Do you or someone you know want to join the International Transportation Learning Center (ITLC) team? ITLC is hiring to fill two positions. See below for an overview of the positions and click the links for details.
Senior Communication Specialist:
ITLC seeks an experienced and self-motivated communications professional to promote ITLC’s work through public relations, social media, and other outreach activities. This includes planning the organization’s overall communications strategies; managing content creation to increase awareness and engagement by identifying, developing, and leveraging compelling coverage of ITLC and its partners’ work; managing copy and creative; and ensuring effective and consistent communications and marketing practices internally.
Graphic Designer:
ITLC seeks a creative and self-motivated graphic design professional with outstanding design and brand-building experience to establish ITLC and its affiliates’ brand identities and create promotional materials. The graphic designer will work very closely with the Senior Communications Specialist on the design of communications materials and execute the creation of these materials.
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TransitCenter – September 9, 4:00 pm ET
In July, TransitCenter released the Safety for All report. The report summarizes research on the safety concerns faced by transit riders and operators, and the spectrum of approaches transit agencies can take to address them. As agencies pursue transit safety reforms, they are looking to each other for concrete examples on which to base their new programs. Agencies will also need to form partnerships with city agencies and non-profit organizations to implement programs that reduce homelessness, address mental health, and increase affordability in order to tackle the root causes of unsafe conditions on transit. Join TransitCenter for a conversation on a spectrum of approaches that transit agencies can take to address safety concerns.
National RTAP – September 14, 2:00 pm ET
This webinar, presented by Ken Hosen of KFH Group, will provide guidance on how to evaluate the appropriate service design for your area and will cover some best practices in service design and planning of fixed (or flex) route design as well as on-demand or microtransit services which can be attractive in small cities.
Aspen Institute - September 15, 1:00 pm ET
This event will focus on what companies can accomplish when they pursue improving the financial health and resilience of workers. Senior executives from companies who have tackled a range of issues as they work to build employee financial wellness will discuss how they came to prioritize the issue, some of the surprises and challenges encountered, and lessons that others can build on. Join us for an engaging, timely, and important discussion on how we can work together to build worker financial health and resilience.
UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies – September 30, 3:30 pm ET
COVID-19 has exacerbated trends of increasing transit ridership and increasing costs that existed before the pandemic. What changes will be short-lived? Which may change transit for the longer term?
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TransitCenter – August 25, 2021
In June, the United States Department of Transportation asked for input from the public about how to assess transportation equity. TransitCenter joined hundreds of civic groups, transportation agencies, and members of the public in responding. The status quo needs reform. While there are policies in place intended to prevent discrimination in transportation policy, in practice federal mandates are toothless, and the required analyses shed little light on the problem of inequitable access to good transit.
Bloomberg CityLab – August 27, 2021
Amalgamated Transit Union International President John Costa, whose union represents over 200,000 transit workers around the U.S. and in Canada, said the exodus of workers also reflects the better pay some drivers can earn in the private sector. “This is like the perfect storm, you had covid come, the industry shut down, there was no funding for it, so they laid off the bus driver operators,” he said. Meantime, he added, in the private sector “it is an easier job and actually it is paying better and has better benefits.”
Labor Network for Sustainability – September, 2021
The two largest transit unions–the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and Transport Workers of America (TWU)–have both endorsed the bill, lauding the historic investment in transit and the worker protections in the bill. As President Biden himself has pointed out, $39 billion represents the largest appropriation to public transit in the nation’s history. At the same time, many transit advocates have expressed disappointment that the investment in transit is insufficient to meet the country’s needs–that the allocation is less than what was originally proposed by the President in the American Jobs Plan ($79 billion) and less than what was part of the earlier Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework ($39 billion). Additionally, advocates are concerned that all but the smallest transit agencies are prohibited from using federal funds for operations. It is of little use to transit riders if an agency has the money to expand bus or rail lines if it doesn’t have the money to operate the system.
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COVID's Impact on Transit |
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FTA - August 27, 2021
At the National Transit Renewal Summit, industry leaders discussed best practices, resources and tools for transit agencies to use to renew ridership as they look ahead to a post-pandemic future. FTA also published a comprehensive report to showcase the wide range of strategies, including ridership campaigns, system design review, restoring public confidence in transit safety and leveraging partnerships.
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Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration (MDOT MTA) – August 26, 2021
The Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration (MDOT MTA) has announced the launch of CharmFlex, a new discounted fare option to accommodate Marylanders returning to onsite work in more flexible or hybrid work schedules. CharmFlex three- and 10-day passes are available only on the CharmPass mobile fare payment app and can be used on Local Bus, Light Rail, Metro Subway, Commuter Bus and MARC Train beginning Monday, August 30. “As Maryland’s economy continues to recover and riders return to transit, we’re excited to offer new fare options that address the needs of our riders,” said MDOT MTA Acting Administrator Holly Arnold. “CharmFlex provides the best value for riders traveling only a few times a week or on non-consecutive days.”
Progressive Railroading – August 27, 2021
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) yesterday announced it is awarding $330.8 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and $302.4 million to the Regional Transportation District-Denver for COVID-19 pandemic recovery efforts. The ARP funds are intended to help transit agencies maintain services and jobs.
WGN 9 – August 25, 2021
Union President Eric Dixon was at the rally, along with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago police Supt. David Brown. “My members are tired,” Dixon said. “I have some members who are afraid to come to work because of the violence. So we are at a point now [that] something has to be done.”
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US Department of Labor - August 27, 2021
From the first workers’ compensation and unemployment compensation laws and the 40-hour week, to Social Security, Medicare, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Affordable Care Act, America’s labor movement has been a driving force for progress.
NJ.com – August 27, 2021
Corbett and Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti credited a close working relationship with Ray Greaves, ATU Vice President and former board member and Orlando Riley and ATU New Jersey State Council general chairman. “In negotiations the ATU fought for much needed wage increases and to protect our members health benefits and pensions,” Greaves said. “After reaching a tentative agreement with NJ Transit, ATU members had their say and over 90% of those who cast a ballot voted yes, to accept the agreement”
The American Prospect - August 30, 2021
Over the last two decades, a sustained anti-union offensive undermined the very labor organizations that once might have empowered and protected these workers. However, this is not the end of the story. During this time, workers who had been excluded from core labor protections set about building power through worker centers—and thereby renewing the labor movement. Worker centers have played a critical role in winning rights and raising standards in low-wage industries. They’ve been instrumental in raising the minimum wage, enforcing wage theft ordinances, winning domestic-worker bills of rights and paid leave policies, and securing protections for immigrant workers. They have been able to leverage the lessons from these victories to inform and shape federal policies, including COVID relief packages and recent legislation from the Biden-Harris administration. They have advised on President Biden’s executive actions and other efforts, taking advantage of the political openings created by the strongest pro-worker administration in decades. The worker center movement has been a key player in designing new inclusive labor and social policies that will benefit all workers.
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The Hill – August 30, 2021
A coalition of trade associations, labor unions and environmental groups on Monday urged Democratic leaders to allocate an additional $10 billion for public transit in the party's $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill. That’s the amount of transit funding that was cut out of the final $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by the Senate earlier this month, the groups wrote in letters to congressional leaders and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
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EdSurge - August 17, 2021
For millions of students from low-income backgrounds, the transition to college or the workforce from high school is a steep, sometimes insurmountable, climb. That transition can look more like a cliff: The supports and structure of high school fall away, revealing a chasm students must somehow cross alone. At a time when more than 4.6 million young Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 aren’t working or in school, it’s time to rethink whether the traditional boundaries between high school, college, and workforce are serving this new generation of learners.
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Streetsblog – August 26, 2021
We’re increasing our traffic congestion and our traffic accidents and our air pollution and consumer costs overall, because we say, yeah, we’ll give you this very valuable subsidy, worth between $100 and $200 a month, to drive. But if you use the other modes, we give you nothing. So those are the kind of case studies that demonstrate what you could call latent demand for not driving. Some people will give up driving or drive less. If they’re given more incentives, there is more walking, bicycling, more public transit use.
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Minnesota Reformer - August 31, 2021
For several years, Duluth and the Twin Cities transit systems have been testing electric buses in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint and air pollution. For the most part, they’re a hit among riders and drivers. “They’re alright, [a] little more comfortable and a little roomy,” said Cruz Mendoza, a high school teacher, as he rode a bus on his way to a Goodwill in Duluth. Although the ride is smooth, the transition has been anything but.
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International Transportation Learning Center
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