Community Corner

National Transit Organization Director in Metro Atlanta to Support Transportation Referendum

Andrew Austin, executive director of Americans for Transit, will stay in Atlanta until Monday to meet with local transit organizers to support efforts to expand the metro region's transportation options.

from Fast Track Forward:

National organizations across the country are watching closely metro Atlanta's July 31 ballot referendum that includes a number of transit-friendly initiatives.

Andrew Austin, executive director of Americans for Transit, visits Atlanta for the next four days to meet with local transit organizers to support efforts to expand the metro region's transportation options that will help reduce the city's dependence on cars and create jobs and employment opportunities.

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"As the largest transportation revenue and jobs creator on any state's ballot this summer, the national transportation community is watching the Atlanta ballot measure closely," said Andrew Austin. "I hope Atlanta area voters say 'yes' to the Transportation Investment Act and support a measure that will restore bus service, create many miles of light rail, and help thousands of riders get to work, school, and doctors appointments."

The national non-profit, Americans for Transit, is dedicated to creating, strengthening, and uniting grassroots transit rider organizations across America.

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Americans for Transit was co-founded in 2012 by the International Amalgamated Transit Union and Good Jobs First. The organization recognized a crisis in transit funding across the country and stepped in to create a united front on transit matters. Β 

"What happens in Atlanta this summer will have a ripple effect across the country," Austin said.

Fast Track Forward, a program of the Livable Communities Coalition, will host Austin this weekend. Together, they will meet with transit partners in the region to discuss the July 31 transportation referendum.

"With fare increases and massive service cuts becoming the norm, citizens need to stand together and say 'enough is an enough'; we need more transit not less. Our dependence on the automobile has a stranglehold on our economy and communities and makes us less competitive with other cities such as Charlotte, Dallas and Denver," said Jim Stokes, executive director of Livable Communities Coalition.

Stokes said that for every million dollars invested in mass transit and freight rail, 22 jobs are created.

"Yes, transit is about addressing congestion. But in these times, it also means putting people back to work and strengthening our local economies," Stokes said.

Austin and Stokes are attending a number of local meetings between Friday, June 22 and Monday, June 25, 2012.


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