The Rider First Award party wraps up 2023 Transit Month
Last Friday, we closed out Transit Month with our annual Rider First Awards, recognizing our transit heroes of the year, announcing Ride Contest winners (and dispensing 50+ prizes), and listening to speeches from our guests for the night, including Assemblymember Phil Ting. We had a blast hosting this last Transit Month event with San Francisco Transit Riders at the Bay Area Metro Center!
Amazing Guest Speakers
Assemblymember Phil Ting and public transit advocate Nayeli Maxson Velazquez were our special guest speakers for the night.
Assemblymember Ting was a vocal champion for public transit, particularly in his role as Assembly Budget Committee chair. His leadership was critical in securing funding for transit operations in this year’s state budget which helped us avoid dramatic service cuts.
Public transit advocate and lifelong Muni rider Nayeli Maxson Velazquez is a public transit advocate and a lifelong Muni rider. Her speech focused on the imminent climate crisis, her fears and hopes for her children, and the essential role public transit plays in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. She is currently a senior legal aid attorney, representing disabled, unhoused residents of San Francisco seeking economic justice and a delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council.
Rider First Awards
Our six Rider First Awards went to individuals and groups that moved Bay Area transit forward in 2023. Our awardees were:
BART Crisis Intervention Specialists Natalie Robinson and Stephine Barnes for their work as dedicated members of the community, within and outside of BART. Both Robinson and Barnes have served as role models and mentors within BART. Robinson is a passionate advocate for vulnerable people, especially victims of domestic violence and people considering suicide. Barnes’s work has focused on reducing prison recidivism and advocating for those facing homelessness through intervention/prevention, de-escalation, case management, working with community partners, networking, and family reunification.
VTA 21 bus operator Susan Barth for her exceptional work as a bus driver on VTA Route 21 and the positive impact she has on the community. At her bus stops, someone almost always knows her and says hello, even if they’re not getting on the bus. She knows where her regular riders typically get off and on and will occasionally check in with them so they don't miss their usual stop when they aren’t paying attention.
Annmarie Wong for promoting Bay Area transit and educating viewers through her popular TikTok account @traingirlsummer. Her videos have a collective 2.7 million likes on TikTok and Annmarie educates her tens of thousands of followers about how to use transit, explains urban planning issues, and highlights the fun places transit can take you. Her memes, attitude, and personal style bring vital attention to public transit, which is crucial to encourage young people to take transit and elevate transit's importance.
Raayan Mohtashemi, legislative aide for California State Scott Wiener for raising awareness and political will around the need for state funding for Bay Area transit. Raayan started out in local and regional transit advocacy for active transportation and transit funding. His work this year, and the leadership of Senator Wiener, was instrumental in securing vital operations funding from the state budget that has helped prevent service cuts.
Faster Safer Geary Campaign and the Geary Improvement Project for their work bringing much-needed transit priority and pedestrian safety improvements to this major San Francisco corridor. The SFMTA team worked tirelessly to overcome enormous obstacles and political pressures on the project while the Faster Safer Geary Coalition played an instrumental role in elevating and humanizing the voices of riders who would benefit from the project. The project will lead to faster bus travel times, improvements in transit reliability, and a reduction in speeding by private vehicles.
Survive and Thrive Coalition of advocacy groups for raising awareness and political will around the need for state funding for Bay Area transit. The Survive and Thrive coalition successfully advocated for transit operations funding in the state budget, securing $1.1 billion in new funding, an unprecedented win in the face of the transit fiscal cliff and proposed budget cuts. The coalition was a bottom up effort with people working at all levels – including street theater, grassroots campaigning, working with legislators, and educating the public about the dire need to support our transit agencies. While this coalition had thousands of people at all levels working together, we asked a few notable people and organizations to accept this award. This included Laura Tolkoff of SPUR, Adina Levin of Seamless Bay Area, Cyrus Hall, and Lian Chang. We also recognized Safe Street Rebel, Kid Safe SF, and Telegraph for People for their mobilization of people for ground-level activism, including the iconic Transit Funeral.
Ride Contest
Lastly, we awarded a whooping 55 prizes for Ride Contest winners! 19 different transit operators and public agencies chipped in with prizes for this year's contest. These included a ride-along in a ferry wheelhouse (SF Bay Ferry), a Caltrain electric train mini model, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Salesforce Transit Center (TJPA), a tour of the AC Transit Zero Emissions Facility, SF Giants swag, free transit passes, and many tote bags with agency merch!
All together, Ride Contest participants logged a total of 17,742 rides for a combined 87,073 miles traveled on Bay Area transit! That's equivalent to 3.5 trips around the Earth, 42.5 trips around the entire perimeter of California, and 125 round trips between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Closing Remarks
This was our biggest and best Transit Month to day with 42 events in 8 of the 9 Bay Area counties. We’re so proud of how big Transit Month has become thanks to help from our many partners – including community-based organizations that host events, transit agencies, the Metropolitan Transit Commission, and riders and advocates like yourself! There is much more in store for the future so stay tuned for Transit Month 2024!