DECISION '24: Next President Needs a Vision for America's Transportation Future — Streetsblog USA

No matter who wins the White House, advocates are ready to push for the transportation system we all deserve — starting with these nine principles.

9:37 AM EST on November 4, 2024

Left: DVIDS, CC. Right: Senate Democrats.

Vote like your transportation future depends on it.

A coalition of climate, disability and labor organizers are urging the next president to adopt a transportation agenda that helps accomplish goals from all of their movements — by taking action to end car dependency and build the just, green, accessible mobility system that America deserves.

As Americans cast their votes, a group of the advocates lead by the Green New Deal Network are building momentum behind the Unity Agenda for Transportation, a two-page document which they hope can serve as an initial blueprint for the next administration to reshape the way U.S. residents get around, and how we build the infrastructure that gets them where they’re going.

That vision is an ambitious one, to put it mildly. In addition to restoring Americans’ “freedom to move” on any mode they choose through massive investments in transit, paratransit, walking, biking, and other modes, the group calls on Washington to re-imagine American land use around sustainable modes, exceed ADA standards and mandate community assessments to avoid inequitable impacts of proposed projects, and create great union jobs to build it all, to name just a few of the group's proposals.

The coalition argues, though, that these sorts of revolutionary changes are well within reach, if only because they're shared priorities for some of America's most prominent and urgent movements — and with their powers combined, they could be a force to be reckoned with.

And with the next administration poised to reauthorize the nation's surface transportation programs in 2026, there's no more important time for that coalition to band together.

“There's a broad sense in the climate community, in the disability community, and in organized labor community, that we need a new vision on transportation, and we need a fundamentally different system," said Saul Levin, campaigns and political director for the Green New Deal Network. "And across these different intersectional parts of the movements there's actually a lot that we agree on about what needs to change.”

Levin, who also coordinates the Train Lovers for Harris-Walz group, is not agnostic about which presidential candidate is best positioned to make the Unity Agenda a reality.

While he acknowledges that the Vice President hasn't made transportation a signature issue — at least outside of her support for high speed rail, electric school buses, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — he argues that the values woven into her policy proposals broadly align with the progressive agenda. He points to her campaign promise to "continue working to facilitate mass transit-oriented development and energy efficient homes to lower costs," as well as and her selection of sustainable transportation champion Tim Walz as her running mate.

Moreover, he says the Train Lovers themselves are proving to be a powerful organizing block that could demand the attention of the next administration, turning out so many volunteers for a recent canvassing event in Pennsylvania that they packed a campaign bus to the brim.

“The staffers on the Harris campaign receiving the bus in Pennsylvania were shocked. ... It was the most full bus they had ever seen," Levin said. "And our organizing leads for that event said, ‘Hey, we love transportation; we're really good at calling each other — and we're really good at riding busses.' ... We don’t think Kamala Harris agrees with us 100 percent on every transportation issue. But we are saying she's a serious person who understands that at some fundamental level, we need new forms of transportation."

More to the point, Levin is not optimistic about the prospects for the Unity Agenda for Transportation under a second Trump presidency.

“The contrast couldn't be more stark," he adds. "I mean, Donald Trump has been talking about defunding the EPA. He's talked about defunding public transportation, and he literally tried to do that as president. He was constantly rolling back regulations that are essential for keeping workers safe and passengers safe on numerous forms of transportation. And in general, he’s in the pocket of the oil industry. ... As opposed to being in support of Americans’ freedom to choose how they want to get around, [he] actually allows these companies to organize how other people get around based on their own profit.”

Whoever wins the White House, though, all of the coalition members are committed to advancing as many planks of their agenda they can. The group has already opened registrations for a post-election strategy call on November 7, where they'll plan how best to turn their proposals into real policy in light of the results.

And even if big-ticket projects don't end up within easy reach, the groups hope they can still accomplish transformative change on the nation's sidewalks, bus stops, and even public restrooms. Those are the kind of humble projects which Giancarlo Valdetaro, legislative associate at the Green New Deal Network, considers "the nuts and bolts of the transportation network, without which high speed rail and other big projects wouldn't work."

"A lot of the time when transportation gets talked about, the focus is on the big shiny objects. It's on the ribbon-cuttings — but not for everything else that goes into making it possible for all of us to get around and meet our needs, have fulfilling, rich lives," continued Valdetaro in an October webinar about the new agenda. "This is not a ribbon-cutting transportation agenda; it's for the people and goods that are trying to get to their destinations. It's for the workers that are making all of that movement possible, as well as the communities that our transportation infrastructure passes through.”

As the ever-worsening impacts of climate change loom and the outlook for labor and the disability community grows worse every day, the coalition hopes that this moment will be remembered by history as a turning point for the country — and that transportation reform will be the lever that helped move us forward.

"This is why I get up every morning: to make sure that everyone is able to get around in in a way that's actually decarbonizing the transportation system right now," said Katherine Garcia, director of Clean Transportation for All campaign at the Sierra Club. "We're living in a status quo which is designed to be car-centered. And we need to break that system."

Read the full text of the Unity Agenda For Transportation here, and register for the post-election strategy call on Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. ET.

Kea Wilson has more than a dozen years experience as a writer telling emotional, urgent and actionable stories that motivate average Americans to get involved in making their cities better places. She is also a novelist, cyclist, and affordable housing advocate. She previously worked at Strong Towns, and currently lives in St. Louis, MO. Kea can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @streetsblogkea. Please reach out to her with tips and submissions.

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