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Transportation

Detroit’s Eastside Gets Affordable Electric Vehicle Carshare

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Study: The Economic Case For A Public Rail System

Public Rail Now is excited to announce their second research report in their campaign for public rail ownership. “From Margins to Growth: The Economic Case for a Public Rail System,” lays bare the economic facts for the current state of the US rail system is in a downward spiral, facts working railroaders have been espousing for decades. Public rail ownership has the potential to save up to $140 billion annually for US consumers, provide an estimated 180,000 new rail road jobs, avert $190 Billion in public health, environmental and fiscal cost, while helping to meet climate goals by avoiding 180 metric tonnes of carbon emissions.

New Yorkers Protest NYPD Shooting Three On Subway

Brooklyn, NY – On September 18, close to a hundred people came out to protest the NYPD shooting 3 civilians on the subway. The protest was organized by the New York Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NYAARPR). On Sunday, September 15, two NYPD officers followed a 49-year-old man, Derell Mickles, up several flights of stairs at the Sutter Avenue L train station in Brownsville. They suspected that Mickles skipped the $2.90 fare and proceeded to follow him closely. A confrontation ensued and an officer drew their gun after Mickles allegedly pulled a knife—which NYPD has said they have lost. An officer responded by shooting, hitting Mickles, two bystanders and his fellow officer.

Statement On NYPD Mass Subway Shooting Over $2.90

Yesterday, the NYPD shot Derell Mickles, a Black man in Brooklyn for the alleged "crime" of jumping a turnstile. This marks the second NYPD shooting in just 48 hours. Amidst a landscape where Democrat political figures swiftly condemned recent assassination attempts on Donald Trump, proclaiming that "violence has no place in America," we ask: where is this sentiment when it comes to the NYPD shooting Black men? Once again, the state used the hollow excuse of "fare evasion" to justify an assassination attempt on a Brooklyn man. This is not an isolated incident but a pattern of state violence targeting the working class in general and Black people in particular.

The Private Pilots Flying Abortion Seekers Across The Midwest

In the fall of 2022, Mike climbed into the pilot’s seat with an idea. For the past few months, the private pilot had been volunteering with the Illinois-based Midwest Access Coalition, an abortion support fund that he’d come across in his post-George Floyd anti-racism journey. “I thought, there’s gotta be people out there helping people travel for abortions, because it’s not like every medical facility you go to provide abortion care,” says Mike. Next City has agreed to use Mike’s first name only to protect his safety and privacy as he engages in this sensitive work. “So I reached out to say, hey, I want to volunteer for anything you might need – driving, hosting, whatever.”

Hundreds Of Rideshare Drivers Form Tennessee Drivers’ Union

On Tuesday, August 20, hundreds of rideshare drivers voted to form the Tennessee Drivers’ Union and to strike on Friday, August 30 to address worsening working conditions at the Nashville International Airport. Workers are striking strategically on Labor Day weekend, as they recognize that it is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. These drivers represent 14 different nationalities and speak multiple languages. “We are many nations working for [a] common goal,” says the co-president of the Tennessee Drivers’ Union. “If we don’t come together as people striving for their rights then we will continue to suffer and [be] robbed by two giants, Uber and Lyft.”

United Airlines Flight Attendants Vote To Authorize Strike By 99.99%

Washington, DC – On August 28, flight attendants at United Airlines who are represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) voted on whether or not to authorize a strike if needed in contract negotiations with the carrier. The flight attendants filed for federal mediation eight months ago, after working under what they call an amendable contract for the last three years. After not seeing the movement at the table that they needed, the flight attendants decided to take the next step let their members vote over whether to authorize a strike. The results were loud and clear. A near unanimous majority of 99.99% of ballots cast voted to authorize a strike; over 90% of United flight attendants participated in the vote.

Even In California, Infrastructure Spending Is A Climate Time Bomb

With the fifth largest economy in the world, California has for decades set the tone for what is possible on climate, with other states and even countries looking to it for bold policy leadership and direction. Yet while Gov. Gavin Newsom continues to tout California as a climate leader, his transportation agency — operating with little public oversight or accountability — continues to advance harmful projects that will guarantee future increases in emissions. Nowhere is this contradiction more apparent than in how California is spending its Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) dollars. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was hailed by the Biden Administration as the biggest investment in climate in U.S. history.

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Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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