WakeUP Wake County and Bike Durham
Join National Alliance To Tell White House:
Transit Workers Need Better Protection From COVID-19
WakeUP Wake County and Bike Durham joined a broad alliance of labor, business, and community advocates demanding the White House and CDC supply better protective equipment and guidance to safeguard the transit workforce who ensure other essential workers can provide medical care, food, and basic necessities.
WakeUP Wake County and Bike Durham joined dozens of business groups, economic justice organizations, and local transit advocates from across the nation requesting Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, strengthen federal coordination to provide an ongoing supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) for transit workers and masks for transit riders.
The coronavirus has claimed the lives of nearly 100 transit workers in the United States and the federal government can and must take stronger steps to prevent such loss of life.
Bus and train operators, maintenance workers, and cleaning staff at transit agencies in the Triangle are putting their lives on the line as they enable essential travel and ensure the continued provision of food, medical care, and other basic goods and services during the COVID-19 pandemic. While GoDurham, GoRaleigh, GoTriangle, and GoCary are providing operators with PPE, federal coordination is needed to make sure this can continue and is not an undue financial burden on their already strapped budgets. With lowered sales tax and vehicle rental tax revenues, local municipalities need additional federal support to provide this PPE and to start making masks available to essential transit riders.
Based on guidance from infectious disease experts, WakeUP Wake County and Bike Durham demand consistent provision of N95 masks and other protective gear for frontline transit workers whose duties put them in close proximity to passengers, or require exposure to hazardous disinfectants. WakeUP Wake County and Bike Durham also urge the CDC to issue stronger guidance for the Triangle’s transit agencies and other transit agencies, including recommendations on how to ventilate transit vehicles to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
These measures must be put in place to protect the transit workforce, which in turn will strengthen the overall effort to control the pandemic and minimize the spread of COVID-19. Nearly 3 million Americans classified as essential workers typically commute on transit, according to a TransitCenter analysis of U.S. Census data, including thousands of workers in the Triangle region.
Protective gear for transit workers will have a strong multiplier effect, since reducing risk will increase the availability of the transit workforce, leading to greater provision of transit service, less crowding on transit vehicles, and lower rates of transmission among transit riders and thus the general population.
The alliance signing on to the letter reflects the broad public interest in protecting transit workers, encompassing labor, business, transportation, economic justice, environmental, and community-based organizations from dozens of states.
Supply chain issues affect every industry seeking protective gear. However, the need for transit workers is so urgent, and the consequences of further delay so dire, that federal action must be pursued as soon as possible. These protections will save the lives of transit workers, as well as the lives of nurses, doctors, food distribution workers, and other essential workers who rely on transit.
WakeUP Wake County promotes intentional planning and equitable growth to ensure a strong economy and healthy, vibrant, sustainable communities for all in Wake County, NC through research, education, advocacy, and community engagement. While the organization generally only focuses on the Triangle region, the issue of transit safety is one that needs national attention.
Bike Durham believes everyone should have access to safe, affordable, and sustainable transportation regardless of race, wealth, gender identity, ability, or where they live. Bike Durham empowers people of all ages to walk, bike, and ride transit more often by promoting policy, infrastructure, education, and community events.