As New York City is poised to begin a legislative debate on congestion pricing and other options to solve our transportation crisis, the Pratt Center for Community Development has found stark racial and economic inequities in the way our transit system serves, or does not serve, New Yorkers.

Please join us for a reporters’ briefing on this study of inequity in our mass transit system, how it affects your community, and new solutions that would make subway and bus commutes shorter for working families and lower-income New Yorkers.

Press Release

Transportation Group: NYC Mass Transit Must be Improved to Fix Racial, Economic Inequities

COMM.U.T.E! calls for re-organization of mass-transit spending priorities, congestion pricing, bus rapid transit plan

Two-thirds of commuters with commute longer than an hour earn less than $35K a year; just 6% earn more than $75K

January 16, 2007—More than 750,000 New Yorkers have commute times longer than an hour—and there is a significant racial and economic divide between those straphangers with the most horrendous commutes and those with the easiest, according to census data compiled and released today by the Pratt Center for Community Development. In response to growing inequities in New York’s transportation system, Pratt and community groups today also announced the formation of COMM.U.T.E! – Communities United for Transportation Equity – and called for increased funding for a citywide Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) program as part of a congestion pricing plan for the City.

Two-thirds of commuters who travel more than an hour each way every day for work earn less than $35,000 a year, while just 6% of commuters with long commutes earn more than $75,000 a year, according to the data. And commute times are unequally distributed across racial groups. Of those who suffer long commutes, blacks (census category) are disproportionately represented, and white riders enjoy a disproportionate share of short commutes, the data showed (table below).

Working class and immigrant neighborhoods like the South Bronx, Sunset Park in Brooklyn, Corona in Queens, and Upper Manhattan are on the losing end of the City’s mass transit system (see attached map).

“The mass-transit system is failing those of us who need it the most, while truck and car-related infrastructure running through our neighborhoods wreaks havoc on our health. Having a long commute takes away time from families and communities, and poor transit access means poor job access because you can’t take a job that you can’t get to,” said Silvett García, Senior Planner at Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, in the Soundview section of the Bronx.

Census data revealed that black commuters have the longest commute times of all New Yorkers, followed by Hispanic (census category) commuters, respectively 25% and 12% longer than white commuters, who have the shortest average commute—just 36 minutes. Today, COMM.U.T.E! members called for mass transit investments such as Bus Rapid Transit that address this issue quickly and comprehensively.

“Transit dollars should go to improvements that benefit the masses, not just real estate developers. We need Bus Rapid Transit—get us moving as fast and reliably as trains. BRT can be up and running for much less money and time than it costs to expand the subway, and it must be where funds are focused,” said Michelle de la Uz, Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee.

Specifically, COMM.U.T.E! called for the implementation of a congestion pricing plan that funds a more aggressive BRT agenda than has been proposed, with more routes with greater connectivity, physically separated traffic lanes, and pre-paying to allow for platform-like boarding. The City’s PlaNYC 2030 proposal for a 10-year investment into mass transit includes $50 billion of mostly big-ticket items such as the 7 train expansion. COMM.U.T.E! believes those revenues are vital, but that a different allocation of funding can do more to close the growing inequality gap in the City’s mass transportation system.

“The best way to ensure that congestion pricing revenues are geared to transit improvements in a fair way is to spend the money now. World-class BRT could be up and running as congestion pricing gets implemented, and start alleviating transit inequities right away,” said Joan Byron, Director of Sustainability and Environmental Justice Initiative at the Pratt Center

“Increased and fairer investment in mass transit is needed to address NYC’s transportation inequity. A congestion pricing plan increases investment while reducing pollution, and BRT is the fair, fast, and necessary way to reach the transit dependent— those who live or work in the gaps of the subway system and who cannot afford a car, cab or premium commuting fare, the elderly, and the handicapped. As the congestion pricing debate moves from the Commission to the City and State legislatures, we should focus on the half million working-class New Yorkers with treacherous commutes,” said Cynthia Doty, Organizer for the West Harlem/Morningside Heights Sanitation Coalition.