TRANSIT STORIES

(She/Her) | Erie, PA My name is Freda Tepfer. I live in Erie. Growing up in New York City, public transit was my ticket to a world of possibility. I saw sites and met people I wouldn’t have crossed paths with if it wasn’t for transit. These people and places taught me lessons that I carry with me. As I write this today at 71years old, I believe now more than ever that funding for public transit is a necessity if we are to have a reasonable transit system in Erie County, Pennsylvania or anywhere in our country.  I’m retired now, but I spent a good part of my life working across the country helping people who are blind or visually impaired as a certified orientation and mobility specialist. Part of my job was to help connect people to public transit, and answer questions that came up as they used it. The people I worked with are truly amazing. They may not be able to see or drive cars, but they have so much to contribute to society. Although time and time again, what kept them and the rest of the community from doing so was a lack of access

(She/Her) | Philadelphia, PA I am the Director of Development and Communications in a nonprofit, civil rights law firm in Philadelphia and mother of two children. Like many mothers in Philadelphia, I have relied on public transit as our main form of transportation. Over the past decade I have relied on public transit to get myself to work, and my children to their various activities including school and doctor’s appointments, and use transit to shop for our family’s needs. My husband and I own a car which he mainly uses to commute over 20 miles every day to work in NE Philadelphia. His job location lacks frequent and reliable public transportation access, especially to accommodate his work schedules which require non-traditional 9-5 hours. As the parent with more flexible job hours, I’ve always been in charge of getting our kids to daycare and then school.  Getting a second car is not doable for us or our family for several reasons but especially financially. Living in a city the cost of car ownership and storage is just a burden we cannot take on.  Transit has been a very central part of our lives. It’s such a vital part of how we

Gresham, Oregon I am almost 65 and live alone. I have been disabled for thirty-one years, next month. It is an anniversary I would like to forget. I can walk and I am not in a chair or walker yet. Six years ago I was a half-a-block from a good running bus. And with high rents and shabby housing I had to move. That is how I ended up here in Gresham. I live in a senior building 3/8ths of a mile from the only transportation we have, the MAX, which is train service. Some of my neighbors cannot make it to the MAX stop. It is just too far for them to walk. One block is unpaved. It is a lot harder when you’re in your 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. If the MAX is late, so are we. I have waited for fifteen, thirty minutes, and even longer. If I hike another twenty minutes, and have a good day, I can make it to Division Street. There is a small incline to get to the #2 bus. Many times I have watched the bus go by. But usually another Division bus is there in fifteen minutes.I live three

Los Angeles, CA Hi, my name is Cynde and I live in a beach town in Los Angeles County California. Riding transit allows me to live independently in the community, which is what we all want to do, right? My wheelchair will not be able to get into a car or a taxi of any kind, so I rely on public transit. I ride the bus, the light rail and subway. We have quite a few options here in LA County, which is a very good thing. However, the routes don’t always go where I need to go. For instance, I live in a bit of a food desert. So in order for me to go grocery shopping once a week, I need to take at least two buses, and that can be very time-consuming and super frustrating for me. So I have to get to the bus stop, get the ride, then go a couple more blocks actually to the grocery store, so that could take me like half a day. I just think that’s ridiculous. We should have more frequent bus scheduling, or maybe even just more buses period. One possible solution is “microtransit.” Rides are shorter and

Long Beach, California I was born and raised in Long Beach. Like many children here, I had asthma because the air is so polluted. On many indicators of poor air quality, we’re at the top among cities across the country. Asthma is assumed to be something that just happens, but like other respiratory conditions it’s worsened by air pollution — and the predominant source of pollutants is transportation in the form of cars and trucks. So, good public transit is a health issue. Pre-pandemic, I rode public transit every day into downtown LA, where I work as Deputy Policy Director of the Coalition for Clean Air, and I will get back onto transit again as soon as my office reopens. I also was a daily transit user when I worked at the State Capitol in Sacramento. There’s a light rail station right underneath the office building where I currently work. Transit is both more convenient and more affordable for me, especially with gas prices on the rise again. My job takes me all over the region, to meetings with local officials, state officials in district offices, and down to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. I use public transit

Sarita Cavazos Chicago, Illinois As a full-time college student, owning a personal vehicle has never been fiscally possible. I rely on public transportation to travel to school, work, and extra curriculars.  I’m an out-of-state college student attending the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), my family is over a thousand miles away and I live alone. Public transportation is how I get everywhere: school, work, doctors’ offices, the airport, the grocery store, and so on. UIC’s school shuttles to and from campus are notoriously unreliable, so students who live off campus have had to employ city buses and trains to get to classes on time.  Grocery stores are at least a 20-minute bus ride for me on a good day with no traffic, but I’ve often had to commute upwards of an hour on the combination of two bus routes, or a train and a bus route to make it to a job.  If funding for the CTA is cut, my ability to reach necessities and connect with my community will be severely impacted and limited.  Public transit is also affordable, and as a college student this is extremely beneficial to me when expenses like loans and tuition quickly pile