Transit Talk Jan 6 – Your Civil Rights and Transit on 90.1 FM KKFI
Posted by Transit Action Network on January 5, 2015
What are your Civil Rights related to Transit and how do you protect them? What is Environmental Justice? How do you recognize when your Transit Civil Rights are violated and what can you do to remedy the situation?
Find out on RadioActive Magazine on Transit Talk as we discuss the major Civil Rights issues related to transit.
When: Tuesday, January 6 at 6 PM
Where: 90.1FM KKFI Kansas City Community Radio on Radio Active Magazine
Listen to Podcast Transit, Civil Rights & Environmental Justice
Host Janet Rogers of Transit Action Network speaks by phone with Marc Brenman, a retired senior policy advisor for Civil Rights in the office of the U. S. Secretary of Transportation about how Civil Rights and Environmental Justice relate to transit. Marc currently writes, teaches and consults on human rights issues.
The issues in Ferguson and New York City the last few months reminded us how important it is to understand our Civil Rights, including those related to transit and transportation. In 2012 TAN filed a Title VI Civil Rights claim against Johnson County Transit*. Marc Brenman provided guidance and taught us a lot about this law.
FTA guidelines:
FTA guidelines on Title VI of the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and how it affects transit. Title_VI_of_the_Civil_RIghts_Act_of_1964
“No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal Financial assistance.” –42 U.S.C. Section 2000d
FTA guidelines on Environmental Justice from Presidential Executive Order 12898
The guiding EJ principles followed by DOT and FTA are briefly summarized as follows:
Guiding Environmental Justice Principles
• To avoid, minimize, or mitigate disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects, including social and economic effects, on minority populations and low-income populations.
• To ensure the full and fair participation by all potentially affected communities in the transportation decision-making process.
• To prevent the denial of, reduction in, or significant delay in the receipt of benefits by minority and low-income populations.
You should consider these goals of environmental justice throughout transportation planning and project development, and through all public outreach and participation efforts conducted by FTA, its grantees and sub grantees.
We will discuss numerous examples of transit civil rights violations, explain how the FTA works to remedy the situation, and what to do if you think there is a local violation.
Background:
*Title VI Claim Filed Against Johnson County Transit Transit Action Network filed this claim in 2012 due to our view of JCT’s inadequate public outreach to minority and low-income communities related to service cuts in January 2013. We included additional informational in the claim to make the FTA aware of numerous concerns we had, since severe service cuts were projected for 2014 or 2015 due to financial shortfalls. Luckily, those additional service cuts haven’t happened. Chuck Ferguson, who was Deputy Transportation Director for JCT, said the cuts weren’t needed since the transit agency made efficiency improvements. In addition, KCATA allocated significantly more federal formula funds to JCT than they previously received and Johnson County expects large cost savings by changing management from JCT to KCATA.
Please contact Transit Action Network at TransActionKC@gmail.com if you have questions about this issue.
Transit Action Network (TAN) 
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