February 8th, 2018 (not: Transit Equity Day was February 5th)

Happy Transit Equity Day, all! We’re celebrating Rosa Parks’ birthday with a reminder that transit is a human and civil right, that transit workers deserve fair wages, benefits and a union, and that public transportation is vital to our climate sustainability. Here’s a joint op-ed that came out in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette signed by PPT, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85 and the Sierra Club:

In honor of Rosa Parks Day, a group of organizations including the Amalgamated Transit Union, the Labor Network for Sustainability, Jobs with Justice and the Institute for Policy Studies are declaring Transit Equity Day for today, Feb. 5, to take action for civil rights and a climate-safe future.

King expanded the focus of transit rights from the right to ride anywhere in a bus to the right to ride to anywhere you need to go on a bus. We are similarly expanding what is included in transit justice:

• Transportation justice: Every person in every neighborhood regardless of age, race, class, gender or disability should have the right to safe, convenient transportation at an affordable cost.

• Workers justice: The workers who build public transit infrastructure, who operate and maintain the systems and who get us where we need to go have the right to safe, decent working conditions and family-supporting incomes and the right to choose to be represented by a union.

• Community justice: Cars, trucks and other transportation emit a large proportion of our dangerous pollution, causing asthma and many other life-threatening conditions. Replacing cars and trucks with public transit is far healthier for individuals and communities. A just transit system will provide all communities fair access to the jobs and amenities of metropolitan areas.

• Climate justice: The lives and futures of Americans and all people are threatened by devastating climate change. As a U.S. federal court recently declared, all people have a right to a stable climate. That will require a rapid cut in the burning of the fossil fuels that emit the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. And one of the easiest, fastest and cheapest ways to do that is public transit run on clean, renewable energy.

Transit justice, in short, is essential for building a just and climate-safe future”

For more information about Transit Equity Day, check out this Facebook Page hosted by the Labor Network for Sustainability.

February 8th, 2018

What an amazing month! PPT and Just Harvest have partnered in calling on the Port Authority board to not implement the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) at the expense of our 61 A, B, and C bus riders. On Friday, January 26th, more than 60 riders and bus drivers came out to rally and pack the Port Authority boardroom, sharing powerful testimony about how their communities would be harmed if the 61 A, B, and C service frequency was cut by 45% as proposed, or if they were required to transfer in Oakland to travel downtown. We submitted more than 300 rider postcards telling their stories of needing the bus, and we’re still collecting dozens more.

We had tons of press, including KDKA, WTAE, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Valley Mirror and the Trib cover the story!

Thank you to all the folks that joined us to call for equity with the BRT, and for your work collecting postcards and rallying and testifying. We are not going to give up this fight!

How you can plug in: We are continuing to distribute and collect 61 bus rider postcards, get organizations and municipalities to sign onto our BRT letter, and we are beginning the process of scheduling meetings with regional elected officials to talk to them about the harm of the bus cuts with the BRT. If you would like to help collect postcards, get organizational sign-ons, or join us for meeting with elected officials, let us know!

We are also holding our 2nd Mon Valley BRT planning meeting on Tuesday, Feb 13th, from 6:00-7:30 pm at Braddock Carnegie Library, to discuss possible next steps for this campaign. Please join us!

February 8th, 2018

Thank you to Lisa Gonzalez, Toni Haraldsen and Crystal Jennings for making our MLK Jr tabling session at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater such a success! Lots of students joined us to hear the story of Rosa Parks, transit as a civil right struggle, and tell us what their bus means to them!

When told that the Port Authority has proposed a cut in service frequency to the 61C, Derek Gordon, who works for the Steelers, said: “This is my only way to work!” He has a flex schedule, and service frequency is important for being able to plan his commute from day to day.

Along with our partner Just Harvest in this campaign for equitable access to jobs, food, healthcare, and other critical needs, we want to share your stories of how 61ABC buses are important to you.

Please tweet @JustHarvest or @Pgh4PubTransit or share your photos and comments with us on Facebook. And you can help start building solidarity between all your stories with the hashtags #WhoseBRT #OURpublictransit.

And please pass the word on about the rally and press conference this coming Friday, January 26th, at 8:45am at the corner of Wood St. and 6th Ave! The Port Authority board meeting will start at 9:30am at 345 6th Ave and many riders, drivers, small business owners, social service organizations, and many, many more will be speaking out together!

February 8th, 2018

Our Don’t Criminalize Transit Riders coalition delegated County Executive Rich Fitzgerald on Thursday, January 18th, to call on him to take a public position opposing fare enforcement policing on public transit. Nearly 30 riders went to his office at the County Courthouse; we were met by six police officers, and were refused an opportunity to speak to him. A full year has passed since this policy of policing and criminal charges for fare evasion was passed. We demand that he listen to his constituents, and call for civil fare enforcement agents and civil consequences at Port Authority!

Later that afternoon, members of Casa San Jose, the Alliance for Police Accountability, the Thomas Merton Center and PPT showed up for a big rally at the Gateway Center T Station, where we demanded that Port Authority Build Ridership, Not Barriersto life! There was a wall of $300 fines, and beautiful birds with messages like “Transportation not Deportation”, and May Day Marching Band played rousing music to celebrate the tearing down of the wall.

We got amazing press in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as well as WTAE news, with new CEO Katherine Kelleman responding, “On a day when a coalition of groups will hold a pair of rallies against armed enforcement of fare payment on Port Authority vehicles, the new head of the transit agency said reviewing that proposed policy is her top priority.”

When we fight, we win! We’ll be planning next steps in the coming weeks around this issue, so stay tuned in for updates on the campaign.

Infographic credit: Christina Castillo

Over the past several months, Pittsburghers for Public Transit has been working with residents in the Mon Valley to make sure the 61 A, B, and C buses don’t get cut in frequency and that any transit improvement is an improvement for all!

A couple of really awesome Braddock residents organized an event at the Braddock Library where over a hundred folks gathered to sign postcards to send to the Port Authority about how important the 61ABC buses are to access all their basic needs. We’re working with many allies across the Mon Valley to remind the Port Authority that equity is one of their own three main criteria for making service decisions.

December 11, 2017

Great testimony from residents of Hilltop Parkview Manor in Duquesne about the need for transit! Take a look at coverage from Ed Blazina at the Post Gazette: 

“Deb Watson of Duquesne and her neighbors in the Hilltop Parkview Manor Apartments don’t think it’s too much to ask that Port Authority route a bus to the complex. The alternative for the 600 residents is a hilly, mile-long walk on busy streets with no sidewalks and limited streetlights. Ms. Watson, who uses a cane, and several other residents with a variety of mobility issues lobbied the Port Authority board Friday to return direct service to their complex on Duquesne Place Drive. Right now, the nearest bus stop is either on Hoffman Boulevard or Route 837.“It’s terrible,” Ms. Watson said. “We have to walk in the middle of the street in the winter. We really need a bus.””

Additionally, PPT and Just Harvest submitted over 200 BRT surveys to the Port Authority from riders in the Mon Valley to ensure they are not left out of the decision making process!

Over the past month, PPT has been partnering with Just Harvest, both on the BRT campaign to ensure equity in the Mon Valley and in the restoration of service to the the Hilltop Parkview Manor apartments in Duquesne. Residents here face a dangerous walk on steep roads with no sidewalks and heavy car traffic. For those who are elderly, disabled, or responsible for small children, the walk makes access to food, healthcare, jobs, family, and community extremely arduous and difficult.

On Wednesday, November 29, dozens of climate and grassroots community activists testified at Pittsburgh City Council chambers about Pittsburgh’s proposed Climate Action Plan. PPT issued the following call to our elected officials:

The Pittsburgh climate action plan has positive, attainable goals for public transit in our region, and highlights the importance of public transit in building a sustainable future. Pittsburghers for Public Transit celebrates the intention to have the amenities and efficiency of a bus rapid transit (BRT) system, to move to an all-electric bus fleet, and to double transit ridership by 2030. And we are glad to see that the Port Authority is taking initial steps towards greening their fleet, even if the full BRT project is not realized.  However, we are deeply troubled by the city’s plan for implementation of the BRT, which actually threatens existing transit ridership in the Mon Valley. The riders of the 61 A,B and C are facing a 45% cut in the frequency of their service, and are facing the additional financial and physical burden of mandatory transfers in Oakland to complete their rides to downtown. Riders in Braddock, Duquesne and McKeesport often have no other transit options, and many are the service workers that are the economic underpinning of our major city employers. We are urging the city council not to foolishly implement one goal of the climate action plan—the BRT—at the expense of another—ie. the maintenance and growth of our current transit ridership. Many of the transit efficiency components of this BRT project like bus-only lanes, signal prioritization and jump lanes for buses are relatively inexpensive but very effective, and should be considered in other routes in our system as well.

As recently as this past September, state legislators tried to cannibalize our state transit funding under Act 89 to cover the PA budget shortfall. Act 89 is also set to expire in 2022.  We ask the city council to insist on truly long-term dedicated funding for transit at a state and regional level, so that riders can purchase homes, plan their bus routes and build their lives around these lifelines without worrying that they will abruptly be taken away. Stable, dedicated transit funding is THE recipe for doubling transit ridership, so that “climate action” is not merely a slogan, but actually a plan.