Transportation

Railway Workers Strike Amidst Wave Of Transportation Struggles

July 21, 2021 Brunna Machado, WSWS. Resist! Brazil, Latin America, Transportation, Worker Rights and Jobs

A strike by São Paulo railway workers last Thursday, July 15, shut down an important section of public transport in Brazil’s largest city over the demand for higher wages. More than 40 stations and four railway lines of São Paulo’s Company of Metropolitan Trains (CPTM), which carry about one million riders daily, were affected by the strike.

Demonstrations In Bloomington During 300-Mile ‘Walk For Licenses’

July 17, 2021 Phyllis Cha, Indiana Daily Student. Resist! Immigrants, Indiana, License, Transportation

Undocumented immigrants, immigrants and allies of the community passed through Bloomington Thursday on day six of their seven-day, 300-mile “Walk for Licenses” through Indiana, according to a press release from Cosecha Indiana. The goal of the walk, which started Saturday in Gary, Indiana and East Chicago, is to bring attention to the need for drivers licenses for undocumented Indiana residents, according to the release. The walk will end in Indianapolis on Saturday. Cosecha Indiana, which organized the walk, is a part of a national movement, working towards permanent protection, dignity and respect for all immigrant workers, according to their Facebook page The group started in Switchyard Park before marching to Sample Gates and then to the Islamic Center of Bloomington.

Here’s Where People Of Color Can’t Access Opportunity Without A Car

June 24, 2021 Kea Wilson, Streets Blog. Educate! Class Struggle, Finance and the Economy, Systemic Racism, Transportation

Even the most transit-rich cities in America are failing to connect people without cars — who tend to be disproportionately low-income or people of color — to job opportunities, a new analysis finds. Analysts at TransitCenter comprehensively measured disparities in public transportation access among demographic groups in six major cities between February 2020 and February 2021, a period during which some of society’s most enduring inequities were only magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. All six of the cities analyzed in the group’s new Transit Equity Dashboard — Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington — rank in the top 10 largest transit systems in the United States by ridership (a seventh portal for the Boston region is forthcoming).

A national public intercity service, especially if supported by regional public services, would make for a welcome system dedicated to the public interest rather than the profit motive. Image by Canadian Dimension

With Greyhound Gone, Let’s Replace It With A National Public Operator

May 18, 2021 David Moscrop, Canadian Dimension. Create! Canada, Corporatism, Public investment, Transportation

After serving Canadians with varying degrees of success for the better part of a century, Greyhound Canada has elected to cease serving them at all. On May 13, the intercity coach service ended its routes in the country for good. The national press release discussed the “decision rationale” for closing up shop. The company looked back to 2018 and its suspended services in the west, citing “years of declining ridership and the impact of a changing and increasingly challenging transportation environment, including de-regulation and subsidized competition such as VIA Rail and publicly owned bus systems.” Then, it pointed the finger at the pandemic and a 95 percent drop in ridership along with “negligible” support from the public purse. In short, the private market space was untenable.

Virginia Finalizes $3.7 Billion Deal To Acquire Train Tracks

March 31, 2021 Jordan Pascale, DCist. Create! Trains, Transportation, Virginia

Virginia officials and freight railroad company CSX have signed a $525 million deal to transfer 223 miles of track and 386 miles of right-of-way to the commonwealth, a key part of a larger $3.7 billion program announced in 2019 to increase Amtrak passenger service and VRE commuter rail service in Virginia over the next decade. “Today, we’re celebrating a major, major milestone in our work to make it easier for people and goods to move around Virginia and up and down our East Coast,” said Gov. Ralph Northam, who stood alongside officials from CSX, Amtrak and VRE during a signing ceremony at a VRE station in Alexandria on Tuesday. Tracks in America are almost universally owned by freight railroads, which allow passenger service like Amtrak and VRE to operate.

New Study: School Streets Improve Air Quality

March 14, 2021 London.gov. Create! health, Schools, Transportation, United Kingdom (UK)

London, UK - Closing the roads around schools to traffic at pick-up and drop-off times has reduced polluting nitrogen dioxide levels by up to 23 per cent and is strongly supported by parents, new research published by the Mayor Sadiq Khan reveals. To measure the air quality benefits of the new School Streets, 30 cutting-edge sensors from the Breathe London network were installed at 18 primary schools across Brent, Enfield and Lambeth to record nitrogen dioxide levels. The air quality monitoring project, funded by FIA Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies, was launched in September 2020 to give the most accurate indication yet of how the School Streets scheme is working. Since April 2020, almost 350 School Streets have been delivered across London with funding from Transport for London (TfL) and the boroughs to tackle children’s exposure to air pollution and improve their health.

Trade Unionists And Ecologists Demand A Just Transition Towards Less Air Traffic

February 11, 2021 Stay Grounded, Popular Resistance. Create! Air Travel, climate crisis, Just transition, Transportation

London/Vienna - Today, the UK trade union PCS and the global network Stay Grounded published together a paper entitled “A Rapid and Just Transition of Aviation - Shifting towards Climate-Just Mobility”. Tahir Latif, PCS Aviation Group President, says: “This paper clearly shows: the aviation workforce needs to accommodate the urgent requirement for a reduction in flying. This is imperative to avoid climate catastrophe. We need to retain job security through retraining and redeployment into jobs, some within aviation and some in other sectors, that help to restore the planet, not destroy it.”

More Parking Puts More Cars On The Road

January 31, 2021 Michael Andersen, Sightline Institute. Create! Cars, City Planning, Environment, Transportation

Do cities create greener lifestyles? Or do they just enable them? It’s very, very, very clear that people who live closer to other people drive less. But how much of this is due to the fact that people who were already predisposed to driving less—those of us who don’t particularly enjoy driving, for example—are deliberately living where parking is scarce and buses are frequent? A forthcoming academic paper finally begins to answer this crucial question. Its “breakthrough” conclusion: Bigger parking lots make us drive more. Even if we ignore the breathtaking economic costs of dedicating scarce urban space to car storage, mandatory parking isn’t an “all of the above” strategy that simply lets people choose their favorite mode of transportation.

Penguin Climate Activists Block Berlin Airport Opening

October 31, 2020 Stay Grounded, Popular Resistance. Resist! Airport, climate crisis, Germany, Transportation

Berlin - The climate justice group 'Am Boden bleiben', a member of the international Stay Grounded network, today blocks the opening of the new airport in Berlin with protest actions. The opening of the BER had been delayed for nine years, after a series of expensive construction and corruption issues. Am Boden bleiben carries out an action of civil disobedience and says that there is no room for new airports in times of climate crisis. You can follow the action live on the Twitter accounts of Am Boden bleiben and Stay Grounded.

Experiments In Free Transit

September 15, 2020 Joshua DeVries, The Bullet. Create! Free Transit, Public Good, Socialism, Transportation

Among the few positive aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, some localities have taken the impressive step of implementing free transit. Several cities in Ohio, including Akron, Canton, Toledo and Youngstown announced free fares as of March 16. Towns in Vermont and Nevada have done so as well. Unfortunately, local officials are quite clear that these are only temporary for health purposes and will be reversed once it is “safe.” Over the last several decades, though, many cities around the world have experimented with free transit.

Solutionary Rail In A Time Of Pandemic

July 23, 2020 Bill Moyer, SolutionaryRail.org. Create! climate crisis, Energy, Trains, Transportation

CoViD-19 is a confluence of crises that further exacerbates inequities and exposes societal and economic vulnerabilities. Our latest RailBite, Solutionary Rail in a Time of Pandemic explores how this moment of crisis is also an opportunity to address those vulnerabilities, as well as one of the underlying causes of this and future pandemics, i.e. climate change, by undertaking a transformational national infrastructure project. Solutionary Rail offers a pathway to tackle some of the most difficult decarbonization challenges while improving public health, delivering environmental justice, and rebuilding local & national economic vitality. The recent House Transportation Committee's Moving Forward Act (MFA) and the House Climate Action Plan (HCAP) address some important challenges, but leave many of the most difficult problems unresolved.

Minneapolis Is Trying To Punish Transit Workers Who Wouldn’t Help The Police

June 15, 2020 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. Resist! George Floyd, Minneapolis, Police, Transportation, Unions

The Amalgamated Transit Workers union’s public support for the uprisings, and some members’ public refusal to do work that helps the police, sparked praise and inspiration around the country. As the Black Lives Matter protests spread, so did transit workers’ refusal to assist in police crackdowns. In New York, bus drivers refused to transport people arrested at protests, as crowds cheered them on. “None of our bus ops should be used for that,” J.P. Patafio, vice president of New York’s Transport Workers Union Local 100, told Motherboard on May 29. Ryan Timlin: We are working on a class-action grievance because they cut the pay for those who refused to transport state troopers. I hope it helped protesters. To be honest, I don’t know if it did. It clearly excited people, especially the letter of solidarity.

Could The Pandemic Start A Biking Revolution In Latin America?

May 20, 2020 Leonie Rauls, Americas Quarterly. Create! Biking, COVID-19, Latin America, Transportation

The demand of social distancing is forcing cities across Latin America and the world to rethink public life. That includes a reconsideration of mass transit, with a number of public sector initiatives encouraging biking as a safer alternative. Already, city leaders in Bogotá, Lima, Buenos Aires and elsewhere have taken steps to promote biking as a reliable form of transportation for essential workers without the risks of spreading the coronavirus in a crowded train or bus. The pivot to bikes presents an opportunity that biking activists and enthusiasts hope could lead to lasting changes in urban mobility. “The health crisis is an opportunity to promote the use of the bike not only as a temporary solution, but to become a permanent part of our future transportation systems,” Juan Carlos Silva, vice president of Peru’s cyclists association Aciper told AQ.

The Year Of Car-free Streateries

May 19, 2020 Mike Eliason, The Urbanist. Create! Energy, New Economy, Transportation, Urban Design

Seattle - As our city starts to open back up, several issues are becoming quite apparent in our urban villages. In many, there is inadequate space on sidewalks to adequately social distance. There is also inadequate space to order and wait for food from restaurants for pick up. And given that restaurants will be extremely limited in the number of patrons that can dine in them, they will need to utilize the space in their parking lots or adjacent streets to allow dining with proper distancing measures. This is an opportunity to prioritize businesses and pedestrians like none we’ve ever seen. We will need space so that our small businesses and restaurants can survive Covid. And given that we may be over a year away from a vaccine, these changes could not only be long-term, but the impetus needed to vastly improve livability in the densest parts of our city.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources