Exciting Developments for ITLC’s Train-the-Trainer – Most Recent Class and Reduced Rates |
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VTA 2022 Train-the-Trainer Cohort
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Safety Relay Exercise During the Hands-on Teaching Practice Session |
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On July 25-29, Instructional Designer, Kristen Ribaudo delivered the ITLC’s popular Train-the-Trainer course to ten VTA instructors in San Jose, CA. Instructors represented bus, rail and signals operations and maintenance, as well as organizational development & training. There was a tremendous amount of growth among participants in adult learning theories and facilitation skills during the course. As per post course surveys, all participants found the course informative and useful. In particular, participants said key takeaways included new teaching methods in improving engagement and retention, how to create a lesson plan and learning theories like Gagne’s 9 events of instruction. |
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We are excited to announce that through the Transit Workforce Center, we will be offering partially-subsidized train-the-trainer courses. Read on for more details of these programs! |
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Train-the-Trainer Level 1: Teaching Techniques
A week-long, highly engaging course that takes subject matter experts and gives them the skills to convey their vast knowledge to others in a classroom setting. Topics include: adult learning theory, teaching techniques and presentation skills. Participants will spend most of the week applying what they’re learning through rounds of practice teaching in a classroom, lab and field setting. They’ll also give and receive feedback from peers – one of the most important skills of a trainer!
Train-the-Trainer Level 2: Creating Courseware that Works
Also a week-long, interactive course, Train-the-Trainer Level 2 (TtT2) builds on Level 1 by giving experienced trainers the skills to define, design and develop an effective and engaging training course and accompanying courseware and assessments, incorporating established adult learning principles. Participants apply this new knowledge by starting to develop materials for a course of their choosing, which would ultimately be taught at their location.
Free Train-the-Trainer Webinars
In addition, TWC will host a series of Transit Trainers’ webinars starting later this month. Attendees who attend all three webinars and participate in activities will be eligible for a certificate of participation. While we are in this planning phase, we want to get input from you on what topics you feel are a high priority by filling out this short survey.
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Smart Cities Dive – August 5, 2022
Dedicated bus lanes can improve travel times for public transit riders, but not when other motorists drive or sit idle in those lanes while picking up packages or making deliveries. To cope with violators who delay bus trips and force cyclists into traffic, some cities are using cameras to record the license plates of offending vehicles and send citations to owners. But these camera programs are still mainly in trial stages and it’s not yet clear how effective they actually are.
The Guardian – August 5, 2022
This technology – where trolleys come equipped with batteries that charge while they’re moving or parked – has been adopted by transit agencies in San Francisco, Seattle, Dayton, and Mexico City in the past decade. TransLink, which serves the metropolitan area of Vancouver, may also join them later this decade.
Battery electric trolleybuses aren’t perfect for all types of terrain and weather. King county, which encompasses Seattle, hesitates to use them on weekends, when the overhead wire system is turned off so construction workers can work safely. The local transit agency worries about the hills and below-freezing temperatures that the area is known for, which significantly reduce the battery’s range.
Governing – August 8, 2022
Transit has a number of characteristics that make it a great place to focus governance energy on fixing. For one thing, a wide range of well-functioning transit systems around the world provide models of what to do. Agency reformers and elected officials don't have to speculate about what works. There’s a growing body of useful research, such as that by Alon Levy and Eric Goldwyn at NYU’s Marron Institute, on global transit costs, that can directly help reform efforts here. Perhaps most important, the problems are tractable, primarily matters of management, engineering and money. Apart from public order, in which there are conflicts over the appropriate vision, transit reform doesn’t involve solving intrinsically hard problems like poverty, climate change or inequality. That’s not to say transit reform isn’t difficult, but the problems involved are qualitatively different from many socio-economic dilemmas.
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The Denver Post – August 6, 2022
The promotion comes as transit agencies are struggling with slow ridership recovery from the pandemic, with RTD’s boardings still sitting at just 56% of normal levels as of May. RTD now typically records more than 1 million boardings a week.
Politico – August 8, 2022
Two years ago, Amtrak was facing a “near-death” experience, Stephen Gardner, CEO of the national passenger rail service, said at a briefing last week with the Association for a Better New York. Both business and travel leisure rapidly grinded to a halt, causing ticket sales to drop 97 percent in a matter of weeks. Now, the agency is seeing an unprecedented demand for Amtrak seats and rapidly moving to add service to new cities across the nation. Ridership on the Northeast Corridor is only down 15 percent from 2019 levels, with some routes surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
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In These Times – August 1, 2022
Things are getting very dark in this country, and it’s likely going to get worse before it gets better. At every turn — as collective society breaks down, as the ruling class continues to rob us blind, as humanity barrels towards climate catastrophe — working people are being encouraged to turn on each other and to see certain groups of their fellow workers as the enemy. From the demonization and increasingly violent attacks against LGBTQIA+ people, to an extremist-dominated Supreme Court preparing to strip away queer people’s right to marry, to legislatures around the country working to eliminate trans people’s right to exist, we must respond to these assaults on our neighbors and coworkers with the same spirit of solidarity that gives life to labor’s eternal message: an injury to one is an injury to all. In this special and urgent episode, we speak with Gabbi Pierce and Martha Grevatt about how far the labor movement has come in defending the rights of LGBTQIA+ workers, how far we still have to go, and what role the labor movement can and must play in fighting for dignity and equality for all.
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Streetsblog – August 4, 2022
Electric buses, of course, could represent one of the most efficient possible uses of precious domestic battery resources around, and the transit industry on the whole is already a significant driver of the American economy. Since 2020, U.S. agencies have been mandated to purchase 70 percent of their transit components and subcomponents from domestic manufacturers, and a staggering 91 percent of U.S. congressional districts are home to at least one of those companies — which means residents of those districts benefit directly from federal transit investment, even if they aren’t personally riding buses and trains.
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Building Transit Infrastructure |
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Wired – July 29, 2022
Cities and countries around the world have been edging toward free fares. Spain is the latest to join the list, offering free train travel on a selection of routes for a few months to relieve pressure on commuters as the cost-of-living crisis bites. Officials in Germany introduced a 9-euro-a-month travel pass, Ireland slashed fares for the first time in 75 years, and Italy doled out a 60-euro, one-off public transport voucher for lower-income workers. Luxembourg and Estonia ditched fares to get commuters out of cars years ago, which is the same motivation for Austria’s 3-euro-a-day Klimaticket for countrywide transport, launched last year.
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National Skills Coalition – August 5, 2022
“We applaud the Departments of Commerce and Labor for producing this toolkit, and for reaching out to small- and medium-sized businesses in our Business Leaders United network to better understand how their partnerships with other stakeholders could serve as models for expanding job quality within their respective industries,” said Andy Van Kleunen, NSC CEO. “Members of BLU have shown that public policies which support workforce-focused industry partnerships between employers, training and service providers, and labor can help smaller companies redesign their workplaces, and scale job quality practices across a sector. This includes the expansion of shared, high-quality skills training so workers can advance their careers and compensation while meeting local industry’s need to innovate. We look forward to seeing how Biden administration initiatives like Commerce’s recently announced Good Jobs Challenge grants will invest in such partnerships and thereby support the adoption of the toolkit’s job quality practices across a range of U.S. companies.”
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World Resources Institute – August 5, 2022
The federal government could support a deep discounting of public transit fares for a limited period through additional funding via the Federal Transit Administration. Doing so would help consumers in many urban areas avoid high gas prices and provide an incentive for people to return to mass transit after plummeting ridership during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s happening elsewhere: Germany introduced a new low-cost farecard that covers all transit except high-speed rail nationwide for the summer, effectively creating a single nationwide fare structure for the first time. A similar pass for U.S. local transit, also extended to Amtrak, could help rebuild ridership habits and incentivize inter-agency cooperation, a positive long-term outcome. While receiving this federal support, agencies could also negotiate new bulk pass programs to help keep public transit pass prices low after the temporary support ends.
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Applications due August 29, 2022
Latinos In Transit (LIT) has launched a new scholarship program to support Latinos and other minorities in their pursuit of educational advancement. The purpose of this scholarship is to create opportunities for underserved and/or underrepresented individuals pursuing degrees and/or certifications from accredited educational institutions in a public transit-related field of study such as, but not limited to, business administration or management, marketing, finance, project management, urban or transportation planning, engineering, etc.
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International Transportation Learning Center
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