TRANSIT STORIES

Washington, D.C. – Captain, United States Navy (Retired) and Coalition for Smarter Growth I served during the Cold War as a mission commander on land-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft (the P-3C Orion). When the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union dissolved, I turned my focus to working on sustainable land use and transportation. I think a number of experiences influenced my arrival at my post-military career and my focus on advocating for better transit and more inclusive and sustainable communities. Like so many Americans, I grew up in the suburbs where you had to drive everywhere for everything. Actually, if we live in the suburbs when we’re young, parents have to drive us everywhere for everything. It was at college and my Navy ROTC program that I first used buses to get around the university and at the San Diego’s Navy bases where I did my summer training. Many sailors who didn’t own or couldn’t afford cars depended on the buses (and the nation’s first modern light rail/trolley) to leave the base during their liberty (time off). Local workers absolutely depended on the buses and the trolley in San Diego, as they tried to navigate that big, sprawling region. I saw

Louisville, KY: VOCAL-KY I am from Louisville, Kentucky. I have lived around Louisville and spent time outside Kentucky and outside of Louisville. My family is what brought me back to Louisville. I am seeking to enjoy and create life with my family. I was born in west Louisville. I have been staying in the south end or east end of Louisville. I take the Tarc for all of my transportation needs. From personal reasons to going places to see friends to professional. Also, back and forth to work or meetings or services that I attend. I have no personal transportation, so it is my only mode of transportation. When it comes to challenges, I have experienced using public transit, it depends on the Tarc stop in relation to how close it is to a job. It is one thing to be able to get a job, but also to get to and from the job. You must get a Tarc bus close to where you work. Then, you must walk from the Tarc stop to your job. Then your job back to the Tarc stop. The only main factory that I know of that has an actual Tarc route is

Chicago, IL – Access Living I was born and raised in Chicago, in the Hyde Park neighborhood. I went to George Washington High School. I’m in the middle of finishing up my college degree in business management and currently taking some computer and information technology classes. While I’m going to school, I’m also really trying to build as much work experience as possible. It can be tough for me to work, due to my medical issues, but I want to show people that even with my health issues, I matter and can help society. Currently, I’m working at Chili’s and have been there for three years. I have something called short bowel syndrome. It’s a gastrointestinal disease. What happens is when I eat something, in five or ten minutes, I’m hungry again. My body struggles with absorbing things. I am missing 50% of my digestive system. I mostly depend on protein shakes. Even with living with this disease, I’m not the type of person that gives up. ​That’s one of the reasons I’m involved with Access Living. Access Living is a center of service, advocacy, and social change for people with all kinds of disabilities. I look at the simple

Alexandria, VA – Coalition for Smarter Growth I grew up in a military family in various places including Heidelberg, Germany and Salt Lake City, UT, and then I went to college in Albuquerque, NM.  In 2016, I moved to Virginia to work as an attorney for the VA. In Albuquerque, I took transit, but it was very limited, so I’d bike to school half the time.  I would have been much happier being able to take a bus instead of worrying about the spikes from goat head plants puncturing my ties.  The problem was that there were only 1 or 2 lines that run regularly, and the rest might only come 1 or 2 times a day.   When I first moved to Virginia, I had a car but got frustrated having to navigate the frequently terrible DC traffic.  When I was looking to buy a house, I had to choose.  I could either buy a place farther away from my job and own a car or save over $1000 a month and buy a place that was super convenient to my job, good restaurants, and other activities.  I decided to sell my car and chose to buy a place that

Seattle, Washington I was born in the Philippines. I grew up in Egypt and then moved to Pennsylvania, then NYC, and finally, I moved to Auburn, Washington, when I was 16 to finish high school. Auburn is 30 minutes south of Seattle. When I moved to Auburn, I lived with my aunt and cousins. They were busy, and I could not depend on them for rides, so I began using public transportation. We lived on the top of a big hill, and I had to take the bus in order for me to see my friends or attend an event. In Auburn, public transportation was limited. There were only two buses that came into my neighborhood, and they ran every 30 minutes; service ended at 10:30 p.m. and didn’t run on Sundays. There is much better service in Seattle, where most buses run until 3 a.m. and often run every 10 to 15 minutes. That means that I can get around easily. When I was an undergrad at the University of Washington, I used to study until 3 a.m. and take the bus home to where I was living. But transit isn’t perfect in Seattle. When commuting to campus in

Catskill Mountainkeeper – Livingston Manor, NY I grew up in Livingston Manor, NY on Snowdance Farm. Livingston Manor is in a rural part of the Catskills in Sullivan County, so when my parents moved our family upstate from New York City after the 9/11 attacks, they assumed that most people in the region were farming and decided to follow suit. Since 2002, we have raised a variety of livestock, from sheep to pigs to cows. It’s been a labor of love, and I really enjoyed growing up on a farm. My brother and I went to the Homestead School, a Montessori School in Glen Spey, NY, and when I aged out of the Homestead in 8th grade, I went to my local public school in Livingston Manor. Getting back and forth to school made my brother and I become instantly familiar with transportation issues early on.  The Homestead School was about one hour away. Without any reliable public transportation at the time, and because we were new to the community, my parents had to drive us back and forth on their own. It was difficult for them to drive 4 hours every day while growing their business and managing farm