Tennessee - #Publictransit advocates gaining some ground

Nashville Business Journal: "On Tuesday, Gov. Bill Haslam seemed to respond to local transit advocates when he filed an amendment to his transportation-funding bill that would give local governments more flexibility to fund mass-transit projects."

Tea Party always has been pro-oil, anti-transit astroturf

SaintPetersBlog: "The three Tea Party-aligned citizen activists have led the opposition to the two major public transit initiatives that have gone down to defeat over the past seven years, and contributed strongly to a third never making it to the ballot in Hillsborough County in 2016 (they also proudly add the failed referendums in Polk County in 2010 and 2014, as well)."

Memphis should set high goals for public transportation

commercialappeal : "There is no doubt that Memphis could make a more credible claim for greatness with a modern, expanded, reliable and well patronized public transportation system.

The benefits that could be realized in transportation efficiency, health, safety and the environment would be significant. People accustomed to public transportation or who want to get with fewer cars – perhaps no cars at all – would be more likely to make Memphis their home."

A big reason why US #publictransit sucks -- #racism

Streetsblog USA: "Other scholars have chronicled “this racialized animosity toward transit” in Atlanta, including Jason Henderson, a geography professor at San Francisco State University. “Since it was established in the 1960s,” he wrote in a 2006 paper on the politics of automcobility in Atlanta, MARTA “was jokingly referred to as ‘Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta.’” Indeed, he continued, “Every county in metropolitan Atlanta, with the exception of Fulton and DeKalb, had contentious local debates or referendums on either joining MARTA or establishing an independent, stand-alone transit system.”"

Autosprawl pain. Sparse public transport means hard to get home from work.

Group says late-night workers in Asheville need better public transit | WLOS: "An economic development agency is using Transit Week to bring attention to a problem it said service industry workers are facing.
Just Economics said chefs, bartenders and others who work after hours downtown have trouble getting to and from work without public transportation operating."