week illness and infection caught up to him. As quick and as mobile as he was, mortality still caught up to him – in the way it will overtake all of us. He passed away last weekend. This passing hits me hard, as it hits dozens, maybe hundreds, of others.
I’m going to conclude with a quote I think Paul would have approved of. It’s from Mother Jones, who said:
“Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living”
I will miss you – my comrade, my friend.
Alisa Grishman
When I was 14 years old, my dad had a conference in Denmark, and I tagged along. It wasn’t safe to let naive little me wander the streets of Copenhagen by myself, though. Thankfully Lori Levin brought her husband, Paul O’Hanlon, and their 10-month-old son Sam along with her. My dad somehow conspired with them that I thought that I was being Daddy’s Helper by pushing Paul around town in his manual wheelchair and playing with Sam in various playgrounds, when really Paul was babysitting me.
A few years later when I’d moved to Pittsburgh to attend Carnegie Mellon, I ran into Paul. He remembered me and we exchanged some pleasantries, and then I didn’t really see him again for about a decade.
In 2015, however, all of that changed. I’d become more and more disabled myself at that point, and after meeting my dearest, beloved friend Richard Meritzer, he brought me to my very first City-County Task Force on Disabilities and introduced me to such powerful voices as Jeff Parker, who I miss dearly. There with everyone else… was Paul. And Paul welcomed me with open arms.
The following year, I’d already started up Access Mob Pittsburgh and I was eager to prove myself and get involved in absofuckinglutely everything. Paul came to me and told me about his big project he’d been working on for many years, Pittsburgh Ballots for Patients, and asked if I would be interested in helping out. That was the first year I was in charge of volunteers for Ballots for Patients, and I’ve done so every two years since then. We had at our height (before UPMC decided to be helpful and provide some of their own aides) upwards of 70 volunteers in nine area hospitals collecting emergency absentee ballots from hospitalized patients who couldn’t go to the polls. This has been some of my proudest work.
There are so many other projects we worked on together as well. He got me involved with the Committee for Accessible Transportation, and we fought HARD to make them allow paratransit vehicles to pull over in bus lanes. We advocated loudly about the need to make the Department of Permits, Licensing, and Inspection prioritize accessible entrances when businesses were making ADA-related infrastructure improvements, to the point that we got a hearing with City Council and the City’s legal team to plea our case.
I cannot say that I agreed with Paul on everything. He could be super pig-headed and obstinate, especially at the end. We had an on-going dispute about whether or not it’s OK to force riders without mobility devices to get up for those who do (it absolutely isn’t – invisible disabilities are still real disabilities).
What I can say, though, is that I would not be the amazing human I am without Paul. And for that I will hold him close in my heart for the rest of my life. Thank you, Paul, for everything you’ve taught me, and for the strength you’ve given me. I promise to keep Ballots for Patients going, and to continue your legacy of advocacy in this City. I love you forever.
Cassandra Masters
Paul was one of the first people I met in 2019 when I worked for ACCESS paratransit. I learned from him trillions of things about disability justice and the abysmal transit access across the city and country for people with disabilities over the years.
Paul’s advocacy radicalized me in so many ways (and we didn’t even know each other that well!). I specifically remember talking with him about how sidewalk curb cuts, while essential, *cannot* be the only accessibility win we fight for–neighbors deserve curb cuts AND we have to dream bigger. I think about it every time I see a new curb cut. He leaves behind a remarkable legacy. Rest in power, Paul.
Andrew Hussein
Alas I can’t exactly remember when I 1st met Paul, it’s been a wild and rough last few years. What I can say is I definitely remember Paul being very insightful, inspirational and a fierce fighter and both Pittsburgh and the PPT Community are a little bleaker with this great loss! The remembrance at the top of the PPT Blog says it well, May you rest in power, friend!
Laura Chu Wiens
A few years ago, the members and staff of Pittsburghers for Public Transit thought up a slogan that would encapsulate our work for the year. It was: “This Bus is for All of Us.” The artist whom we enlisted to make the poster came around to get inspiration for what they would draw that reflected our community. What emerged at the front of the poster, smiling and ready to board the bus, was an illustration of Paul, because transit was a joy to him, and because he has always been a transit advocacy leader.
PPT, though we can now boast being around for 16 years, was hardly the first organizing home for Paul around transit. I remember Paul sharing his experience travelling around the City and County in 1991 just after the passage of the ADA. At the time, only a handful of buses had wheelchair ramps installed, and they ran on only one or two routes. That was revelatory to me- what it meant for movement, for one’s ability to live if you were a wheelchair user who was limited to one or two accessible corridors in the County, or before that- none at all.
Public transit was to become a gateway to freedom for people with disabilities- through the relentless advocacy of Paul and John Tague and others who went on to bottom-line the newly organized City County Taskforce on Disabilities.
But I think about how back in 1991, 35 years ago, Paul could only travel on a single, solitary route- and yet could envision a transit system in which the whole County would be accessible. We saw Paul going on to demand it. That awes me: who else among us has such clairvoyance, such determination and such hope?
Paul was the best kind of stubborn, clear minded about the obstacles to surviving, to participating, to thriving in this world, and refusing to let them stand. At the outset of his role with PPT, he blocked Fifth and Wood Street downtown to demand action and state funding for transit along with 11 other PPT members – and took an arrest for this civil disobedience. Or rather, he would have, but Pittsburgh police didn’t have a van that could accommodate his wheelchair and so turned him loose. Paul offered to roll to the jail himself, and they still refused. And so Paul went home on the bus, but as his spouse Lori describes it, he was so agitated that the others were in jail without him that he turned around, caught the next bus, and went right to the jail so that he could be together with the others in solidarity.
While this is an example of his courage, his activism was steady, strategic and long-term. Paul organized alongside community members up and down the Mon Valley to prevent the cuts to the 61 A,B,C buses in 2017, he was part of the braintrust of members that developed PPT’s Fair Fares platform in 2019. He called on PPT to join him in a lawsuit to compel ridehailing companies to provide accessible vehicles under the ADA in 2020. He guided our work for accessible stops and shelters, and around affordable housing, and against the proliferation of private transportation tech.
Paul recognized how our environment can be designed in ways that make our lives smaller and meaner- a single route with only one origin and one destination. But for all the injustice that he experienced, that he perceived directed to others, I never saw him organize with anger at the fore.
There are so many movement lessons here that Paul has given to me, and to us. We must hold and communicate joy in our organizing along with the frustration. We should be impatient for justice and also ready to fight for as long as it takes to win.
Transit can be a vehicle of our liberation, not a last resort. It can be a chauffeur, a valet, a palace for the people. It is our public good.
In organizing for freedom of movement- for people with disabilities – Paul was opening up the pathway to life for everyone. For low-income folks, for youth, for older adults, for undocumented immigrants- other communities that he was always lifting up alongside his own.
This Bus is for All of Us.
Any one of these organizing efforts would be impressive enough in its own right- but PPT was only one very small part of the legacy that he leaves behind. From founding Ballots for Patients, whose work continues through the leadership of Alisa Grishman and Access Mob, to organizing tenants and advocating for more expansive use of Section 8 homeownership opportunities, to participating in a commission for Wilkinsburg’s home rule charter, to laying the groundwork for so much of the disability rights gains in Southwest PA over the last half century, Paul O’Hanlon was somehow both the mildest and fiercest force to be reckoned with. He is survived by his spouse Lori and son Sam, and by all of us- we will continue the movement in his memory.
Ken Regal
Thankful for our friendship with Paul over many decades beginning when we were housemates in a (usually) cooperative house in the early 1980’s and continuing in work together for voting rights and other social justice issues. Paul was truly a hero who made our community a better place for everyone to live and thrive.
Donna Gates
My favorite story about Paul is when he presented an award to Port Authority management for adding buses with wheelchair lifts. At the time, the lifts rarely worked and Paul was trying to draw attention to the fact. So, he and others met Port Authority management downtown to present an award to them at a bus stop. Press was there. When an accessible bus pulled up for them to get on, the lift did not wotk. Port Authority managers were embarassed and assured everyone these would be fixed. Paul viewed the ability to ride a bus as a blow for freedom to be able to go where he wanted to go. These buses work now.
Amanda Clark
Paul had such a kind and giving heart. He onboarded me to Ballots for Patients, back before mail-in voting was a thing. He helped me with my illegally-held security deposit. I didn’t know him well, and won’t claim to, but he touched many hearts, and I was one of them, and I will always be grateful for that, and will always miss his presence in our lives now. I pray for peace and comfort to his family and friends, and I pray his spirit lives on in the rest of us.
Ron Gaydos
Whether knowing Paul at the Pittsburgh Quaker Community house on Homewood Ave, to seeing him assertively enter buses on his way around town, to standing up for people in his legal work, I’ve always admired him and looked forward to seeing him every time.
Dustin Gibson
Paul embraced me and the ideas that I had as a young activist. He showed up to everything he could. He supported while still offering suggestions based on his experience and critique. I can imagine he did that with countless people. Paul was clear about the connections between systems of oppression and worked to forge solidarity between different struggles. I appreciate how he worked to weave together different groups of people essentially fighting for the same things.
Anyone in the PPT community is welcome to leave your words of remembrance below, and they’ll be added to this page:
Here are some prompts to guide your message:
“My favorite story about Paul O’Hanlon is . . . “
“I would like to thank/acknowledge Paul for the work he did with . . . “
“The thing that always struck me about Paul is the way he . . . “
Image Description: a red PRT bus under a dark overpass at night, with its headlights on and ramp extended. To the right is white text reading “We need service that serves us: PRT’s annual service report fails to acknowledge ridership, reliability crises”, decorated with a red starburst.
We deserve a transit system worth fighting for. PRT’s ridership recovery post-COVID lags far behind its peers, and buses frequently don’t show up as scheduled.
Pittsburgh riders have proved they’re ready to go to bat for PRT. Now PRT needs to grow ridership and to improve service reliability—and implementing the Bus Line Redesign now isn’t the answer.
State lawmakers from Allegheny County have a unique opportunity to push PRT for the baseline service improvements we need before overhauling the system with a Bus Line Redesign. Contact your legislator today to show them that we can, and must, improve our system now—with common sense baseline improvements, not a system redesign.
Last month, Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) published its 2025 annual service report, laying out data about ridership levels, operating costs per rider, and transit service reliability. From the tone of the report, one might assume that our transit system is doing fine, with any service reliability or ridership hiccups due to unique issues like construction, worker shortfalls or commuter changes post-pandemic.
However, this report actually shows that Pittsburgh Regional Transit is doing worse on ridership recovery and service reliability compared to transit agencies across the country. The 2025 annual service report disclosed that PRT ridership has plateaued and declined this year from last, for the second year in a row.
PRT ridership is now only about 60% of pre-COVID levels, a national anomaly.
On average, US transit systems have recovered 85% of 2019 ridership, and are continuing to climb every year. Some agencies have even surpassed pre-pandemic ridership by making targeted service improvements, and/or advancing new fare programs like their employer passes or low-income and zero fare programs. Notably, over the past two years, PRT has conspicuously removed all comparative data with other peer transit systems, which was a staple of the report in years prior.
PRT service reliability has also plateaued, with an average of only 66% of buses arriving on time. We’ve said many times, and will continue to say, that this is because of unrealistic written schedules and not due to transit worker shortcomings.
As some particularly egregious examples, here is the average service reliability of some of the highest ridership routes in the city in 2025:
28X Airport Flyer- 58%
58 Greenfield- 50%
61A North Braddock- 50%
61B Braddock-Swissvale- 50%
61C McKeesport-Homestead – 44%
64 Lawrenceville-Waterfront- 57%
65 Squirrel Hill- 46%
71B Highland Park- 41%
74 Homewood-Squirrel Hill- 57%
81 Oak Hill- 55%
82 Lincoln- 54%
83 Bedford Hill- 54%
91 Butler St- 58%
On top of this, schedules show far fewer bus stop arrival times (“time points”) on the printed schedule than in years prior, so the evaluation of whether buses are “on-time” is happening only at a handful of stops on any given route. The lack of time points—and PRT’s minimal accountability to this metric—make it additionally hard for riders to anticipate arrival times for the majority of bus stops, and to plan transfers between routes.
PRT’s service reports have failed to register the gravity of our ridership and reliability crisis, excusing them as the result of various one-off issues. There is no reason identified in the 2025 report for our low, plateauing on-time-performance average this year, and therefore no presumed mechanism for improving it. (Last year, the 2024 PRT annual service report did note the short-turning of 71 buses and the 61D in Oakland as a major contributor to our region’s precipitous transit ridership drop and bus crowding, but then proceeded to do nothing about it.)
Despite this, thousands of riders proved this year that they are willing to stand up and fight for PRT. We need our efforts to be matched with efforts from PRT. They must improve its service to ensure that we have a system worth fighting for.
Riders need action from PRT, but implementing the Busline Redesign Draft 2.0 is not the solution to our ridership and reliability crisis.
We agree that change is needed. It’s vital that Pittsburgh Regional Transit make changes to address their concurrent ridership, service reliability and funding crises. However, implementing the Busline Redesign before fixing the basics will only make these problems worse.
When you ask PRT why we are lagging so far behind our peers, they will say that the Bus Line Redesign will solve our issues. But that is avoiding the core of the problem – service reliability has been far below its goals for years, and our ridership has declined while others have bounced back. Many agencies have successfully recovered ridership since the pandemic, but not by upending their existing bus network.
Moreover, we are deeply concerned that implementing a “cost-neutral”bus network redesign will lock in the 20% service cuts that we’ve endured these last 5 years—and may not even be fully implemented, given the lack of any sustainable state funding solution.
We’ll have a more in-depth blog published in the next few weeks that gets deeper into the issues we see with the Bus Line Redesign.
Instead of a complete redesign, transit riders and workers and our region need PRT to put forward goals and a vision for increasing ridership, increasing access to transit, restoring service, and for improving service reliability.
As a starting point, Pittsburgh Regional Transit should set goals around ridership recovery, report monthly on their progress, and leverage all the tools at their disposal to grow ridership. In particular, PRT should be capitalizing on the fare programs Allegheny Go (which gives them 100% of fare revenue for every trip!) and the PRTner pass. We have also been calling on PRT and the County to fund free fare days using resources from the Regional Asset District or the County’s Clean Air Fund. Imagine if PRT supported new riders to take the system for one day with transit ambassadors, without the cost or process burden of learning the fare payment system!
Around service reliability, Pittsburgh Regional Transit needs to implement best practices around scheduling. Namely, they need to ensure that service frequencies and times are:
Consistentbetween schedule changes
Realisticfor transit operators to drive
Legibly communicatedto everyday people
Accurateacross the printed timetable, apps, and bus stops
The lag and decline of our ridership recovery has likely been due to a combination of self-inflicted wounds:years of unreliable service, PRT’s thrice yearly schedule changes that regularly upend dozens of routes, misaligned communications about stop and service changes, the on-going bus stop eliminations, and the ongoing service cuts. Because these are the results of PRT’s existing practices, these same tools are also available for them to fix our ridership woes, now.
Thousands of riders have shown they are willing to support our agency. Now it’s time for PRT to give riders a system that our region can be proud of.
Take action: Tell legislators that PRT can fix fundamental service and ridership issues now!
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:
