"That feeling when you step outside your apartment on a sweltering hot summer day only to be hit smack in the face by the heat and stifling smell of diesel exhaust from a delivery truck"... The Clean Deliveries Act can keep us healthy --⚡🚚 @electrifyny.bsky.social
earthjustice.org/experts/rach...
A collage showing a diverse group of workers and advocates defending public transportation.
🚌🛴Today is #TransitEquityDay, and it’s the right moment to highlight that, with the right investments, we can build a more reliable, accessible & cleaner transportation system that delivers substantial benefits to people across the US.
Learn how we can achieve that: act.ucsusa.org/4tdqtw1
Transportation is often seen as a place of bipartisan calm, an "island of normalcy"... It's clear now more than ever that that is no longer the case. @stevenhigashide.com's latest piece shows how USDOT has been instrumental in Trump’s authoritarian push.
And, thanks to the other cosponsors, @alsobrooks.senate.gov, @blumenthal.senate.gov, @bluntrochester.senate.gov, @booker.senate.gov, @duckworth.senate.gov, @kirstengillibrand.bsky.social, @markey.senate.gov, @warren.senate.gov for supporting this crucial bill!
Transit operations funding helps make buses more frequent, and routes more extensive. Read more about why this is crucial for our transportation system here blog.ucs.org/kshen/can-fe...
And UCS research has found that there is already a $10 billion annual gap to get to pre-pandemic levels of transit service, and more can get us towards a transformation of our transportation system.
Over half of the country does not live near any transit whatsoever, and much less to high frequency transit that effectively gets us where we need to go. blog.ucs.org/kshen/how-mu...
Thank you to @vanhollen.senate.gov and @fetterman.senate.gov for reintroducing the Moving Transit Forward Act 🚌🚇, which would create a much needed federal program to fund increased transit service across the country. www.vanhollen.senate.gov/news/press-r...
🎁 While mega e-commerce warehouses are delivering more packages, they’re wrapping our neighborhoods with clouds of pollution. Let’s make sure that clean air is on everyone’s wishlist and hold big corporations accountable! #CleanDeliveries
Click here: electrifyny.org/warehouses
This underscores the fundamental challenge of the BIL: for all it may have done to support #EV infrastructure and electrification, it fundamentally did not do jack to shift the transportation system itself, and if anything just further embedded the status quo #oil based boondoggle we have today.
Promising solutions? Weight-based user fees, diesel tax, are a promising start, but most definitely not letting the trucking industry off the hook for the $150b/year in damages they cause--
Meanwhile, the trucking industry has the audacity to advocate for contributing even less by taking out the federal excise tax, and pointing the finger at everyone else to make up the difference.
In his latest blog, my colleague @ucsdave.bsky.social clarifies how much the trucking industry damages our roadways, and how the public subsidizes them by around $88 billion a year to do so (not to mention over $170 billion/year in health and climate costs)
blog.ucs.org/dave-cooke/t...
But on net, this is a huge victory for transit across state and in Chicagoland, and couldn't have been done without advocates like the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition! And that's not even to mention the other beneficial parts of the bill!
Progressive sources like the the House-proposed mark-to-market tax for billionaires (taxing income from assets the same as all other income) could've mitigated inequitable impacts, but didn't make it into the final bill.
One of the big topics these past couple months was regressivity- I pulled some national data to check it out: The sources that passed are less regressive than the Senate-proposed retail delivery fee, but still tax poor people at higher rates.
Though, that's counterbalanced by a $1B/year increase in tolls to fund tollway capital projects (aka more road). So the road lobby also eked out a victory for themselves.
The biggest source of funding, redirecting around $870M a year of fuel tax revenue from roadways to transit by itself is a climate win and much needed recognition of the importance of cleaner, affordable, and equitable transportation options, and is a long-time advocate ask.
Today is a huge day for people across Illinois -- at 4am the legislature passed SB2111 to not just prevent transit service cuts but actually EXPAND service -- UCS estimates $1.5B to be able to support around 35% more transit service over the coming years blog.ucs.org/kshen/illino...
TRB actions eliminating committees and potentially conference content regarding equity & sustainability are "inconsistent with the foundational purposes of the TRB" & "incompatible with the function of scientific inquiry in a free society" Sign on & share: forms.gle/zBknHfDNUZjj...
So much of transportation advocacy is about how people move, but this survey challenges us to think about how Black people, specifically, simply *exist* in public space, and how that shapes their experience of streets, roads, transit, & more. Grateful to @jaypitter.bsky.social for sharing her work.
From big cities to rural towns, Pennsylvanians deserve more ways to get around. But decades of disinvestment have left public transit behind while polluting industries profit. UCS’s @kevshen.bsky.social breaks down how the current budget fight could help be the long-term solution the state needs.
School graduations, going to work.. even doing your best to navigate the system, going to immigration court hearings and appointments can be risky. "Transportation and immigration are inseparable. If movement is a right, then that right must apply to everyone" Ruth Rosas @americawalks.bsky.social
Uber reinvents the bus but worse -- without public accountability or a commitment to serve everyone who needs to get around, rich or poor. Will Route Share complement transit? Or will it gum up the same routes, compete for the same passengers, and cause even more emissions?
Demand for transportation options is growing - people are increasingly choosing transit 🚌🚇. But still over half of the country’s population does not live near any transit whatsoever. Meanwhile, agencies' hard-earned recovery faces the threat of fiscal cliffs.
Read more: blog.ucs.org/kshen/how-mu...
Clean trucks are good for our air, our businesses, and New York’s economy. There’s no reason to bend to corporate polluters — We need @governor.ny.gov and our state leaders to stand up for our life-saving clean air protections and support clean vehicles. More:
cleantechnica.com/2025/04/10/b...
ICYMI: On Wednesday, clean air advocates and lawmakers rallied in Albany to support New York’s life-saving clean truck standard. With clean air under attack, this is not the time for New York to cave to polluter misinformation. Read more:
earthjustice.org/press/2025/l...
📣 We are joining legislators, clean air advocates, and community members in Albany today to demand that our state leaders protect clean air and keep New York’s life-saving standards in place.
🏫🎒 Electric school buses will provide fresher air to children, drivers, and the communities they drive through. Let's take a deep breath and embrace this clean energy revolution for a healthier, more vibrant tomorrow.
www.pressconnects.com/story/opinio...
