Transform Transportation Advocate Speaks on Transit Month Panel
On September 24, 2024, Transform Transportation Policy Advocate Abibat Rahman-Davies was part of a panel on gendered perspectives on transportation advocacy and activism. The panel was part of a series hosted by the Transbay Coalition in honor of Transit Month and was moderated by Thea Selby, Co-founder of the San Francisco Transit Riders and Voices for Public Transportation. The other panelists were Lian Chang, a proponent of Prop L: Fund the Bus who has previously supported transit lanes through Faster Safer Geary, and Haleema Bharoocha (MPP), who helped lead Phase One of BART’s “Not One More Girl” campaign and spearheaded Transform’s Ride Fearlessly report on reimagining transit safety.
The panelists come to transit advocacy from different perspectives. Chang is a non-driver and a grassroots activist for transit, biking, and walking, while Rahman-Davies worked for a policy nonprofit and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., before joining Transform. Bharoocha has worked extensively with youth through the Alliance for Girls and has often seen transit through a gendered lens.
Experience, advice, and hope
Bharoocha encouraged advocates not to focus too much on technical details and forget human issues such as navigating transit with a disability or a stroller. It’s okay to be a troublemaker and push on what’s important to you, even if it’s not well-received. Rahman-Davies concurred, noting that just because you’re the lone voice on something, it doesn’t mean you’re wrong.
Chang noted that, in the San Francisco advocacy community, which tends to skew White and cis male, it’s easy to feel like there’s only one way to do public comment, and that can be a barrier to participation. She learned to participate in ways that feel comfortable to her. That included making a casket for a model of a BART car and having a transit funeral, using her artistic skills to make an impact.
Chang offered a mom hack: recording a public comment from her son and playing it when it was her turn to speak. That gave her slightly shy child a chance to speak without hanging around for hours waiting to comment.
Rahman-Davies emphasized the importance of centering the people your advocacy is meant to lift up. “Never lose the north star of who you’re trying to help,” she said, and don’t cut deals just to get a result. Change takes time, and the results we want don’t always happen right away.
Bharoocha noted that there is space for everyone in transit advocacy. “We need you in this movement,” she said, referring to Deepa Iyer’s social change ecosystem map.
The panelists touched on a range of other topics, sharing experience and advice. Watch the full webinar.
