Each year, over 6,000 people are killed in America by cars while walking and 850 are killed while biking. Another 76,000 pedestrians and 47,000 people on bikes are injured by cars. Our roads are deadly places and communities of color are disproportionately affected by traffic violence. At the same time, carceral solutions both have failed to keep communities safe from traffic violence and have been a gateway to police brutality, the erosion of the right to privacy, and incarceration. We need real solutions. Fortunately, communities across the country have been innovating to make a new mobility justice framework.
At the “Decarcerating Transportation: A Mobility Justice Framework” policy briefing, experts from Anti Police-Terror Project, joined the Transbay Coalition and Public Advocates to present their recent report by the same name. You can view the report in full here.
Transbay Coalition members from around the 9 County Bay Area, along with allies from across the country learned about the pitfalls of carceral solutions to transportation issues and discussed better mobility justice solutions that centers people and access. After the presentation and a Q&A, we split into break out rooms on the themes of “Automated Enforcement Technologies, Fare Evasion on Public Transit, Bike/Ped Enforcement, and Civilian Enforcement.
In them we discussed questions like “what does it mean when we fine a behavior rather than change the infrastructure to prevent it?” “what does the data actually say about fare evaders and people who disturb other passengers on transit?” and “how can we make improvements with & for communities rather than to them?”
Our transportation system is where the rubber hits the road on so many other issues in America and the Transbay Coalition is committed to continuing to work towards mobility justice. We’re grateful for our allies and this wonderful opportunity to grapple with these complicated issues as a community of human-centered transportation advocates.
Everyone on the bus, no one under it!
#MobilityJustice #DeCarceratingTransportation #AffordableTransit #TrafficViolence #AutomatedEnforcement
