For millions of working families in our cities, good jobs are physically out of reach when getting to them—or to a doctor’s appointment or the closest market—means stitching together costly and seemingly endless series of whatever bus and rail routes the city might offer.
Current transportation spending programs do not equally benefit all communities and populations. After decades of this often shortsighted planning, scores of low-income communities in and around the country’s metropolitan areas have been left with little or no access to reliable and affordable transportation options. When people are isolated—unable to get where they need to be—hope and possibility can give way to a gnawing sense of futility.
Surdna is working to introduce land use policies and practices that emphasize access to a variety of clean, reliable, and efficient transportation options that connect people to opportunity and improve our environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We are also leveraging decisions about transportation investments—what will be built, repaired and maintained; where it will happen; whom it will serve; and how it will be financed—so that they translate into good jobs, especially in communities historically disconnected from opportunity. For example, we’re supporting the Jobs to Move America coalition to encourage public transit agencies to use their big-ticket transportation purchases to create high-quality jobs and manufacturing in the United States.
