Transportation

Santa Clara Valley Transit Workers Begin Strike

March 12, 2025 Philip Nguyen, Fight Back! News. Resist! California, Labor, Strikes, Transit, Transit Workers, Transportation, Unions

San Jose, CA – On Monday, March 10, around 1500 bus and light rail operators and mechanics for Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), walked off the job. The workers are represented by Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 265. This is the first strike at the VTA since its founding in 1973. Around 9 a.m. upwards of 70 ATU rank-and-file members could be seen picketing in front of the VTA headquarters as the strike began. Pickets were held at four other light rail and bus yards beginning at 4 a.m. VTA and ATU have been in contract negotiations since August.

Mexico City’s Trolleybus Workers Took On Austerity And Won

March 12, 2025 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, Labor Notes. Resist! Mexico City, Strikes, Transportation, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

The 1,970 rail, trolleybus, and cable car workers who make Mexico City run could go out on strike as soon as March 13. Their union, the Tram Workers Alliance of Mexico (Alianza de Tranviarios de México, ATM), secured vital investments in green transportation and saved hundreds of jobs in a 2016 “Save the Trolleybus” campaign that brought public transit users into their funding fight. Now workers want the uniforms and safety equipment that they’re owed under their contract but haven’t received in three years, as well as the tools they need to do their jobs: hydraulic jacks, pliers, and wrenches.

Transit Stations Aren’t Designed For Women And Caregivers

March 9, 2025 Maylin Tu, Next City. Create! Caregivers, Trains, Transportation, Women

A new report takes mobility hubs (traditionally, transit stations) and asks: How can planners design these spaces around the needs of women and caregivers? Imagine a centralized place in your neighborhood where you can chat with your friends over coffee, buy a few carrots for dinner, fill a prescription or watch your kids play on a playground – all while accessing the train, bus, bikeshare or rideshare. “Part of the feedback that we’ve gotten from practitioners is that it seems a bit utopian,” says Natalia Perez-Bobadilla, Research Communications Specialist at the Shared-Use Mobility Center (SUMC) and one of the authors.

Federal Personnel Cuts Could Further Delay Languishing Rail Initiatives

March 8, 2025 Bob Johnston, Trains. Resist! Federal Funding Freeze, Railroads, Transportation, Trump Administration

Disbursement of funds from grants awarded under a variety of Federal Railroad Administration continue to be held up by a lengthy approval process involving FRA personnel. These investments are threatened by potential staff reductions at the agency, as well as possible vetos by overseers invoking new Trump administration ideological criteria. Concerned about such a prospect, the Rail Passengers Association and 22 other public transportation advocacy organizations on Friday, Feb. 28, sent a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, urging him to “preserve mission-critical personnel to avoid further delays in the administration of these passenger and freight projects.”

The DC Bus Fare Evasion Crackdown

January 15, 2025 Pan-African Community Action PACA, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Black America, Black Working Class, Police, Racism, Transportation, Washington DC

To make good on the promise implicit in the "Secure DC Omnibus Crime Bill ,” to intensify its war on the Black working class, the DC government is now targeting anyone who can’t afford to pay for public transportation. In December 2024, a new enforcement campaign was launched called “Operation Fare Pays for Your Service” professing an intention to decrease fare evasion on DC’s Metrobus system. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) argues that increased fare enforcement is necessary after reporting that more than 70% of metrobus riders do not pay their fare, and claiming a $50 million dollar loss in annual revenue.

New York City’s Congestion Pricing Program Sacrifices Human Rights

January 9, 2025 Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Class Struggle, Environmental Justice, Human Rights, New York City (NYC), Transportation, wealth inequality

It’s been said that the road to bad policy is paved with good intentions. The case of New York City’s new congestion pricing program puts this aphorism to the task as both the intentions and the program itself raise salient questions about who benefits, who suffers, and if the inchoate initiative even complies with at least two landmark State statutes that purport to position New York State as the national leader in climate action and environmental justice. The congestion pricing program, which charges drivers entering Manhattan from 60th street and below $9.00 between the hours of 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends.

From Dream To Reality: Go-Op, Britain’s First Cooperative Railway

January 5, 2025 Jack Simpson, The Guardian. Create! Cooperatives, Railroads, Transportation, United Kingdoms

The idea for the country’s first cooperative rail service came to Alex Lawrie in 2004 after another frustrating trip across Somerset. Having moved to Yeovil four years earlier with his young family, his job as a cooperative development manager involved daily trips across the south-west trying to set up member-owned businesses. A reluctant motorist, he quickly became frustrated with the rail service he was depending on to get around. “It baffled me, trains came at seemingly random intervals, there were only a few trains serving a big town like Yeovil, hours would pass without a train coming,” Lawrie says.

Detroit’s Eastside Gets Affordable Electric Vehicle Carshare

December 4, 2024 Ethan Bakuli, Next City. Create! Cars, Detroit, Electric Vehicles, Michigan, Transportation

As Loretta Powell settled into the driver seat of the Chevy Volt, she gave herself a few seconds to get acclimated to the vehicle’s settings before pressing the blue power button located behind the steering wheel. It was the second time the Detroit educator was behind the wheel of an electric car. The first time she drove the Volt, she recalled, was “nice and smooth.” “You couldn’t tell you were driving; it was very quiet and peaceful,” said Powell, as she backed out of the parking lot at community development organization Eastside Community Network‘s Stoudamire Wellness Hub. Like most electric vehicles, it emits an angelic hum as it reverses.

How Advocates Won Bike, Bus And Pedestrian Improvements

November 26, 2024 Maylin Tu, Next City. Strategize! Bikes, Buses, California, Los Angeles, Pedestrians, Road Safety, Transportation

Think people won’t vote for safer streets? Think again. In March, Los Angeles voters passed the Healthy Streets LA ballot measure with over 65% of the vote. What’s the story? L.A. already had a plan — Mobility Plan 2035 passed in 2015 — to create a network of safe routes for biking, driving and walking. There was only one problem: The city had implemented only about 5% of it. In 2020, StreetsLA (a.k.a. the Bureau of Street Services) was taking advantage of the pandemic shutdown to rapidly repave city streets. The transportation advocacy organization Streets For All saw an opportunity to implement complete street improvements during repaving.

How Bike Lanes Slow Drivers And Save Lives

November 5, 2024 Maylin Tu, Next City. Create! Bicycle Lanes, Bikes, Road Safety, Transportation

In 2022, 1,360 people in the U.S. died preventable deaths while riding a bike. One of the most deadly, and most common, types of bike crashes is known as a right hook: A driver turns right directly into the path of a cyclist going straight through an intersection, hitting them or causing them to crash. Researchers at Rutgers University wanted to test if installing bike lanes at an intersection could reduce vehicle speeds, particularly for drivers turning right. Using chalk paint spray, traffic cones and plastic bollards, they installed temporary bike lanes near an intersection in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

The Search For Green Common Ground

October 17, 2024 Emmett Hopkins, In These Times. Organize! Communities, Electric Vehicles, Green Transition, Lithium, Transportation, Worker Rights and Jobs

Last fall, indigenous organizers in northern Chile walked the perimeter of vast salt flats, in a region where multinational mining companies control lithium evaporation ponds and other mineral extraction operations that have been documented to inflict damage against local peoples’ sacred and life-sustaining lands. Five thousand miles to the north, auto workers in Michigan prepared to walk off the job at noon to demand, in addition to decent pay and working conditions, the inclusion of workers at the companies’ expanding electric vehicle (EV) and battery operations.

Peruvian Transport Workers Strike To Demand An End To Extortion

October 16, 2024 Pablo Meriguet, People's Dispatch. Resist! Dina Boluarte, Lima, organized crime, Peru, police repression, Transportation, Unions, Worker Rights

On Thursday, October 10, several associations of transportation workers and companies in Peru began a work stoppage that lasted until Saturday, October 12, protesting rising crime and extortion by criminal groups in Peru’s major cities. In their industrial action, they were joined by hundreds of people from trade and business associations, as well as some citizen and student organizations. Why? The security crisis that Peruvians are experiencing is worsening significantly. In fact, this is the first time that protests of this type and for this reason have taken place in Peru, which shows the severity of the situation and the uncertain consequences that this type of demand could cause, politically speaking, in Peruvian society.

Barcelona Is Turning Subway Trains Into Power Stations

October 8, 2024 Natalie Donback, Next City. Create! Barcelona, Electrification, Energy, Trains, Transportation

Most of the passengers emerging from the station in Bellvitge, a working-class neighborhood outside Barcelona, have no idea just how innovative the city’s subway system is. Using technology not unlike the regenerative braking found in hybrids and electric vehicles, the trains they rode generated some of the power flowing to the EV chargers in the nearby parking lot, the lights illuminating the station, and the escalators taking them to the platforms. Every time a train rumbles to a stop, the energy generated by all that friction is converted to electricity, which is fed through inverters and distributed throughout the subway system.

Self-Charging E-Bikes Bring Mobility To Low-Income Communities

October 1, 2024 Maylin Tu, Next City. Create! Bike-Share, EBikes, Massachusetts, Poverty, Transportation

Buying an e-bike is expensive. Starting last year, a local startup is providing low-cost, self-charging e-bike libraries to low-income communities in eastern Massachusetts. Funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center as part of a three-year pilot, the Cambridge-based company Metro Mobility provides income-qualified residents with an e-bike for as low as $1 per day. Working directly with cities, housing authorities and non-profit housing providers, the company installs e-bike docks for residents who live in subsidized housing and low-income communities. There are currently 85 docks in 10 communities across Boston, its Dorchester and Mattapan neighborhoods, and the nearby cities of Medford, Malden, Quincy and Lawrence.

London Saw A Surprising Benefit To Fining High-Polluting Cars

September 24, 2024 Syris Valentine, Next City. Create! Car-Free Community, Cars, Children, emissions, England, Environment, Europe, London, pollution, Transportation, United Kingdom (UK)

Restricting the volume of high-emitting vehicles roaming city streets carries many benefits, from clearing the air to quieting the urban din and beyond. Recognition of this simple fact has led to the proliferation of clean air zones, designated regions within a city where vehicles must meet strict pollution standards or pay a fee to operate within it. At last count, over 300 such areas had been established across Europe. In London, which boasts the largest ultra-low emissions zone in the world, a study has found a secondary benefit: Kids started walking and biking to school more. In 2018 — the year before London’s rule took effect in the center of the city, and five years before the zone encompassed its entirety — researchers at the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University saw in the impending policy an opportunity to conduct a natural experiment.

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