Tag Archives: Olympics

Public Transit for a Green Chicago

Check out these pics from our Earth Day Press Conference: Public Transit for a Green Chicago.  We spoke to the media at LVLHS, the only CPS high school with no regular CTA bus route!Transit Riders for Public Transportation

Basta de excusas! Queremos autobuses!

Kimberly Wasserman Nieto explains the benefit of federal funding to operate 31st Street Buses and other routes.

Kimberly Wasserman Nieto explains the benefit of federal funding to operate 31st Street Buses and other routes.

Not for autos!

Not for autos!

Transit Riders support the 31st Street Bus

A 31st Street Bus to the beach is a must!

31st Street Buses this Summer to the Beach, Museums, and Jobs!

31st Street Buses this Summer to the Beach, Museums, and Jobs!

PUBLIC TRANSIT FOR

A GREEN CHICAGO


NEW BUS ROUTE,

NATIONAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH

CHICAGO – Transit riders on Chicago’s Southwest Side will celebrate Earth Day by calling for economic recovery through public transit. The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), a community-based organization on Chicago’s Southwest Side, will give an update on the new CTA 31st Street Bus Route. LVEJO will also be announcing Transit Riders for Public Transportation, a new national campaign to shift federal transportation policy.

LVEJO will present news regarding its plan for the CTA to operate 31st Street Bus Service. A $1 million Job Access Reverse Commute grant will help start the route. Based on its work with transit riders in the community, LVEJO supports a route crossing the city between Cicero Avenue and the 31st Street Beach, with access to the Museum Campus for South and West Side riders. Currently, CTA riders from these areas take longer trips with more transfers than North Shore riders. The route will provide affordable access to jobs, schools, shops, health care, and recreation.

LVEJO will also join organizations in 6 other cities to launch Transit Riders for Public Transportation (TRPT). From the buses and trains in Chicago to Atlanta to Los Angeles, TRTP is advocating for an 80% public transit and 20% freeway funding formula split in the next $500

billion Federal Surface Transportation Act (FSTA) currently under discussion in Congress.

The new national campaign is a 6 point program that seeks to: reduce toxins from autos; maintain and improve existing mass transit; and provide frequent 24/7 bus service with grants to cities and rural areas to reduce all transit fares by 50 percent. The program calls for anti-discrimination guarantees that protect civil rights, environmental justice, and work toward the elimination of pollution and greenhouse gases in transportation projects.

Happy Earth Day!  Environmental Justice!