Kevin Xu Shen 沈志文

A collage showing a diverse group of workers and advocates defending public transportation.

🚌🛴Today is #TransitEquityDay, and it’s the right moment to highlight that, with the right investments, we can build a more reliable, accessible & cleaner transportation system that delivers substantial benefits to people across the US.

Learn how we can achieve that: act.ucsusa.org/4tdqtw1

Transportation is often seen as a place of bipartisan calm, an "island of normalcy"... It's clear now more than ever that that is no longer the case. @stevenhigashide.com's latest piece shows how USDOT has been instrumental in Trump’s authoritarian push.

And, thanks to the other cosponsors, @alsobrooks.senate.gov, @blumenthal.senate.gov, @bluntrochester.senate.gov, @booker.senate.gov, @duckworth.senate.gov, @kirstengillibrand.bsky.social, @markey.senate.gov, @warren.senate.gov for supporting this crucial bill!

Can Federal Transit Operations Funding Foster Healthy, Thriving, Sustainable Communities? Yes, Here’s How. High-quality transit is freeing.

Transit operations funding helps make buses more frequent, and routes more extensive. Read more about why this is crucial for our transportation system here blog.ucs.org/kshen/can-fe...

And UCS research has found that there is already a $10 billion annual gap to get to pre-pandemic levels of transit service, and more can get us towards a transformation of our transportation system.

How Much Transit Investment Is Needed to Get Back to “Normal”? Transit is essential for the climate, our health, and our pocketbooks, but was never set up for success in transportation policy. While transit agencies in the United States have made slight increases...

Over half of the country does not live near any transit whatsoever, and much less to high frequency transit that effectively gets us where we need to go. blog.ucs.org/kshen/how-mu...

Thank you to @vanhollen.senate.gov and @fetterman.senate.gov for reintroducing the Moving Transit Forward Act 🚌🚇, which would create a much needed federal program to fund increased transit service across the country. www.vanhollen.senate.gov/news/press-r...

🎁 While mega e-commerce warehouses are delivering more packages, they’re wrapping our neighborhoods with clouds of pollution. Let’s make sure that clean air is on everyone’s wishlist and hold big corporations accountable! #CleanDeliveries

Click here: electrifyny.org/warehouses

This underscores the fundamental challenge of the BIL: for all it may have done to support #EV infrastructure and electrification, it fundamentally did not do jack to shift the transportation system itself, and if anything just further embedded the status quo #oil based boondoggle we have today.

Promising solutions? Weight-based user fees, diesel tax, are a promising start, but most definitely not letting the trucking industry off the hook for the $150b/year in damages they cause--

Meanwhile, the trucking industry has the audacity to advocate for contributing even less by taking out the federal excise tax, and pointing the finger at everyone else to make up the difference.

Trucks Cause the Lion’s Share of Road Damage—and Their Industry Wants You to Keep Paying for It There is no reason for US taxpayers to foot the bill for a trillion-dollar per year industry.

In his latest blog, my colleague @ucsdave.bsky.social clarifies how much the trucking industry damages our roadways, and how the public subsidizes them by around $88 billion a year to do so (not to mention over $170 billion/year in health and climate costs)

blog.ucs.org/dave-cooke/t...

But on net, this is a huge victory for transit across state and in Chicagoland, and couldn't have been done without advocates like the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition! And that's not even to mention the other beneficial parts of the bill!

Progressive sources like the the House-proposed mark-to-market tax for billionaires (taxing income from assets the same as all other income) could've mitigated inequitable impacts, but didn't make it into the final bill.

One of the big topics these past couple months was regressivity- I pulled some national data to check it out: The sources that passed are less regressive than the Senate-proposed retail delivery fee, but still tax poor people at higher rates.

Though, that's counterbalanced by a $1B/year increase in tolls to fund tollway capital projects (aka more road). So the road lobby also eked out a victory for themselves.

The biggest source of funding, redirecting around $870M a year of fuel tax revenue from roadways to transit by itself is a climate win and much needed recognition of the importance of cleaner, affordable, and equitable transportation options, and is a long-time advocate ask.

Today is a huge day for people across Illinois -- at 4am the legislature passed SB2111 to not just prevent transit service cuts but actually EXPAND service -- UCS estimates $1.5B to be able to support around 35% more transit service over the coming years blog.ucs.org/kshen/illino...

Open Letter to the Transportation Research Board Recently, the TRB made significant changes to its standing committees in response to Presidential Executive Orders, eliminating committees on climate change, equity, sustainability and most environmen...

TRB actions eliminating committees and potentially conference content regarding equity & sustainability are "inconsistent with the foundational purposes of the TRB" & "incompatible with the function of scientific inquiry in a free society" Sign on & share: forms.gle/zBknHfDNUZjj...

New Report Explores The Challenges — and Joys — Of Being Black in Public — Streetsblog USA Making Black North Americans feel welcome and safe in public isn't just about striking down racist transportation laws — and it may require transportation advocates to think more deeply about joy, a n...

So much of transportation advocacy is about how people move, but this survey challenges us to think about how Black people, specifically, simply *exist* in public space, and how that shapes their experience of streets, roads, transit, & more. Grateful to @jaypitter.bsky.social for sharing her work.

The Transit for All PA Funding Package Can Help Keep Pennsylvania Moving It's time to invest in economic vitality in communities across the state, public health, and affordable transportation options.

From big cities to rural towns, Pennsylvanians deserve more ways to get around. But decades of disinvestment have left public transit behind while polluting industries profit. UCS’s @kevshen.bsky.social breaks down how the current budget fight could help be the long-term solution the state needs.

School graduations, going to work.. even doing your best to navigate the system, going to immigration court hearings and appointments can be risky. "Transportation and immigration are inseparable. If movement is a right, then that right must apply to everyone" Ruth Rosas @americawalks.bsky.social

Uber reinvents the bus but worse -- without public accountability or a commitment to serve everyone who needs to get around, rich or poor. Will Route Share complement transit? Or will it gum up the same routes, compete for the same passengers, and cause even more emissions?

How Much Transit Investment Is Needed to Get Back to “Normal”? Transit is essential for the climate, our health, and our pocketbooks, but was never set up for success in transportation policy. While transit agencies in the United States have made slight increases...

Demand for transportation options is growing - people are increasingly choosing transit 🚌🚇. But still over half of the country’s population does not live near any transit whatsoever. Meanwhile, agencies' hard-earned recovery faces the threat of fiscal cliffs.

Read more: blog.ucs.org/kshen/how-mu...

Businesses In New York Support Clean Trucks - CleanTechnica Two proposed bills in New York would delay the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule.

Clean trucks are good for our air, our businesses, and New York’s economy. There’s no reason to bend to corporate polluters — We need @governor.ny.gov and our state leaders to stand up for our life-saving clean air protections and support clean vehicles. More:

cleantechnica.com/2025/04/10/b...

Lawmakers, Environmental Justice, and Clean Air Advocates Call on Governor Hochul to Stand Strong for Clean Air Protections State leaders rally in Albany to urge the Governor to protect the life-saving clean truck standard in final budget and reject industry efforts to gut air protections

ICYMI: On Wednesday, clean air advocates and lawmakers rallied in Albany to support New York’s life-saving clean truck standard. With clean air under attack, this is not the time for New York to cave to polluter misinformation. Read more:

earthjustice.org/press/2025/l...

📣 We are joining legislators, clean air advocates, and community members in Albany today to demand that our state leaders protect clean air and keep New York’s life-saving standards in place.

New York schools need more electric school buses. This is why | Opinion School districts across New York state are transforming student transportation by planning for and adopting zero-emission electric school buses.

🏫🎒 Electric school buses will provide fresher air to children, drivers, and the communities they drive through. Let's take a deep breath and embrace this clean energy revolution for a healthier, more vibrant tomorrow.

www.pressconnects.com/story/opinio...

The User-Pay Myth: We ALL Pay for Our Roads, Not Just Drivers It’s time we think harder about what it is we're paying for, for whom and why, and how we pay for it.

"It is in the highway lobby’s interest to propagate the myth that [car fees like the gas tax] cover all the impacts of driving, but that has never been true and is becoming ever less so." @ucsdave.bsky.social

I've expanded this thread into a blog post here: bsky.app/profile/ucsu...