Racial Equity, Economic Justice, and Transit Reform

Letter to County Executive and Council, July 21, 2020

The tragic deaths of George Floyd and so many other people of color at the hands of police have sparked a national dialog about how to end racial inequities that permeate so many sectors of American life, including law enforcement, education, housing, and employment.

Although we are the Action Committee for Transit, we have always taken a broad view of our name and mission. We believe policy issues related to transit are deeply interconnected with important dimensions of racial and economic justice like fair and affordable housing, educational opportunity, economic development, climate change, pedestrian safety and accessibility, and health and wellness.

While we believe much of our advocacy already serves these interests, ACT will redouble its efforts to evaluate and communicate its new and existing priorities through an equity lens.

We will continue to advocate for the elimination of exclusionary zoning as part of Montgomery County’s Thrive 2050 general planning process and support community organizations that advocate for racial and economic equity. Turning to specifics, we urge the County Executive and County Council to take executive and legislative action to implement the following initiatives.

For too long, transportation officials have prioritized rapid movement of motorists through dense and transit-dependent minority communities with deadly results. Our Black and Hispanic residents are more than twice as likely to be killed in pedestrian crashes than Non-Hispanic Whites. Vision Zero demands that human life take priority over mobility. Communities must be empowered to request crosswalks, pedestrian signals, traffic calming, and lower speed limits, even if those measures slow the travel of people commuting through.

Transit services should operate from early morning to late night for shift workers and people who don't own cars, not just as a rush-hour service aimed at getting cars off the road.

State and local government units need to eliminate traffic engineering vehicle-counting rules that put two cars ahead of a bus with 40 passengers. Transportation policy needs to treat bus riders equally with drivers.

Eliminate exclusionary zoning requirements across the county that prohibit the construction of affordable, transit-accessible housing and perpetuate school segregation

Eliminate qualified legal protections and costly military hardware that enable municipal and transit police forces to believe they can act with impunity.

Replace police traffic enforcement with camera enforcement wherever feasible, to eliminate bias and improve compliance.

Decriminalize transit fare evasion, failure to register a bicycle, and the phony crime of jaywalking. These laws too often provide the pretext for problematic police interactions with people of color. The resulting arrests and fines can have lifelong impacts while fares recovered rarely pay the cost of enforcement.

Expand transit access by decreasing or eliminating fares for low-income residents.

ACT looks forward to working with the Executive and Council to promote a more just, equitable, and livable Montgomery County.

Paul Goldman

Action Committee for Transit