Transportation Justice Working Group swarms Regional Summit

The Transportation Justice Working Group (TJWG) has been fighting for a shift in our region’s transportation strategies: away from widening highways and costly, inefficient rail projects that divert scarce resources from more cost-efficient bus service.  We are also promoting community health over diesel-powered freight movement.   We are asking for an equitable transportation system that provides all communities with reliable, affordable transportation choices and clean air and safe streets.  

In order to have a region-wide impact, the TJWG is working to convince the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to prioritize the transportation needs of low-income communities and communities of color, those least served and most burdened by our current transportation system. The MTC is the regional governmental body which coordinates transportation planning and funding for the entire 9-county Bay Area.  

The MTC is currently developing the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) which allocates over $110 billion dollars in federal, state and local funds for transportation projects over the in Bay Area over the next 25 years.  

Members of the TJWG distributed their alternative platform at the annual regional meeting of the MTC on October 26th. Fifteen members and allies of the TJWG including the Office of Assemblymember Sandré Swanson, BOSS, Communities for a Better Environment, Public Advocates, SEIU, Healthy San Leandro, along with members of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC) and Bay Area Bicycle Coalition, swarmed the regional summit and passed out the TJWG Regional Transportation Plan Equity Platforms to the meeting’s 500-plus attendees.

For more information on this action, click here.