Transportation Alternatives (www.transalt.org)
Join this group! They are on the frontlines of bicycle and pedestrian advocacy in NYC. [The group's executive director, Paul Steely White, resigned fall 2018 after 14 years, and will now be at Bird, an electric scooter company angling to shove aside Ubers, Lyfts and Citibikes with their high-speed scooters.] Take a look at the transalt.org website, which features timely information and action points. Great print newsletter (quarterly?), too. TA, however, is not strong on the kind of aggressive transit investments that will ultimately make real differences in cutting the region's automobile dependencies.
Village Crosstown Trolley Coalition (www.villagetrolley.org)
"Vision 42" - Light Rail for 42nd St. (www.vision42.org)
Rebuild Penn Station (www.rebuildpennstation.org)
This organization suggests getting rid of Madison Square Garden (MSG), which squats over Penn Station, and replacing it with a replica of the original Penn Station, which they claim can be done quite economically using modern building techniques and materials. MSG is currently owned by rightwing billionaire Charles Dolan, who at age 92, has refused to consider moving the aged stadium. He is also reportedly a big contributor to Trump 2020; his son Patrick owns the Long Island-based daily Newsday, much weakened as a newspaper from its heyday in the '90s.
RIDERS ALLIANCE OF NY (www.ridersny.org)
NYC Subway Fan Site (www.nycsubway.org)
This is a remarkable fan site set up by David Pirmann, from Hoboken NJ, with a wealth of information, if idiosyncratically presented. Some pages are out of date, typical of all-volunteer websites.
Streetsblog - NYC (nyc.streetsblog.org)
This is a sophisticated and obviously well-funded multi-city comprehensive blog post about transportation issues, apparently updated on a daily basis, which is impressive, considering the complexity of NYC's transportation problems. Its NYC page features remarkably fine-grained reporting and comments on the daily agony of trying to get around in the city without a car, and on the chronic pitched battles between determined activists and doggedly car-oriented bureaucrats and hacks at the DOT, MTA, Parks, etc.; the page is edited by Ben Fried.
Straphangers Campaign (www.straphangers.org)
Transit Riders Council (www.nyctrc.org)
Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.
Cars Suck! (www.cars-suck.org)
Neighborhood Open Space Coalition (www.neighborhoodopenspacecoalition.org)
Founded in 1981, the Neighborhood Open Space Coalition attempts to shed light on the City's Parks Dept and its notorious bureacratic mismanagement of our parks and parks refurbishments. Under Mayor deBlasio, there has been some improvements in this dept. Nevertheless, NYC is more crowded than ever, with per capita park space steadily shrinking, and, just like our branch libraries, our parks are under intense commercial siege.
New Jersey Association of Rail Passengers (www.njarp.org)
Public Power NYC (www.nyc-eja.org) This group challenges the monopoly for-profit energy model of Con Edison, which has resulted in staggeringly high energy rates, frequent targeted brownouts and shoddy service while rewarding the shareholders, who are mostly one percenters.
NYC Environmental Justice Alliance (www.nyc-eja.org)
New York League of Conservation Voters (www.nylcv.org)
From their website: "the New York League of Conservation Voters is the non-profit, nonpartisan political arm of NY's environmental community. NYLCV seeks to make environmental protection a priority with NY's elected officials, political candidates, businesses and voters by mobilizing New Yorkers as a political force on behalf of the environment."
Railroad Museum of Long Island (www.rmli.us)
Nationwide transit- or auto-free focused groups:
The Rail Passengers Association (www.railpassengers.org) [formerly NARP]
Amtrak gives 10 percent discounts on many of its train tickets for members of this organization, although this discount seems to be a very-well kept secret compared to the national railroad's aggressive promotions for American Automobile Association members. NARP memberships start at $60 per year ($50 for seniors, $30 for verified full-time students); the ten percent ticket discount for members can easily pay itself back in just a few Amtrak rides. Their national headquarters is in Washington DC.
Light Rail Now (www.lightrailnow.org)
A terrific information clearinghouse about national efforts to introduce or expand light rail transit systems in our country's urban areas. Based in Texas.
Appears to no longer be updated, unfortunately.
Atlanta Beltline (www.beltline.org)
Atlanta, Georgia, is setting up a remarkable 22-mile loop around the city emphasing biking and walking trails. Some people say it is triggering gentrification, however.
Carfree (www.carfree.com)
National:
The consequences of having Trump in the White House have been catastrophic. Scott Pruitt was finally forced out in July 2018 as head of the EPA, after months of scandals; his successor is a former coal industry lobbyist. The fallout from Trumpian anti-environmentalism has resulted in numerous protacted legal battles. The Trumpian's assaults against nature, if not stopped, are likely to trigger wars (both civil and external) as well as economic and environmental collapse that would engender unprecedented mass migrations of hundreds of millions of people. These and other calamities can, of course, overshadow transit advocacy.
Environmental groups have already bulked up, with some proclaiming "Save the Planet from Trump". Congress, of course, is still besieged by corporations and their armies of K Street lobbyists. These non-democratic influences necessitate continued environmental activism on every level, from protestors in the streets to lawyers in the suites. Some of the groups listed here have enough dues-paying members -- some 3.5 million at the Sierra Club, and more than 2 million at the Environmental Defense Fund -- that, while keeping a low profile in the media, can still collectively bring a little leverage come election time. Please join them even if you have quibbles about their approach, their priorities or the 'greenwashing' car ads and car promotions that infest some of their publications.
League of Conservation Voters (www.lcv.org)
Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.org)
Sierra Club (www.sierraclub.org)
Natural Resources Defense Council (www.nrdc.org)
EarthJustice (www.earthjustice.org)
"Because the Earth needs a Good Lawyer" is the motto of this lawyers' group, based in Oakland, California.
Environmental Defense (www.environmentaldefense.org)
Union of Concerned Scientists (www.ucsUsa.org)
Scientists generally prefer to consider transit advocacy as belonging in the political realm. This group focuses not on public transportation as a technological antidote to mobility chaos wherever human dwellings are concentrated, but instead on encouraging people to buy cars that aren't SUV's, and on advancing an overall awareness of global warming.
Government:
Federal Transit Administration (www.fta.dot.gov)
U.S. Senate (www.senate.gov)
Suggested Reading about the Senate: "The Empty Chamber", an article by George Packer, in the August 9, 2010 issue of the New Yorker.
U.S. House of Representatives (www.house.gov)
Find the people here on these convenient and well-organized sites who are supposed to represent your interests in our government and make them act responsibly. Send real letters, not just emails. Give them the spine they need to stand up to corporate lobbyists, "captured" agencies like state departments of transportation, and yes, even mismanaged bureaucracies like Amtrak. It may be unreasonable for us to expect the lawmakers whose salaries we pay to be statesmen, or even just honest, but they can at least stop being congressmice.
© Copyright 2019, 2020. All rights reserved. Auto-Free New York.
We've listed here, for the New York metropolitan area, then nationwide, the websites for some of the many, many organizations that are trying to make our local, state and federal governments more responsible and responsive. These groups are generally hardworking and quite outspoken. Some have big budgets, hundreds of staffers and executive directors with whopping big salaries, while others operate on a shoestring or rely heavily on volunteers. Regardless, they all deserve your support, not just a visit to their website or a facile like on your social media. Also listed are some relevant government agencies.
Ultimately, these advocacy groups speak out for the planet we live on, and for nature, which, of course, has no voice at that crooked table where perhaps a couple of dozen men from around the world are deciding humanity's, and the natural world's, fate. These groups often bring a marvelous wealth of information and a worldview which says, above all, that citizens have the right and duty to become involved in the democratic process, locally, regionally and nationally, when it comes to preserving the planet we live on. Remember the old saying, more true than ever: the price of democracy is endless vigilance. What a refreshing contrast these groups offer to the blunt economic censorship and consumerist coercion of the corporate-owned media, who try to distract, divide and misinform us!