Note from Executive Director |
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Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
At the Transportation Learning Center, we prioritize equity in all areas of our work. This includes gender equity. We were encouraged to see several announcements (included below) from the U.S. Department of Labor that attempt to level the playing field for working women and look forward to seeing the results of these initiatives.
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The U.S. Department of Labor has launched a national online dialogue to gather ideas to improve labor outcomes for women, especially economically disadvantaged women. Women’s economic empowerment is central to realizing women’s rights and gender equality. These dialogues seek to understand the barriers that continue to limit the full participation of women in the workplace, while at the same time, determine how best to provide resources to lift up women workers and create a more equitable economy.
The dialogue will be open until July 9 and the input received will help identify strategies for dismantling the systemic barriers to employment and participation in workforce services women face. The dialogue’s themes will include:
- Ensuring equity in the American Jobs Plan.
- Promoting gender equity in the workplace.
- Ensuring equitable access to paid leave.
- Creating safe and welcoming workplaces.
- Adapting to a changing labor market.
The dialogue will also help formulate future programs and funding opportunities that respond to the needs of women from diverse backgrounds. It furthers the government-wide priority for gender equity and equality set forth in President Biden’s Executive Order 14020.
Women's Bureau Announces Funding Availability of $1.5M in Grants to Better Inform Women About Labor Rights, Benefits
The U.S. Department of Labor announced a $1.5 million funding opportunity available to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to develop partnerships with community-based organizations and other non-profits to conduct outreach to women workers to help them understand and exercise their rights and benefits in the workplace. The fund will support up to six grants.
Applicants must provide one or more of the following services:
- Providing outreach to vulnerable, low-income and marginalized women workers.
- Disseminating educational materials through varied platforms, including social media, in-person or virtual events, brochures and leaflets, one-on-one consultations and other outreach.
- Assisting women workers with navigating and calculating benefits and connecting and referring women workers to additional services, benefits and/or legal assistance.
- Raising awareness of women’s rights to benefits and assistance in their own communities.
Apply by July 15, 2021.
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TransitCenter - July 14, 3:00 pm ET
Transit can serve as a “ladder of opportunity,” providing affordable connections to all the essentials of daily life. But sparse service and disparities in transit access linked to race and economic status undermine transit’s role as a social equalizer. TransitCenter recently released the Transit Equity Dashboard to illuminate these disparities. Using this information, transit agencies, transportation departments, and other local government agencies can assess progress toward creating more equitable transportation and land use, and prioritize the needs of people who have historically been marginalized by segregation and discrimination. Join for a look at how the dashboard works, what we can learn from it, and where it fits into initiatives to improve transit and make transportation and land use more equitable.
Transportation accounts for more than a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change. Public transportation has the potential to be included as a major part of climate action strategies. TRB is hosting a webinar that will explore how to incorporate transit as a climate solution. Presenters will explain the sustainability benefits of public transportation, including a reduced carbon footprint and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. They will also provide tools transit agencies can use to plan low-carbon transportation solutions.
Portland State University – July 21, 5:00 pm ET
The world is awash in data, and the data available to transportation analysts and planners is growing by the minute. With this rapid growth, traditional data analysis tools may no longer be effective. Relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL and Oracle are one tool that can be used to manage and query large data sets. In this webinar, we give a brief introduction to relational databases and SQL — the language that is used to communicate with relational databases. Participants will learn the key structures of relational databases (relations, keys and types), and will learn how to write simple SQL queries. resources will be provided for participants who wish to continue practicing their new SQL skills after the training.
WorkRise - July 22, 12:00 pm ET
Join WorkRise and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia to explore evidence-based tools and resources designed to create pathways for economic mobility and opportunity for workers historically excluded from good jobs. Researchers and practitioners from WorkRise’s partner institutions will consider how these tools and resources support workers’ efforts to leverage their existing skills and past work experience to signal their value in the labor market and employers’ growing interest in skills-based hiring. They will highlight insights that enable workforce intermediaries and decisionmakers to facilitate occupational transitions and stronger matches between local talent and demand. They will also identify gaps in knowledge about effective interventions for promoting mobility in the labor market.
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Urban Institute – June 25, 2021
The trend is partly the product of the federal government’s decision to keep land-use development planning and transportation separate. This choice has encouraged suburban sprawl, inequitably distributed public services, and an ever-growing reliance on automobiles. Increasing public transit ridership, which is more sustainable (PDF) and more affordable than driving, can help construct a more environmentally friendly and equitable society. But national trends tell just one part of the story. Changes in metropolitan-area commuting show more varied patterns, some of which offer lessons for the future. Communities where transit use is growing show that, to expand ridership, urban regions must prioritize accessibility and concentrate land-use development around transit service.
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NextCity – June 24, 2021
Transit-accessible hiking is not totally new in North America. Metro areas with that sweet spot of fairly robust public transit and geographic proximity to trails offer car-free hikes in places like Boston, Denver, New York City and Vancouver. But many of these trips are viewed as “transit hacks” that require catching a regular bus or train depositing the rider close enough to a trailhead. Trailhead Direct’s innovation is to make the service a feature rather than a bug by providing dedicated service for those who might not otherwise piece together an itinerary that incidentally brings them close to a trail.
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The City Fix – June 24, 2021
Per dollar invested, public transport creates more than three times as many jobs as building new highways. Investing in public transport improves equal access to jobs and services, road safety, smart urban growth and limits carbon emissions. Stabilization funds are the first step, as they will help public transport continue to run and employ people.
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The Washington Post - June 24, 2021
The move is a shift for a transit agency that has one electric bus in its fleet, but comes as the Biden administration has prioritized improving and modernizing transit nationwide. A bipartisan infrastructure agreement reached Thursday includes $7.5 billion for electric buses, with momentum from Washington prompting transit leaders to move ahead with service improvements.
NBC – June 28, 2021
SEPTA is going to use the rest of 2021 and the start of 2022 to gather data on when and how often riders use the system, Busch said. That will allow the transit agency to figure out if Regional Rail train schedules should be adjusted in a way that differs from the pre-COVID, rush-hour-centric world.
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In These Times – June 23, 2021
Unemployment insurance, if administered, managed or distributed by unions, could unleash a wave of union growth and dramatically improve access to benefits for millions of workers. Commonly called the “Ghent” system, after the city in Belgium where it was first developed as a form of union-led mutual aid in the early 1900s, these policies increase the expected benefits of unemployment insurance for workers and decrease the cost of organizing. The pandemic exposed the cracks in the U.S. unemployment system — and how desperately we need bold, new ideas like this.
The American Prospect – June 28, 2021
With 1.32 million members and a reputation of fighting for and delivering to workers, the Teamsters union is intent on being more successful at organizing workers at ferociously anti-union Amazon than the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union was. That union lost badly in its recent effort to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Alabama. The Teamsters’ resolution suggests stepped-up militancy in confronting Amazon, saying the union might engage in “shop floor strikes, city-wide strikes and actions in the streets.”
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NPR – June 24, 2021
The plan "makes transformational and historic investments in clean transportation infrastructure, clean water infrastructure, universal broadband infrastructure, clean power infrastructure, remediation of legacy pollution, and resilience to the changing climate," said a White House fact sheet on the plan released Thursday.
Albany Democrat-Herald – June 28, 2021
For decades, the federal government has spent 80% of transportation infrastructure funds on highways, with only 20% left for public transit. Such lopsided spending leads to serious adverse consequences. Transportation is the largest and fastest growing source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, ahead of even coal or gas-fired power plants. Vehicle tailpipes also emit other toxic pollutants including nitrogen oxides. These are serious health hazards, especially for the poor and people of color, who are disproportionately exposed.
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Building Transit Infrastructure |
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Vox – June 28, 2021
Not only are projects inordinately expensive, states and localities are not even attempting to build particularly ambitious projects. The US is the sixth-most expensive country in the world to build rapid-rail transit infrastructure like the New York City Subway, the Washington Metro, or the Chicago “L.” And that’s with the nation often avoiding tunneling projects, which are often the most complicated and expensive parts of any new metro line. According to the Transit Costs Project, the five countries with higher costs than the US “are building projects that are more than 80 percent tunneled ... [whereas in the US] only 37 percent of the total track length is tunneled.”
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Jobs for the Future - June 29, 2021
The power of apprenticeship is undeniable: it combines paid on-the-job learning with formal classroom or lab instruction, helping workers master the knowledge, skills, and competencies needed for career success. Youth apprenticeships adapt this model for students in high school and often in their first years after graduation; unfortunately, youth-focused apprenticeships, while gaining traction in the United States, are far more common in other countries.
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Metro Magazine – June 25, 2021
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Bloomberg - June 22, 2021
The EY study also sees the millennial generation, now in their late 20s and 30s, as helping to propel EV adoption. Those consumers, driven by a coronavirus-influenced rejection of ride-sharing and public transportation, are embracing car ownership. And 30% of them want to drive an EV, Miller said.
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Transportation Learning Center
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