TRANSIT STORIES

Inglewood, California I’m an avid transit rider. Public transit saves me gas, time, and energy. I work as a government affairs advisor for the Los Angeles Unified School District Board District 1. Before the pandemic, I took the bus every day. I either caught the bus on my corner to get downtown or would take the Silver Line Bus Rapid Transit. On the bus, I can be reading, I can be doing my email, I don’t have the stress of sitting in traffic, and I felt I was fresher when I got to work. I am ahead, really, because I read through all my emails before I even got to the office. I work with many low-income students as part of my job with the school district, and transit is a lifesaver for them. I worry that, especially during and after the pandemic, many students will have to choose between getting something to eat and getting on the bus. Federal support for better bus service and for LA Metro’s fareless transit pilot program for students would mean they wouldn’t have to make that choice anymore. For me, too, transit is about both service and cost. With a senior pass, it

(She/Her) | Atlanta, GA Transit equity is an issue I work diligently on with many local advocacy organizations in the Atlanta area and MARTA (directly on their writers’ committee). It is essential to me because of my progressive disability. I started using a wheelchair in my early twenties. Traveling long distances got more and more difficult and using stairs became more challenging. My lens shifted from walking and running, to not being able to do that very well, to then not being able to walk at all and using a wheelchair full time.  I graduated college in 2015, moved back to Atlanta, and started riding MARTA a little bit here and there. I also had a car at the time because I still was able to drive then. I soon stopped driving altogether and shifted full time to riding on the sidewalk in my wheelchair and scooter and then riding buses and trains fully to get around the city. For me, the issue that I see specifically with MARTA is the lack of accessibility. I know the walkability of the city is an Atlanta and surrounding county issue, but that is the core area of being able to get to

Sterling Heights, Michigan Public transit needs to be improved dramatically here in southeast Michigan. Right now it is not reliable. I am completely blind. I’m going to be getting vocational services and want to work as a receptionist. But if I had a job now, they’d fire because I’d be late all the time. I used to use Suburban Mobility Transit but I don’t anymore because I can’t count on it. I don’t use fixed route buses — I need paratransit. But I found that you’d call, ask for a time to be picked up, and you’d be given a window, but you might not get where you needed to be on time. Once I was going to shadow a receptionist for a volunteer organization. They opened at 8:30, so I was trying to get there at 8:00. But the bus didn’t show up until 9:20. For my vocational assessment coming up, my career counselor arranged for one of the cab companies to pick me up. That’s how I’m getting to my appointments. But I can’t afford cabs on my own. Once I get trained, that’s going to be the sticking point because they train you for the job, but

(He/Him)|Philadelphia, PA As a rider and advocate, I find transit in Philadelphia and using SEPTA to be liberating. First of all, the city, as a pre-war, very dense, and compact city, has an abundance of available transit through the subways, buses, and trolleys. It allows me to get to a bunch of different places for only $2. I’m able to get anywhere within one transfer. Transit is not only beneficial to me, but also to many low-income workers and residents who have to rely on transit to access the amenities they need. Pre pandemic, my workplace was outside the city of Philadelphia, around the King of Prussia area. I decided to live in the city because I have a network of friends and advocates here I want to continue to connect with. I forwent using a car in the city. Instead, I took SEPTA’s train lines all the way out to the suburbs. These days, people of all income levels find that their workplaces are not necessarily very close to Center City anymore. Jobs are being spread out throughout this region to centers where it might not be the most accessible to transit. Because of our history of transit and

Transit is important because some people do not have cars and need the bus so they can get to places. I do not have a car, so I’m obligated to bike or bus. Most of the time the bus does get me to where I need to go, but there are often delays from traffic and during the pandemic, I get passed up by the bus a lot. I usually have to get on the bus by 5:50 a.m. to get to basketball practice by 7:00 a.m. and there have been times when the bus passes me up and I can’t make it to practice on time. The same has happened when trying to get to the Housing Center so the Youth Coordinator just tells me to go home and join by Zoom instead. I wish I didn’t have to miss out on basketball practice or Youth Council meetings because of issues with the bus. Some bus routes in Chicago run more smoothly than others. For example, the Pulaski A route that runs further south is better than the other Pulaski route that comes through Belmont Cragin and Logan Square because there is less traffic further south. So we would