Clevelanders for Public Transit Celebrates Transit Equity Day With a Rally, Ridealong, and Transit Talk over Tots – and a Challenge to GCRTA Stakeholders
Clevelanders for Public Transit invites riders, the public, elected officials across Cuyahoga County, and the Board of Trustees and senior management of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) to join us in celebrating Transit Equity Day on February 4th, 2023. Members of Clevelanders for Public Transit will gather on Public Square at 2:00 PM on February 4th to rally for better public transit service and to read our Transit Bill of Rights. At approximately 2:40 PM, we will board a westbound #26 bus. We will travel to the Happy Dog at 5801 Detroit Avenue where we encourage all who have joined us to talk transit over tater tots.
For the last several years, a network of labor and environmental activists have recognized February 4 as Transit Equity Day to commemorate the birthday of civil rights icon Rosa Parks who chose the tactic of refusing to give up her seat on the bus. These activists – the Labor Network for Sustainability – and members of Clevelanders for Public Transit celebrate Transit Equity Day as a national day of action to call attention to public transit as a civil right. Locally, we will engage in some solidarity and fun with our rally, ride-along, and visit to Happy Dog.
Clevelanders for Public Transit encourages elected officials and GCRTA stakeholders to join our rally, ride-along, and tot-laden transit talk. Further, we invite them to rely on transit for a week starting with the Transit Equity Day rally and ride-along. We believe this event and this challenge represent good opportunities to experience a slice of life of those who rely on public transit every day
For the 23% of Cleveland households that have no access to a car, public transit is a lifeline. Public transit takes them everywhere they need to go including work, school, a doctor’s appointment, a friend’s house, the park, and the grocery store. Moreover, since Clevelanders who rely on transit are more likely to be poor, politically weak, and multiply-marginalized, Clevelanders for Public Transit calls on elected officials and stakeholders to empathize with and prioritize their needs.
RSVP: https://actionnetwork.org/events/transit-equity-day-rally-and-ride-along
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Clevelanders for Public Transit is a riders organization that builds power for affordable, accessible and equitable public transit in Northeast Ohio. CPT’s policy platform, Ending the Transit Death Spiral, was released in 2021. For more information, visit clefortransit.org.