The event, sponsored jointly by Transportation for American and Policy Link, brought a mix of labor, faith-based, environmental, civil rights, health and other groups to Washington to address the need for equal access to transportation options throughout the country.

PolicyLink’s Radhika Fox pointed out that recent cuts to transit agencies throughout the country have hit America’s most vulnerable communities hardest. Indeed, it is these communities that rely most upon transit. Transportation for America’s transit funding crisis map takes a closer look at these painful cuts.

The event also highlighted how transportation issues should be looked at through a number of lenses. Transportation is, as PolicyLink founder and CEO Angela Glover Blackwell put it, “a civil rights issue.” It is often forgotten, Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights pointed out, how central transportation issues have been to the struggle for civil rights, from Plessy vs. Ferguson, to Rosa Parks and the ensuing Montgomery Bus Boycotts.

Walkability and livability are important for all income levels, whether rural, suburban, or urban. Places with these two qualities can help avoid concentrations of poverty that lead to massive health, safety, and environmental disparity. At a time when goods and services are increasingly expensive for many families, and jobs scarce, the cost of accessibility to these necessities should not be prohibitive.

Other speakers articulated the methods in which the Obama Administration has worked to ensure that all Americans have access to services and jobs. Roy Kienitz, undersecretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, noted that walkable, transit-accessible environments are expensive precisely because they are in high demand, and more need to be built. This fact makes DOT programs that promote livability, such as the TIGER Grant Programs, all the more important.

Central to the overarching message was the need for strong advocates were outside of the federal government, people who can push and prod when things aren’t moving. “In many ways we’re counting on you as much as you’re counting on us,” said Derek Douglas, Special Assistant to the President on Urban Affairs.

Our first webinar in a series of them was held earlier this week, and it was a great success. Nearly 100 advocates and supporters signed up for a session on Transportation and Social Equity.

Our transportation system should provide everyone — regardless of age, income, race or disability — with viable transportation options. So there are significant issues with a system that doesn’t extend opportunity to everyone in the same manner.

Judith Bell, president of PolicyLink, led an informative discussion about ways in which transportation policies and programs affect low income, minority, and other often marginalized populations.

Nathaniel Smith, Director of Partnerships for Equitable Development at Emory University and Ron Achelpohl, Assistant Director of Transportation for the Mid-America Regional Council, spoke about local actions in Atlanta and Kansas City respectively to make equity considerations a fundamental part of the transportation planning process. Laura Barrett, National Policy Director for theTransportation Equity Network, discussed advocacy efforts at the national level — particularly around equitable stimulus spending.

For those of you who attended the session, we wanted to make sure that you don’t miss the first in a series of policy briefs from Transportation for America. This first brief (available for download now), Transportation and Social Equity: Opportunity Follows Mobility, covers three basic ideas:

1. The current system is failing low income communities
2. Transportation is at the center of opportunity.
3. The nation’s transportation investments can be a powerful force for social and economic equity.

Download it now and feel free to pass it along to friends and colleagues. And be sure to join Transportation for America to help us tell Congress that our transportation investments should extend opportunity to all Americans — regardless of race, class, or gender.

Webinar resources:

• Audio and video recording of the entire webinar (click to launch in a new window)
• A summary of the questions asked and responses (Coming soon)
• T4 Policy Brief on Transportation and Social Equity (pdf)
• Register for more upcoming webinars