The Transportation Equity Network and its affiliates have won substantial victories on the state and federal levels since its formation in 1997. These victories have:

• expanded opportunities for low-income workers
• expanded public involvement in transportation planning
• addressed the needs of low-income families

Federal Policy Victories

• TEN won a commitment from Secretary of Transportation Raymond LaHood to encourage state DOTs to adopt TEN’s “Missouri Model” of workforce equity requirements and job training nationwide.
• TEN worked with Rep. Russ Carnahan to secure language in the jobs bill that passed the U.S. House on Dec. 17, 2009, to let transit authorities avert fare hikes and service cuts by using up to 10 percent of the bill’s $8.4 billion in public transit funding for operating expenses.
• In January 2010, the USDOT adopted new livability-based funding guidelines for major transit projects, overturning narrow Bush-era cost and performance criteria and fulfilling a longtime TEN demand.
• The Congressional Black Caucus lifted up TEN’s Green Construction Careers Program, job training demands, and the Missouri Model in an open letter to President Obama in December 2009.

State and Local Victories

• Metropolitan Congregations United in St. Louis, MO, won unprecedented workforce equity requirements for Missouri’s $500 million I-64 highway project. Minority and female workers performed 26% of the workforce hours, $2.5 million were devoted to job training, and the project was finished three weeks early and $11 million under budget. The agreement has become a model of equitable transportation spending for a growing number of states and cities, and is known as the "Missouri Model".
• ISAIAH in Minneapolis, MN won the creation of three additional stops in low-income and underserved communities along the planned light rail line connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul.
• Gamaliel of Michigan graduated more than 150 apprentices from the new Road Construction Apprenticeship Readiness Program, many of whom will be directly hired by the Michigan Department of Transportation.
• VOICE in Buffalo, NY, won a new requirement to include community input into decisions about where to locate or relocate bus shelters.
• MORE2 in Kansas City, MO, achieved the first penalty on a workforce development provision, showing that TEN affiliates can help enforce these new laws, not just enact them.
• Gamaliel of Michigan in Detroit, MI, won the creation of a land bank by the city that will return vacant land to useful life.

Join Our Fight!

Sign up for TEN’s mailing list to receive our newsletter, legislative updates, and calls to action. Together we can reform transportation policy and empower our communities to succeed!