April 10, 2019
Background
This past February, Philadelphia Climate Works joined several local community, environmental and workers justice organizations to form the Philadelphia Transit Equity Day Coalition and participate in the Labor Network for Sustainability’s Transit Equity Day national call to action. Coalition members include 350 Philadelphia, People’s Emergency Center, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, Clean Air Council, 5th Square, POWER, and AARP Pennsylvania.
The logo of the Philadelphia Transit Equity Day Coalition, modeled after the now discontinued SEPTA token (left), and the Labor Network for Sustainability’s Transit Equity Day Logo (right).
Transit Equity Day 2019 was held on February 4th, honoring the birthday of Rosa Parks, who in 1955 refused to give up her seat on the front of a bus as an act of civil disobedience against segregation. Today, Transit Equity Day is a call to action to unions and organizations to elevate the message that public transit is a civil right, and a key strategy to combat climate change. We took this opportunity to elevate this message through Black History month, and honor the history of other key local transit and civil rights advocates, like Octavius Catto, an educator, abolitionist, and civil rights advocate whose activism successfully desegregated Philadelphia’s horse drawn trolleys in the 1860s.
For the past several months, the Coalition collaborated on a series of events with community partners to raise awareness of Transit Equity Day and its core values, began a surveying process to solicit information from public transit riders on their experiences and needs for a fairer transit system, and set a goal to develop a shared transit equity platform to support and hold our regional transit agency, SEPTA, accountable to the communities it serves. We are excited to report that we have completed Phase 1 of our collective work and share some of our learnings.
Celebrating Black History and Transit Advocacy
The Transit Equity Day Coalition organized two community events to celebrate Black History Month and Transit Equity Day. On February 7th, we co-hosted a transit-themed screening to honor the birthday of Rosa Parks with Scribe Video Center, a film production center that provides community members the skills and opportunity to use video and film as tools for self-expression and for representing and supporting their communities. We showed five short films about public transit, created by participants of Scribe Video Center’s Documentary History Project for Youth, and an excerpt of the documentary, Eyes on the Prize, to celebrate Rosa Parks.
We also took this opportunity to highlight the important contributions of Black women in civil rights and transit activism: we opened our program with a remarks by Ali Roseberry-Polier, a social and environmental justice historian who created and placed a historical marker near 30th Street Station to honor Mary Miles. Years before Rosa Parks’ act of civil disobedience, in 1867 Philadelphia, a Black woman named Mary Miles refused to move to a segregated train car and her case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Her case laid the groundwork for the transit and civil rights organizing that followed in Philadelphia, resulting in the desegregation of our trolleys.
Film screening event attendees listen as Ali-Roseberry-Polier, standing in front of a captive audience, describes the unsung history of Mary Miles.
We welcomed over 20 attendees to the screening and following discussion on public transportation. We also began our surveying process by asking participants to respond to our question: “What do you think needs to change now to make public transportation fair for everyone in Philadelphia?”
Event attendees listen as a participant shares their reflections on public transit in Philly following the film screening.
On February 23rd, the Transit Equity Day Coalition organized a birthday party-themed event at the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO to honor the birthday and legacy of Octavius Catto, who successfully organized to desegregate Philadelphia’s trolleys in 1867. We invited speakers to share their viewpoints on Catto’s significance, what Transit Equity means for Philadelphia, and what Philadelphia is doing now to improve transit.
Our speakers included: At-Large Councilmember Helen Gym; Brenda Hernandez-Torres, the Community Engagement and Partnership Coordinator at the Bicycle Coalition; Mike Fuller, trolley operator also known as the SEPTA Poet; the authors of “Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America,” Dan Biddle and Murray Dubin; Yocasta Lora, Associate State Director of Advocacy and Community Outreach at AARP Pennsylvania; Chris Pulchalsky, Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives at the City’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability; and Everett Calaway from the Philadelphia Unemployment Project.
City Councilmember Helen Gym chats with an event attendee at the snack table (left) and authors, Dan Biddle and Murray Dubin present on the history of Octavius Catto and Philadelphia civil rights activism in the 1860s (right).
This event demonstrated that Philadelphians have clear and strong opinions on the need for a strong public transportation system. Nearly 100 people attended the event and engaged in passionate discussions with panel speakers and fellow attendees, and we generated 69 additional transit equity survey responses via large-scale birthday cards designed in collaboration with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and Creative Repute graphic design agency. Attendees highlighted the need for reduced fares, $1 ride days or free rides during off-peak hours; well-connected train and bus schedules; cleaner buses; a connected regional bike share with public transit; improved accessibility; more bus shelters; and 24/7 service on all routes.
Two birthday cards featuring illustrations of Rosa Parks and Octavius Catto were used to collect transit survey responses (left), and (right) people gather at the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO to play party games, eat snacks and cake, and talk about transit.
The event was also highlighted in the local news via WHYY, “Philly Celebrates Octavius Catto and Transit Equity Day.”
Transit Center and Community-Based Surveying
Following the completion of our two community events, the Coalition continued to survey transit riders at transit stations and community events through the end of March and compiled our findings. In Phase One of our outreach we asked the following question to Philadelphians at several events and transit stops: “What do you think needs to change now to make public transportation fair for everyone in Philadelphia?”
PCW coordinator, Zakia Elliott, presenting at the Neighborhood Advisory Council at the People’s Emergency Center March meeting on transit equity.
We received 205 separate comments touching on a wide range of problems, concerns, and policy suggestions. Below is a breakdown of our responses from Phase One outreach. Among the most common responses, transit riders suggested reductions on fare pricing, offered feedback related to the user experience of riding SEPTA, and pinpointed the frequency and reliability of service as a concern. A more detailed breakdown of our survey results can be found here.
In Phase Two of our outreach, the Transit Equity Day Coalition will revise our survey to better engage with transit riders and residents’ most common concerns and policy suggestions and launch a second, more intentional process to talk with people from a variety of backgrounds, generations, and neighborhoods, especially environmental justice communities. Our plan following Phase Two is to build a platform for a more equitable transportation system based on the stated ideas and needs of Philadelphians.