Transit Justice

What we’re fighting for

Many people rely on public transit to get around. They deserve dignified, reliable, and high quality public transportation and public space that promotes a culture of care.

Transit stops can and should be places where communities can gather, where street vendors, young people of color and all of our neighbors feel welcome, comfortable, and able to access transportation that gets them where they need to go.

Person holding a sign that reads "Care not Cops," with an abstract orange shape in the background.

Our History

Getting on the Transit Justice Train

In 2022 after years of organizing around public land owned by METRO through what was previously our ‘Development from the Roots’ program, we decided to pivot to transit justice organizing and advocacy. Informed by what we heard from our community we decided to join the fight for dignified public transit that is welcoming of everyone and centers the voices of transit riders in the East Side.
No to Fair Hikes!

In the fall of 2022, Metro announced directors would be voting on a fare hike and the elimination of free transfers. We knew how detrimental this would be to our community and took action. We collected over 100 comment cards from riders, centering how they would be impacted by a fare hike. Through rapid response organizing and mobilizing we stopped the Metro Board from implementing a fare-hike in December 2022.
Metro as a Sanctuary

Our Metro as Sanctuary report created by our ACT-LA coalition called for care based-models of safety on our transit system. After years of organizing and advocacy, in 2021, we won a $40M investment from Metro to fund Metro as a Sanctuary recommendations. Then in fall of 2022 we made the transit ambassador program a reality, first through a pilot program. The successes of the ambassador program and continued pressure on the board has made the ambassador program permanent and expanded the funding for the program. As of 2023 the Metro Board has taken steps to bring the Ambassadors in house.
Activating our Base

In the fall of 2023 we decided to launch our bus stop outreach campaign, focusing on building a base of transit riders in the East Side. Soon after our first program meeting, members started taking action, joining us to talk to fellow riders and enacting change at Metro. In November 2023, through leadership of members we ensured that BolaWrap, a lasso-like weapon, would not be used on Metro.
Investing in Care

In winter 2024, we led the organizing of a Care Not Cops rally within our coalition, ACT-LA. Over 80 community members and 18 diverse organizations from around the city joined us and demanded an investment in care based models of safety. To lead up to this, we prioritized building with allied orgs, organizing a virtual teach in about our Care not Cops campaign and then partnered with Roots for Peace (a youth org based in South LA) to host an art build for our action. We highlighted the intersection of transit justice with racial and economic justice.

What we’re up Against

The majority of Metro riders are low-income people of color who struggle to afford the ever rising costs of housing, food, and transportation in our region, yet we still charge them fares that make up less than 2% of Metro’s operating budget.

Additionally, Metro’s response to safety concerns has been to continuously invest in policing rather than in solutions that actually make our communities safer - like better infrastructure, more reliable bus service, and ambassadors who can provide directions & life-saving emergency response.

Protesters holding signs advocating for fare-free public transit and community-focused policing reforms.

How we can transform

In order to make public transit safer and more accessible for everyone, we should eliminate fares, divest from police and invest in care-based solutions to community safety. We want:

Universal Fareless Transit:

Metro can and should be fare-free. We’ve seen this made a reality during the COVID-19 pandemic and again during the height of Los Angeles fires. Eliminating fares would remove the economic barriers to low-income riders, improve operating efficiency, and increase ridership. More transit riders = fewer cars and less pollution. Fare-free transit promotes economic, racial and climate justice!

Metro as a Sanctuary:

This campaign was born in response to the systemic criminalization of transit riders of color, and especially of Black transit riders. We are focused on winning investments in infrastructure like more lighting, benches, shelter, and public restrooms at and near transit stops. We also want to see further investment in ambassadors - people who can provide directions as well as life-saving emergency response on and near public transit.

Transit for the people, by the people:

We believe that those most impacted by systemic inequities are the people who best understand what is needed to solve them, and therefore, our work on transit justice must be led by a multi-racial, multi-generational, and working class base of bus rider leaders.