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STAND UP FOR TRANSPORTATION DAY

What APTA Members Are Doing on SU4T Day

Passenger Transport polled a few APTA member agencies and businesses about their plans for conducting an event on Stand Up for Transportation Day.

Phillip Washington
General Manager/Chief Executive Officer, Denver Regional Transportation District, APTA Chair

Denver RTD is pulling out all the (bus) stops for Stand Up for Transportation Day.

RTD plans an array of activities to create awareness and support for long-term, sustainable transportation funding. Leading up to Stand Up for Transportation Day, RTD will take the SU4T show on the road through a "signature bus tour" to all 15 districts in RTD's service area. A specially branded bus will make a stop in each district at locations that draw a crowd--a park, a rec center, a farmer's market, a town main street--and give people the chance to sign the bus as a visible show of advocacy. A grassroots video will capture the bus tour and be part of RTD's social media campaign. All along the bus tour, RTD staff will also encourage people to sign the SU4T online petition.

On Thursday, April 9, RTD and its transportation partners will hold a unity parade down the 16th Street Mall to Denver Union Station, where a rally will take place. Leading the parade will be various modes of transportation, including buses, shuttles, bicycles and members of the disabled community in wheelchairs followed by regional leaders and members of the public.
Participants will wear matching SU4T T-shirts, carry signs and wave "transportation towels" as they march to Union Station--an iconic example of the importance of federal transportation funds. Of the $480 million budget to redevelop Denver's Union Station, $390 million is derived from various forms of federal funding.

The rally will feature a series of speakers from a cross-section of the community who will share brief comments about the importance of transportation in their lives. Speakers will include a transit-dependent rider, a veteran, a construction worker, a student, transportation officials and members of Colorado's congressional delegation.

The activities are designed to create opportunities for all sectors of the community to get involved and generate widespread earned media.

Patrick Scully
Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Motor Coach Industries (MCI), Business Member Board of Governors Chair

If Daniel Burnham, the 19th-century architect and city planner who uttered "make no little plans," were living today, he would likely add: secure long-term funds.

This sentiment is especially true in public transit, where agencies deserve long-term, sustainable, reliable transportation funding to wisely plan future upgrades and services for their ridership. The lack of a long-term funding bill not only constrains transit agencies, it impacts jobs at equipment manufacturers and suppliers.

Case in point: Motor Coach Industries. We're the leading builder of intercity coaches, with headquarters in the U.S. and a manufacturing plant in Pembina, ND, where we build on average 300 coaches each year for the public sector.

While MCI is not a direct recipient of federal funding, nearly 85 percent of the coaches produced at this facility are procured with U.S. federal funds from a variety of departments including FTA and the Departments of Defense, Energy, Justice and Homeland Security.

In support of Stand Up for Transportation Day on April 9, MCI has invited North Dakota's U.S. senators and representatives and many other guests to tour the MCI plant.

The objective is to tell our story. We generate jobs. MCI provides employment for hundreds in North Dakota and Minnesota, many of whom are members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. We also support other U.S. employers through our network of 3,000 suppliers.

Closer to home, MCI will join in suburban Chicago's Pace activities with Metra and the Chicago Transit Authority. A unified front will send the message: Big plans, high aims and work--as Burnham expressed--contribute to a vibrant transportation landscape for cities and communities across America.

Curtis Stitt
President/Chief Executive Officer, Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA), Columbus

COTA is honored to participate in Stand Up for Transportation Day and lead the conversation in central Ohio about the importance of a comprehensive, long-term transportation reauthorization bill.

COTA staff members have been hard at work planning a highly visible advocacy and media event at our newly constructed Spring Street Transit Terminal in downtown Columbus. This new facility replaces a terminal that was in need of significant upgrades and serves as an example of much-needed recent infrastructure investment COTA has made in our community.

COTA Board of Trustees Chair Dawn Tyler-Lee, individual trustees and I will host our event, and staff members are in the process of engaging city, county and regional government leaders, transportation advocates, trade groups, businesses, transportation professionals and community leaders in the event.

The Ohio Contractors Association, Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, COMTO Columbus Chapter and the Columbus Chamber have already committed to participate. COTA is also asking cities throughout its service area to adopt proclamations recognizing the importance of the Stand Up for Transportation Day.

Community stakeholders, transportation partners, and regional print, television and digital media outlets will be invited to the event on April 9. A press release will be distributed that includes highlights from the event and information advocating for funding. COTA will also coordinate a social media campaign that encourages riders and central Ohio citizens to engage with Voices for Public Transit and raise their voices to support government investment in public transportation.

Donna DeMartino
General Manager/Chief Executive Officer, San Joaquin Regional Transit District (RTD), Stockton, CA

RTD will celebrate Stand Up for Transportation Day by holding a two-fold event--one to encourage local leaders and the media to advocate for transit and the other to thank our customers for standing up for transit every day.

RTD's event will include a bus tour of important agency infrastructure projects, including its Downtown Transit Center, transfer stations and the construction site of the Regional Transportation Center.

Invited guests will include local and state elected officials and representatives of local business groups, school officials and the media. En route to the various transit facilities, RTD staff will make an informal presentation on the theme "Where Public Transportation Goes, Community Grows."

As part of RTD's ongoing "It's Cool to Ride the Bus" marketing campaign, a group of local musicians will keep the guests entertained in between presentations. Following the event, guests will gather for refreshments in RTD's Downtown Transit Center boardroom and enjoy a photo exhibit illustrating RTD's BRT vision and examples of successful BRT projects in other cities.

RTD will also celebrate our customers for their continued support of public transit by making this day a Customer Appreciation Day. Local musicians will entertain RTD's customers at its facilities and RTD staff will distribute cookies and promotional giveaways, including a button and a wristband with the Stand Up for Transportation message.

We will also engage our customers in the campaign by asking them to take "selfie" pictures while holding a sign in their own handwriting explaining why they "Stand Up for Transportation." These materials, along with a print ad, will be shared on our social media sites and APTA's grassroots website.

Joe Calabrese
General Manager and Chief Executive Officer, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA)

The Greater Cleveland RTA annual capital budget is approximately $75 million, with 60 percent on average being funded from the Highway Trust Fund.

RTA currently has more than $100 million in unfunded capital needs that include bus replacements and rail infrastructure such as track work, signal upgrades, station reconstructions, track bridges, power substations, right-of-way work, rail car parts and equipment needs.

To help create awareness of those and other capital needs, RTA is working closely with the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and other stakeholders to call for a long-term sustainable transportation funding bill. Efforts have been underway throughout February and March and will culminate in a national media event on Stand Up for Transportation Day, April 9th.

Collective action is needed by elected officials to approve such a bill, so we are joining forces to throw the spotlight on the tremendous needs not just for transit, but also for roads, bridges and infrastructure--all of which desperately need to be brought to a state of good repair. We need to stand up for transportation at the grassroots level and educate--and advocate--in each community throughout the U.S.

MAP-21 expires in May, and all states that rely on much-needed federal dollars to fund transit projects will be without a federal funding source. Before we see a massive deterioration of our transportation infrastructure, we must take action.
In Cleveland, RTA is speaking loudly and has been hosting media briefings and granting interviews throughout February and will continue to do so in March. Beginning in April, RTA will host media and elected officials on a tour of its crumbling rail infrastructure. We will also feature a sizable photo display to depict repaired rail right-of-ways in contrast to track work that awaits funding and repair.

We plan to showcase the glaring need for a federal investment and hope to convince lawmakers that if these critical investments are not addressed now, they will be more expensive to address later.

Angela Iannuzziello
Vice President, Transit, AECOM

Across AECOM, we have a large team of engineers, planners, designers and business professionals working in collaboration to prepare for Stand Up for Transportation Day.

In keeping with the grassroots spirit of the event, our local office teams are leading these efforts--whether it is reaching out to other APTA participants to foster connections, coordinating event planning or overall promoting the value of the event, our transportation professionals are working to ensure that there is a strong network that is informed, engaged and ready for April 9th.

Our transportation subject matter experts are also playing a role. Through their work in advocacy and thought leadership, they are helping to expand and elevate the important discussion about infrastructure's role in driving prosperity and growth. They are committed to connecting the issues and presenting the big picture on infrastructure, which reinforces the event's significance on a day-to-day basis.

We are also dedicated to building internal awareness and engagement amongst our employees for Stand Up for Transportation Day. Further, we are eager to use our social media presence, which is established as one of the largest social media audiences in the engineering and design industry, to help promote the event in both the lead up to the day as well as on the day itself.

We are excited and honored to support Stand Up for Transportation Day's important message. I look forward to working with participating APTA members and other stakeholders who share our vision that investing in infrastructure helps address current needs, captures new opportunities and solves the persistent challenges all communities have in front of them. 

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