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: 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: an image of a Pittsburgh bus lane covered in ice and snow, next to bold black text reading “Pittsburgh needs a snow removal plan for non-drivers”.
On January, 25th, 2026, the City of Pittsburgh experienced a significant snowstorm. Since that event, our region has had persistently below-freezing temperatures- ensuring that unplowed, unshoveled snow remained where it fell for more than two weeks. Throughout this time, snow and ice have obstructed key sidewalk corridors, piled up in front of bus stops, and rendered curb cuts on street corners entirely inaccessible.
For the 30% of Pittsburghers who are non-drivers, the snowstorm and the City’s resulting inaction has been a prolonged disaster.
Thousands of residents have been stranded, unable to leave their homes and safely access their grocery stores, medical appointments, schools and jobs. And people with disabilities have been disproportionately harmed by this failure to properly address snow conditions because there has simply been no accessible way to navigate our City’s right of ways under these conditions. Those who did venture out were forced to walk or roll on the street alongside active traffic, putting themselves into danger in order to access their daily needs.
Our City’s lack of a pedestrian snow removal plan has become very apparent through this experience.
The City failed to enforce statutes requiring property owners to shovel their sidewalks. Bus stops remain uncleared even two weeks later, and snow plows focused on clearing streets for single occupancy vehicles without regard to buses’ access to the curb. Worse of all, snow plows throughout the City used ADA curb ramps and sidewalks as storage space for large piles of ice and snow.
How can the City keep our rights-of-way accessible to all after snowfall?
Access Mob, Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Pittsburgh Center for Disability Justice and BikePGH recommend that the City of Pittsburgh Develop a Pedestrian Snow Preparedness Plan. This plan must do the following:
Set clear roles within the City and County as to who is responsible for different aspects of snow removal. At present, the Department of Public Works is responsible for streets, and the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure cites property owners for failure to shovel sidewalks. There must be a specific agency charged with overseeing pedestrian right-of-way snow clearing efforts.
Partner with Pittsburgh Regional Transit to identify and ensure clearing of high volume bus stops, stops serving critical infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, and grocery stores, and stops with frequent ramp deployments.
Formalize a relationship between the City and the County for collaborating around snow removal in pedestrian thoroughfares in the event of an extreme weather emergency.
Prohibit plowing snow onto curb cuts at crosswalks.
Update snow removal procedures at bus stops. Require roads and sidewalks at bus stops be cleared to the curb.
Ensure that walking routes to our public schools are clear and usable for the students and parents who are required to walk.
Ensure sidewalks on bridges are clear, which may involve creating maintenance agreements with adjacent municipalities.
Create a program that would incentivize residents to go out into their communities and remove snow in vital locations such as curb ramps and bus stops. (In New York City, the Department of Sanitation has an ongoing program wherein residents can apply to be an Emergency Snow Shoveler. In the event of a heavy snowfall, this network can be activated and shovelers are paid $19.14/hour to shovel out curb ramps, crosswalks, bus stops, and fire hydrants. On February 4, 2026, Philadelphia announced that it, too, would be implementing a similar program focusing on curb ramps throughout the city.)
Promote the Snow Angels program and incentivize participation.
Develop a media package (social, print, and televised) to educate property owners on their responsibilities in regards to snow removal, emphasizing why it is so important to do it properly.
We urge City and County leaders to treat this moment with the seriousness it demands and to act now in preparation for future moderate and severe snow events. Mayor O’Connor has rightly recognized the need to invest in additional plows and equipment; that commitment must be matched by a comprehensive, enforceable sidewalk, bus stop and curb ramp snow removal strategy that prioritizes people who walk, use mobility devices, and rely on public transit. The failures of this storm response were not merely inconveniences—they created dangerous, exclusionary conditions that cut thousands of Pittsburghers off from work, healthcare, and community life.
Access Mob, Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Pittsburgh Center for Disability Justice and BikePGH respectfully request a meeting with the Mayor’s Office and City Council to discuss these recommendations and to collaborate on a clear, accountable plan for implementation. Pittsburgh can and must do better, and we stand ready to work with City leaders to ensure our City is accessible, equitable, and safe for all residents—no matter the weather.
Take action: tell City Council to develop a snow removal plan that serves non-drivers!
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 & pressure Allegheny County Council to support this ordinance. Click the button to tell Allegheny County Council 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. 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.
