High Frequency

In this episode of "High Frequency," host Kapish Singla explores the state of transit funding with Yonah Freemark, senior research associate at the Urban Institute. Based on insights from the recent Urban Institute report, “Surmounting the Fiscal Cliff,” the interview delves into the reasons behind transit’s current fiscal cliff,  and the policy choices that have perpetually put transit agency fin...

Central Maryland Transportation Alliance is an advocacy group working to improve and expand transportation options in the Baltimore region. Using data and storytelling, CMTA has forefronted how unreliability and breakdown issues on buses and trains have negatively impacted workers and students throughout the region.  In this episode, I interview Brian O’Malley, President & CEO at CMTA, to discuss...

ACT-LA is an advocacy organization that strives to create equitable transit systems and neighborhoods in Los Angeles. In recent years, ACT-LA has campaigned on securing safety alternatives to armed policing on LA Metro’s buses and trains, and helped to win an unarmed transit ambassador program that launched in October 2022.  In this episode, I interview Scarlett De Leon, Campaigns Director at ACT-...

Ride New Orleans is an advocacy organization with a mission to win equitable public transportation for all residents across the New Orleans region. For over a decade, Ride New Orleans has advocated for better bus service, particularly service that would improve access to jobs. Years of advocacy by Ride will pay off in September 2022 when the New Orleans RTA launches a bus network redesign that is...

In February 2022,  Pittsburgh’s Mon-Oakland Connector Project—an autonomous shuttle proposal that would have spent $23 million of taxpayer dollars—finally died. Cause of death? Years of organizing by the advocacy group Pittsburghers for Public Transit that called attention to the fact that the project did little to serve the actual mobility needs of Pittsburgh residents.  PPT is a grassroots organ...

How do policies that make transit more equitable get implemented? That’s a question that Laurel Paget-Seekins, Leadership in Government Fellow at Open Society Foundations, is looking into. Laurel draws from her experiences as a transit advocate in Atlanta and former Assistant General Manager of Policy at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. In this episode, Laurel reflects on her time w...

In June, TransitCenter released the Transit Equity Dashboard. The dashboard uses maps and graphs to show how transit access varies by race, class, and other demographic factors in 6 major urban regions. TransitCenter Senior Research Associate Mary Buchanan led the development of the dashboard. In this episode, Mary explains the importance of access to opportunity metrics, and how these metrics can...

King County Metro, the largest transit agency in the Seattle region, is guided by the principle that “mobility is a human right.” For Metro, that means reducing barriers to frequent, reliable transit that connects people to jobs and other opportunities. Chris O’Claire is Mobility Division Director at King County Metro. In this episode, Chris details how the agency applies an equity lens to service...

At the onset of the pandemic, LA Metro made deep cuts to its bus service despite retaining the highest proportion of bus riders among large transit agencies in 2020. Over the past year, a coalition of transit advocates put pressure on LA Metro to reverse the cuts. The advocacy culminated in a commitment from the agency in January 2021 to restore service to pre-pandemic levels later this year.  The...

Cities across the US, including Miami, have been redesigning their bus networks to better serve today’s riders. Many decades-old networks have simply not kept pace with changing residential and employment patterns.  Az Chougle is the Executive Director of Transit Alliance Miami, a non-profit organization that advocates for walkable streets, bikeable neighborhoods, and better public transit. In 201...

In November 2020, Austin residents voted in favor of Proposition A. The $7 billion plan will expand bus service and build new light rail. Prop A also broke ground by pairing transit investments with housing funds to prevent displacement.  João Paulo Connolly is the Director of Housing and Community Development at the Austin Justice Coalition. AJC is a racial justice group that educates and builds...

In Chicago, racial disparities run deep. A history of redlining, disinvestment, and movement of jobs to the suburbs have resulted in disparate life outcomes for Black and white residents. In transportation, this has manifested in longer transit commutes for Black residents, and a disproportionate number of cycling tickets given out in Black and brown neighborhoods, among other ways.  Olatunji Oboi...

In 2019, New York’s MTA announced a plan to hire 500 additional police officers, citing the need to reduce fare evasion. Transit advocates, community organizers, and police reformers quickly pointed out the racially discriminatory patterns of fare enforcement, and that the additional police presence would lead to more discriminatory enforcement within the system. Analysis of NYPD data by the Commu...

How do transit agencies weather a crisis? In February 2015, the public transit system in Boston completely shut down due to heavy snowstorms. As a result, the general manager resigned and oversight of the MBTA was delegated to the newly formed Fiscal and Management Control Board. Under the board’s leadership the past five years, the agency has advanced projects that riders advocated for. In this e...

Nathan Vass is a bus operator at King County Metro in Seattle. For several years, Nathan has written about his interactions with riders on his route. His stories, compiled in a book called The Lines That Make Us , offer a compassionate glimpse into the lives of riders. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, bus operators have encountered a new set of challenges. Many are working without adequate perso...

Alex Hudson is Executive Director at Transportation Choices Coalition, a policy and advocacy organization based in Seattle, Washington. Since the 1990s, TCC has worked to build broad coalitions on various campaigns and initiatives including Sound Transit 3, a $53.8 billion plan to expand transit approved by Seattle area voters in 2016.  In this episode of High Frequency, Alex shares her wisdom abo...

Maya Rosas is director of policy at the advocacy organization Circulate San Diego. In this episode, Maya discusses how Circulate successfully made the case for converting transit station parking lots into new housing. Last year, the momentum continued, with the San Diego city government reducing parking requirements near frequent transit stops. Maya shares her advocacy tactics and describes how Ci...

Beth Osborne is Director of Transportation for America. In this episode, Beth explains how the federal transportation program has failed to safely connect Americans with access to jobs and opportunities, despite the billions of dollars being poured into it. Since accomplishing its original mission of building the interstate highway system, the program has floundered, with misplaced goals and metri...

Who runs transit in your city? In many places, this is a complicated answer that involves a mix of different levels of government, transit agencies, and departments of transportation. In London, the answer is slightly more straight-forward. Leon Daniels is former Managing Director, Surface Transport at Transport for London (TfL). In this episode, Leon tells the story of what happened after the Lon...

Stacy Thompson is Executive Director at LivableStreets in Boston. In this episode, Stacy discusses how her advocacy organization has pushed municipalities in the Boston region to prioritize buses. In 2017, the first in a series of “pop-up” bus lane in the Boston neighborhood of Roslindale. This pilot took advantage of the street cleaning schedule to give buses a “red lane” on space that had previo...