Chair Anderson and Planning Commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am speaking on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the leading organization in the DC region advocating for more walkable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities. We support expanding the boundary of the Silver Spring Downtown Plan, in line with option D.
Category: Testimony & Letters
CSG Sign-on Letter: Ride On & COVID-19
Thank you for your work in suspending Ride On fares thus far during the novel coronavirus crisis. This has protected transit workers and riders, ensuring that transit can continue to operate as an essential public service.
CSG Comments on Montgomery’s Resolution to Approve FY21 Transportation Fees, Charges, and Fares
Resolution to Approve FY21 Transportation Fees, Charges, and Fares
Testimony for April 30, 2020
Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager
President Katz and Councilmembers, thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on the Resolution to Approve FY21 Transportation Fees, Charges, and Fares. Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the leading organization in the D.C. region advocating for walkable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities.
Firstly, we would like to thank the county for suspending Ride On fares thus far during the novel coronavirus crisis. This action has protected transit workers and riders. Transit continues to be an essential public service right now, ensuring that our front-line workers are able to get to work and that those without private vehicles are still able to get food, prescriptions, and other necessary goods.
Therefore, we urge the county to continue Ride On fare suspension throughout the duration of the public health emergency. Fare revenue this quarter is already nearly half of the budgeted fare revenue, and even under normal circumstances is less than 10 percent of total revenue in the Mass Transit Fund.
We also urge you to begin thinking about transit after COVID-19. There is an opportunity to “reopen” the county’s transportation network in a way that increases our climate resiliency, furthers racial and socioeconomic justice, and aids in our economic recovery. These functions cannot be achieved without transit. We don’t have to go back to the same congestion, dangerous roadways, and air pollution.
Further, once the immediate public health threat has been addressed, we will need to rebuild trust in public transit so that ridership may recover. To do that, transit must be attractive, easy, frequent, and safe. We urge you to consider:
- Suspending Ride On fares in perpetuity;
- Redesigning the Montgomery Ride On and WMATA bus network through a public process to improve service in a budget neutral way;
- Expanding public employees’ telework allowances;
- Rebalancing road space to prioritize walking, biking, and transit; and
- Increasing routine bus cleaning.
Thank you for your consideration.
RELEASE: Broad Alliance Tells White House: Transit Workers Need Better Protection From COVID-19
For immediate release
April 22, 2020
Ben Fried, TransitCenter: 347 675-5592
David Roscow, ATU: 202 487-4990
Dozens of unions, business groups, economic justice organizations, and local transit advocates from across the nation wrote today to Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, demanding better federal coordination to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) for transit workers.
As of this week, the coronavirus has claimed the lives of nearly 100 transit workers in the United States.
The victims include Scott Ryan, 41, a bus operator at Community Transit in Snohomish County, Washington; Patrick Patoir, 57, an MTA worker in New York for 33 years; Jason Hargrove, 50, a Detroit bus operator; Eugenia Weathers, a school bus driver in Lexington, Kentucky; and Michael Hill, a conductor and 30-year SEPTA veteran in Philadelphia.
The federal government can and must take stronger steps to prevent such loss of life.
Bus and train operators, maintenance workers, and cleaning staff at transit agencies around the country are putting their lives on the line as they enable essential travel for millions of Americans, ensuring the continued provision of food, medical care, and other basic goods and services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without strong federal coordination to procure PPE for transit workers, they face needless risks on the job.
Based on guidance from infectious disease experts, the organizations demand the White House coordinate provision of N95 masks and other protective gear for frontline transit workers whose duties put them in close proximity to passengers, or require exposure to hazardous disinfectants. The groups also urge the CDC to issue stronger guidance for transit agencies, including recommendations on how to ventilate transit vehicles to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
These measures must be put in place to protect the transit workforce, which in turn will strengthen the overall effort to control the pandemic and minimize the spread of COVID-19. Nearly 3 million Americans classified as essential workers typically commute on transit, according to a TransitCenter analysis of U.S. Census data.
Protective gear for transit workers will have a strong multiplier effect, since reducing risk will increase the availability of the transit workforce, leading to greater provision of transit service, less crowding on transit vehicles, and lower rates of transmission among transit riders and thus the general population.
The alliance signing on to the letter reflects the broad public interest in protecting transit workers, encompassing labor, business, transportation, economic justice, environmental, and community-based organizations from dozens of states.
Supply chain issues affect every industry seeking protective gear. However, the need for transit workers is so urgent, and the consequences of further delay so dire, that federal action must be pursued as soon as possible. These protections will save the lives of transit workers, as well as the lives of nurses, doctors, food distribution workers, and other essential workers who rely on transit.
“Transit workers deserve every protection the government can muster,” said TransitCenter Executive Director David Bragdon. “Better coordination and provision of equipment will protect the health of hundreds of thousands of transit workers, and keep millions of other workers safe on their way to essential jobs.”
“More than 300 of the transit agencies where our members work have failed to implement critical changes needed to keep their workers and riders safe, even as a second wave of this deadly virus sweeps across the continent,” said ATU International President John Costa. “We are proud to carry emergency service, healthcare, grocery, and retail workers, and those who need care. But, as ATU International President, I cannot in good conscience encourage my members to go into the line of fire without the armor and provisions they need.”