Equiticity: A Global Force for Racial Equity at the Transportation Research Board 103rd Annual Meeting

Dear Equiticity Community,

I am proud to report Equiticity staff and board members joined thousands of transportation administrators, practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and advocates from around the world at the 2024 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting.

From January 7-11, 2024, the TRB Annual Meeting offered “an unparalleled opportunity to share knowledge and perspectives with colleagues and learn about the latest developments in transportation research, innovation, policy, practice … through more than 600 workshops, lectern sessions, committee sessions, poster sessions, and more than 200 exhibitors.”

I was joined in Washington, DC by my Equiticity colleagues Jose Manuel Almanza (Director of Advocacy & Movement Building) and Bonnie Scarlett-Logan (Senior Director of Development). Equiticity’s participation at the TRB Annual Meeting influenced attendees from all over the world to operationalize racial equity, mobility justice, and environmental justice in their work. Our attendance at TRB and our various roles on several TRB and NCHRP committees mark a significant milestone in our organization’s trajectory.

During the TRB Annual Meeting, I presented Equiticity's Mobility Opportunities Fund (MOF) at the TRB Transportation Demand Management Committee. MOF is a financial incentives program designed to help limited-income Black and Brown residents purchase climate-friendly transportation, including conventional bicycles, electric bicycles, electric cargo bicycles, and electric vehicles. I shared with Committee members four key considerations for adapting and replicating MOF in other markets: transportation needs, funding sources, community partnerships, and technology and infrastructure.

At the TRB Pedestrian Committee, Jose and I presented both Equiticity’s work on walking and the Free2Move Coalition's research on police enforcement in Chicago. We shared how Equitcity is operationalizing racial equity and community ownership in the work to make our neighborhoods more walkable. The Free2Move Coalition is an alliance of community and advocacy organizations working to create a safer, more racially equitable system of traffic safety in Chicago. The Coalition's research uncovered egregious racialized inequities in the Chicago Police Department's enforcement strategy.

Equiticity, in collaboration with EVNoire, COMTO, and NRDC, hosted our second annual Black & Latino Transportation/Mobility Professionals Reception during this year's TRB Annual Meeting. We welcomed and connected with several hundred Black and Latino professionals and allies from across the US, including representatives from many federal, state, and local government agencies. We were fortunate to also be joined by representatives from community based organizations, nonprofits, universities, research centers, consulting firms, and corporations.

Founded in 2017, Equiticity is a racial equity movement, operationalizing racial equity by harnessing our collective power through research, advocacy, programs, Community Mobility Rituals, and social enterprises, to improve the lives of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in our society.

Headquartered in Chicago, Equiticity is firmly on the global stage sharing our work of operationalizing racial equity in order to transform our society.

Please donate to Equiticity's fundraising campaign.

Thank you all for supporting our racial equity movement.

Warm regards,

Oboi 
--- 
Olatunji Oboi Reed 
President & CEO, The Equiticity Racial Equity Movement
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