Having safe and reliable access to public transit is crucial to healthy, thriving, and strong neighborhoods. Every segment of American society--from individuals to businesses benefit from a quality public transit system. 

BLDG Memphis encourages you to sign this petition to stay informed about public transit advocacy and support dedicated funding for public transit. 

MICAH & Sierra Club’s “Better Transit for a Better Memphis” 

1. All great cities have great public transit! Memphis does not! Our MATA system is greatly underfunded,  and we need to support the new Memphis Transit Vision 3.0 Plan to provide equitable mobility access  to all our citizens. 

2. Memphis cannot become a thriving city without an efficient, reliable transit system to enable more  people, especially low and moderate-income families to get to better paying jobs in a reasonable one  hour or less. 

3. For decades, the City has failed to budge MATA in relation to the Consumer Price Index increases,  leading to an estimated loss of $539 Million dollars that should have been available to maintain and  update MATA service. 

4. This “defunding” of MATA by past elected leadership has led to a severe decline in route frequency  resulting in a significant drop in dependability and ridership, an overreliance on expensive individual  car ownership, and a much higher environmental impact on our air quality and carbon footprint. 

5. While funding has greatly declined in inflation adjusted dollars, the City’s geographic area has doubled  since the 70s from about 150 square miles to 300, causing the frequency of routes to greatly decline  and ride times to dramatically increase. 

6. According to the most recent report (2019) 28,842, or 11% of all Memphis households are without a  vehicle greatly reducing their mobility. 

7. Today it can take as much as 2 hours for a rider to reach their destination - and too often not on time for jobs or appointments. 

8. During this time of the Great Resignation, employers, seeking productive employees to keep their  businesses flourishing are denied access to qualified or trainable workers to keep businesses open.  Transit Vision would make 18,000 jobs accessible to low income unemployed or underemployed  workers within an hour ride. 

9. Equitable access to better paying jobs will allow jobseekers to earn a higher standard of living and add  to Memphis’ prosperity. 

10. It will take adding $38 Million a year to the existing budget to bring MATA into the 21st century.