Transportation Advocates,
As we continue to navigate the challenges associated with the Coronavirus Pandemic, we must protect public transit and explore new approaches to creating sustainable transportation. Transportation access is one of the fundamental objectives of the public sector as a means to provide access to jobs, services, recreation, healthcare and even healthy food. As we know, lack of transportation access can have significant impacts at an individual, community, state, and federal level.
Many states across the country are facing the same public transit challenges. We are pleased to share the following webinars from the Eno Center for Transportation which address this issue and offer innovative ideas and potential solutions.
July 28, 2020 – The State of the Transportation and Mobility Workforce (Watch the Recording here)
The supply-chain shocks and many challenges facing public transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic have emphasized the essential value of our nation’s mobility systems and the professionals who design, develop, operate, and maintain them. It is therefore incumbent upon policymakers to empower this essential workforce. Future transportation professionals will need to adopt new standards for resilience and efficiency that draw from expertise in healthcare, safety, information technology, and strategic communications to ensure the integrity of our nation’s mobility systems. This webinar provided an overview of key benchmarks for gauging the preparedness and resilience of the transportation and mobility workforce. It also addressed ways that transportation access can affect the ability to recruit and retain logistics workers, and discussed career pathway solutions that policymakers can support to recruit and empower future transportation professionals.
August 4, 2020 – Transit Innovation in the Time of COVID (Watch the Recording here)
The challenges facing public transit during the global pandemic are well-known, with low ridership, safety concerns for workers, and looming fiscal concerns. In response, agency heads are being forced to change how they operate. But change is hard and transit boards are sometimes reluctant to try new approaches, leverage new technologies, and engage in new partnerships. This webinar featured public transit leaders who focused on how to manage change, the barriers in doing so, and what innovations are on the horizon.
In other news…
July 23, 2020 – Update on funding the Regional Transit Plan for Central Maryland (Read the Letter here)
Transit Choices was one of 11 co-signers on a letter sent by the Get Maryland Moving Coalition to the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB) calling on them to remove new highway capacity projects in the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and replace them with projects that fund MTA repairs, ADA access, and pedestrian infrastructure.
The TIP is a product of the BRTB and is essentially a list of transportation projects in our region that will use federal money over the next four years.
Be Well. Stay Safe. Stay Connected.
Thank you.