Latest news with #publictransit
CTV News
a day ago
- General
- CTV News
Gardiner, DVP to be shut down on Sunday for Bike for Brain Health event
The Gardiner Expressway is pictured during a closure for maintenance Saturday September 21, 2024. Motorists can expect some significant road closures in the downtown core this weekend to accommodate fundraising events. Bike for Brain Health Both the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway will be closed on Sunday for the Bike for Brain Health event. The city says the two highways will be closed from 12:01 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the charity bike ride. All eastbound traffic on the Gardiner will exit onto Lake Shore Boulevard West at Humber River. We Walk UHNited event The first annual We Walk UHNited event will be held on Saturday, resulting in a number of road closures downtown. The following road closures will be in place from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. to accommodate the walk, which includes both two-kilometre and five-kilometre routes. Elizabeth Street will be closed from College Street to Dundas Street West Dundas Street West will be closed from Bay Street to Bathurst Street St. Patrick Street will be closed from Dundas Street West to Elm Street Elm Street will be closed from Murray Street to McCaul Street McCaul Street will be closed from Baldwin Street to Dundas Street West 'Those who need to travel near road closures should plan their travel in advance, allow for extra time, consider taking public transit or other travel methods such as walking or cycling and follow signage to keep everyone safe,' the city said in a news release.
Fast Company
a day ago
- Business
- Fast Company
‘Jeopardy!' star Ken Jennings is hosting a miniseries about the history of public transit
In September 2024, Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings took a brief interlude from taping one of America's most iconic game shows to film another series: a YouTube show about the history of public transit, set in his local county of Snohomish, Washington. The show, called The Transit Effect, is a seven-part series that examines why public transit matters, diving into everything from infrastructure and economic growth to access to work, school, and healthcare. It's the brainchild of Community Transit, a public transportation agency in Washington's Snohomish County, just north of Seattle. The show's first episode is now available on YouTube and on Community Transit's website, with the remaining installments slated to drop over the coming months and into 2026. Starting with the electric streetcars of the 1920s, The Transit Effect maps how American communities have been shaped by public transit—and, amid today's notoriously car-centric American infrastructure, it presents a thesis for investing in more sustainable transportation options. The show is especially timely, given the Trump administration's current crackdown on renewable energy and support for various fossil fuel industry projects. 'We hope viewers come away with a deeper appreciation for how much public transit shapes daily life—even if they never set foot on a bus,' says Community Transit public information officer Monica Spain. 'If this series sparks someone to think, 'I had no idea transit did all that,' or nudges them to take a ride instead of drive, that's a win.' How Snohomish County's 'Community Transit' snagged Ken Jennings Rory Graves is a senior marketing copywriter at Community Transit who helped develop and write The Transit Effect. She says that, when the idea for the show first came about, the team knew the series would need to be anchored by a host who was both familiar and trustworthy to a wide range of audiences. It wasn't a new challenge for the agency: In 2024, Community Transit partnered with American travel writer Rick Steves—who has lived in Edmonds, Washington (a city inside Snohomish County) since 1967— on another educational transit series. For The Transit Effect, Graves thought Jennings, another longtime Edmonds resident, could be the perfect fit. 'We wanted to find someone who was a trusted source of information to do that storytelling. Who better than Ken Jennings?' Graves says. In 2004, Jennings won 74 consecutive games of Jeopardy!, the longest winning streak in the show's history, before becoming its host in 2021. Beyond his impressive credentials, Jennings also has a personal connection to Community Transit: As a college student, Jennings frequently rode the agency's buses between his family's home in Edmonds and the University of Washington. Today, he lives in Seattle. After Community Transit reached out to him over email, Jennings readily agreed to host The Transit Effect. But there was a small catch. Given Jennings' tight schedule, the entire seven-part series had to be filmed in just four hours—a feat that required extensive preparation and multiple dry runs to 'test every piece of equipment, walk through the setup, and build in redundancies,' Graves says. 'We don't have a huge budget like Amazon or Coca-Cola for our campaigns, but Ken was happy to collaborate with us, and we're thankful for that.' Exploring how public transit shaped America as we know it To give viewers a peek behind the curtain at the history of public transit, The Transit Effect is organized into sub-10-minute episodes by themes. Episode 1, for example, details how '20s era streetcars, electric trolleys, and subway systems determined how major American cities expanded; episode 3 dives into the environmental impact of public transit compared to travel by car; and episode 6 explains how public transit can serve as a vital lever of accessibility for kids, the elderly, those with disabilities, and those without access to a vehicle. Throughout the series, Jennings refers to local examples to help illustrate this history—like in episode 1, which notes how the expansion of the Link light rail, a train system in the Seattle area that opened in 2009, has roots that extend back by more than 100 years. 'Everyone's talking about Link light rail expansion, but did you know our region had electric mass transit more than a century ago?' Graves says. 'The old Interurban Trolley once ran along the same route we now know as the Interurban Trail. We often treat electric transit like it's brand new, but it's actually part of our history. What's fascinating is how long cleaner, electric options have existed—and how car-centric planning pushed them aside.' Another surprising tidbit explored in the show is how public transit shaped the musical world. The series highlights how New York City's subway system helped make Harlem a cultural epicenter for Black Americans in the '20s and '30s, attracting the musicians that would ultimately bring the Harlem Renaissance to life. 'It's wild to think that something as everyday as a transit system could set off a domino effect that helped launch the careers of artists whose legacies have helped define modern music,' Graves says. Through these stories, Spain says, Community Transit hopes to help viewers understand how 'public transportation shapes communities and removes barriers to opportunity,' and to encourage community members to invest in their local public transit systems. 'More than anything, we want people to see transit not just as a service, but as a powerful force for good in our region,' Spain says.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Chicago risks severe cuts to transit. Its poorest suburbs could be hit even harder
HARVEY, Ill. — Winfred Wilson was struggling to make ends meet on less than $700 a month, so he moved in with his daughter, gave up his car and started relying exclusively on public transit to take him wherever he needed to go across Chicago's southern suburbs . As he waited for a bus connection in his hometown of Harvey on a recent trip to the grocery store, Wilson waved at familiar travelers who regularly pass through the key transportation hub serving one of the region's poorest areas. Many, he said, encounter little resistance from drivers when they board without paying.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Chicago risks severe cuts to transit. Its poorest suburbs could be hit even harder
Winfred Wilson was struggling to make ends meet on less than $700 a month, so he moved in with his daughter, gave up his car and started relying exclusively on public transit to take him wherever he needed to go across Chicago 's southern suburbs. As he waited for a bus connection in his hometown of Harvey on a recent trip to the grocery store, Wilson waved at familiar travelers who regularly pass through the key transportation hub serving one of the region's poorest areas. Many, he said, encounter little resistance from drivers when they board without paying. ' People in affluent neighborhoods, they have cars and personal transportation, but they don't want to get caught up in the rush hour,' so they use transit, Wilson said. 'We couldn't live without it.' Public transit agencies across the U.S. have been grappling with a fiscal cliff spurred by declining ridership and the impending sunset of federal COVID-19 relief funding. The Chicago area faces particularly bleak service cuts that officials warn could be set in motion as early as Saturday if Illinois legislators adjourn without plugging a $770 million hole in the transportation budget. The big city's commuters would be hit hard, with the Chicago Transit Authority poised to shut down four of eight elevated train lines and 74 of 127 bus routes under the worst-case scenario. But perhaps no place illustrates the range of potential outcomes more vividly than Harvey, whose mayor, Christopher Clark — a lifelong resident — says was once 'the metropolis of the Southland' before plants and factories closed and disinvestment took hold. Suburb at a crossroads Already the busiest station for PACE, the region's suburban bus system that also serves paratransit customers, Harvey recently won state and federal grant money for a state-of-the-art facility that would put the buses under the same roof as the Metra commuter rail stop a block away. Plans eventually call for a high-speed bus line connecting the Harvey station to the Red Line L train that cuts through the downtown Chicago Loop. Such an upgrade could be an economic boon for Harvey, where now-vacant businesses are found on almost every downtown block and where more than 1 in 4 residents live below the poverty line. But even if the new station is built, ending or severely cutting the buses and trains that pass through could send the city reeling in the opposite direction. 'It would be chaos for us in the suburbs,' said Cheyane Felton, after finishing her shift at a coffee stand in the basement of Harvey's City Hall. 'It would cut us off.' Without additional state funding, PACE could be forced to halt buses in Harvey and elsewhere on weekends and after 8 p.m. on weekdays, executive director Melinda Metzger said. 'The downside for this is disastrous,' she said in an interview at the Harvey stop. 'You would be cutting back your service by at least 40%, not giving people viable rides. They might get to work, but they might have a late-night shift and can't get home, so ridership also would plummet to match the service cuts.' Transit's nationwide funding crunch Major public transportation agencies across the country have had varying degrees of success lobbying their legislatures for more support with the federal emergency funding set to expire at the end of the year. Perhaps no place mirrors Chicago's current situation more than Philadelphia, which faces a $213 million transportation budget deficit next year, even after Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro authorized redirecting some of the state's highway money to mass transit. Absent more funding, riders could see a 20% spike in fares, a 9 p.m. curfew, and the elimination of 50 bus routes and five of eight regional rail lines, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has said. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bailout package in 2023 to help fund New York City's subway and buses. She also opened a major new source of transit revenue by implementing congestion pricing for drivers in Manhattan, but it remains to be seen whether the new tolls will survive threats from President Donald Trump's administration to shut them down. Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and numerous other transit-dependent cities have also been scrambling to avert major cuts. A moving deadline? 'No funding without reform' has been a common mantra among Illinois legislators working to hash out a solution for Chicago's transit crisis before leaving Springfield on Saturday at the end of their regular session. Technically, the money doesn't run out until the end of the year, and there will likely be a veto session that could provide another shot at an 11th-hour rescue. But transportation officials say they'll have to start laying out the specific cuts next week if the funding doesn't come through by then. 'It's not a light switch we can just turn on or off," said Leanne Redden, executive director of the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees planning and funding for the area's transit agencies. "Even if we find funding at a future point, it's a slow process to kind of unwind the unwinding.' So far, there have been no major breakthroughs on funding, although a compromise surfaced this week to create a new umbrella organization that, among other things, would ensure the various agencies work in unison rather than as competitors for the same customers. 'They should just be able to get on and go where they want to go, and that has not been happening with the governance that we've had up to now,' Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. Chicago's transit agencies argue they're more efficient than their peers in other states and get by with a smaller portion of state funding. Clark, the Harvey mayor, said he still envisions his community benefitting from the economic promise of a new transit facility rather than enduring disappointment once again. 'I guess some people want me to paint a picture that it's a nuclear Armageddon or something like that,' he said. 'I can't paint that picture because I have to remain ever hopeful that we will get what we need to get in due time. Government is a long game.'
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Chicago risks severe cuts to transit. Its poorest suburbs could be hit even harder
HARVEY, Ill. (AP) — Winfred Wilson was struggling to make ends meet on less than $700 a month, so he moved in with his daughter, gave up his car and started relying exclusively on public transit to take him wherever he needed to go across Chicago's southern suburbs. As he waited for a bus connection in his hometown of Harvey on a recent trip to the grocery store, Wilson waved at familiar travelers who regularly pass through the key transportation hub serving one of the region's poorest areas. Many, he said, encounter little resistance from drivers when they board without paying. 'People in affluent neighborhoods, they have cars and personal transportation, but they don't want to get caught up in the rush hour,' so they use transit, Wilson said. 'We couldn't live without it.' Public transit agencies across the U.S. have been grappling with a fiscal cliff spurred by declining ridership and the impending sunset of federal COVID-19 relief funding. The Chicago area faces particularly bleak service cuts that officials warn could be set in motion as early as Saturday if Illinois legislators adjourn without plugging a $770 million hole in the transportation budget. The big city's commuters would be hit hard, with the Chicago Transit Authority poised to shut down four of eight elevated train lines and 74 of 127 bus routes under the worst-case scenario. But perhaps no place illustrates the range of potential outcomes more vividly than Harvey, whose mayor, Christopher Clark — a lifelong resident — says was once 'the metropolis of the Southland' before plants and factories closed and disinvestment took hold. Suburb at a crossroads Already the busiest station for PACE, the region's suburban bus system that also serves paratransit customers, Harvey recently won state and federal grant money for a state-of-the-art facility that would put the buses under the same roof as the Metra commuter rail stop a block away. Plans eventually call for a high-speed bus line connecting the Harvey station to the Red Line L train that cuts through the downtown Chicago Loop. Such an upgrade could be an economic boon for Harvey, where now-vacant businesses are found on almost every downtown block and where more than 1 in 4 residents live below the poverty line. But even if the new station is built, ending or severely cutting the buses and trains that pass through could send the city reeling in the opposite direction. 'It would be chaos for us in the suburbs,' said Cheyane Felton, after finishing her shift at a coffee stand in the basement of Harvey's City Hall. 'It would cut us off.' Without additional state funding, PACE could be forced to halt buses in Harvey and elsewhere on weekends and after 8 p.m. on weekdays, executive director Melinda Metzger said. 'The downside for this is disastrous,' she said in an interview at the Harvey stop. 'You would be cutting back your service by at least 40%, not giving people viable rides. They might get to work, but they might have a late-night shift and can't get home, so ridership also would plummet to match the service cuts.' Transit's nationwide funding crunch Major public transportation agencies across the country have had varying degrees of success lobbying their legislatures for more support with the federal emergency funding set to expire at the end of the year. Perhaps no place mirrors Chicago's current situation more than Philadelphia, which faces a $213 million transportation budget deficit next year, even after Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro authorized redirecting some of the state's highway money to mass transit. Absent more funding, riders could see a 20% spike in fares, a 9 p.m. curfew, and the elimination of 50 bus routes and five of eight regional rail lines, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has said. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bailout package in 2023 to help fund New York City's subway and buses. She also opened a major new source of transit revenue by implementing congestion pricing for drivers in Manhattan, but it remains to be seen whether the new tolls will survive threats from President Donald Trump's administration to shut them down. Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and numerous other transit-dependent cities have also been scrambling to avert major cuts. A moving deadline? 'No funding without reform' has been a common mantra among Illinois legislators working to hash out a solution for Chicago's transit crisis before leaving Springfield on Saturday at the end of their regular session. Technically, the money doesn't run out until the end of the year, and there will likely be a veto session that could provide another shot at an 11th-hour rescue. But transportation officials say they'll have to start laying out the specific cuts next week if the funding doesn't come through by then. 'It's not a light switch we can just turn on or off,' said Leanne Redden, executive director of the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees planning and funding for the area's transit agencies. 'Even if we find funding at a future point, it's a slow process to kind of unwind the unwinding.' So far, there have been no major breakthroughs on funding, although a compromise surfaced this week to create a new umbrella organization that, among other things, would ensure the various agencies work in unison rather than as competitors for the same customers. 'They should just be able to get on and go where they want to go, and that has not been happening with the governance that we've had up to now,' Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. Chicago's transit agencies argue they're more efficient than their peers in other states and get by with a smaller portion of state funding. Clark, the Harvey mayor, said he still envisions his community benefitting from the economic promise of a new transit facility rather than enduring disappointment once again. 'I guess some people want me to paint a picture that it's a nuclear Armageddon or something like that,' he said. 'I can't paint that picture because I have to remain ever hopeful that we will get what we need to get in due time. Government is a long game.'
