You are an authentic messenger.

Your voice is important.

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Whether communicating with elected officials, the media, or on social media, it’s important to own your message.

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Make a clear case for why transit is important to you, your community, the city, or the region. Give examples of challenges you’ve noticed regarding transit.

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Sample Messages

• Transit is essential.

• Local funding for transit is critical.

• Funding for all transit programs must be preserved and increased.

• Reject any proposals to reduce or eliminate funding for annual operations or capital construction for transit infrastructure.

• Better public transit can help protect the environment.

• If a thriving city that supports an equitable economy is important to you, then supporting increased funding for transit is easy.

• Increased access to public transit means increased access to jobs and other opportunities, like education and healthier food options.

• Frequent public transit options mean a more reliable, healthy, and productive workforce.

• Investments in public transit are investments in the people of the city.

• Personal freedoms are directly tied to mobility.

• More active transportation modes, like walking, biking, and public transit, lead to a healthier population and workforce.

• Lack of public transit investments will lead to waning economic competitiveness.

• More modes of transportation equal a higher quality of life for residents.

• Improving our transit system will help meet Nashville’s urgent needs for returning to work while supporting our city’s aspirations of equity and sustainability.

• Let’s be clear. When funding is cut to WeGo, it’s not the agency that suffers, it is the bus rider. How much pressure are we going to put on transit riders?

• Transit is a winner with voters on the ballot! Transit funding had a 90% pass rate in 2020.

• Public transit systems depend on federal funding for purchasing and maintaining buses, building new transit systems, and operating smaller and rural transit networks. Those federal funds often come with a local match (re: price tag). Nashville must be ready to match those federal grants with local funding–that means funding transit.

• We can’t expect WeGo to continue offering effective services without proper funding.

• Transit is essential to Nashville’s ongoing emergency response and could be even more critical to our city’s recovery.

• As our city grows, investing in transit is critical – now and for future generations.

• Funding transit is a fundamental step toward a safer, greener, and more economically prosperous city for everyone.

 

Sample Email

1. Personalize it by putting your own reasons for funding transit.
2. Submit your comment to the mayor through Hub Nashville’s form or to your council member.

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Subject: I Support Funding Transit & Hope You Will, Too

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Dear [Mayor or Council Member]:

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Thank you for your service to our community and to Nashville.

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Collaborative strategies and creative problem solving will continue to serve us well. Now is the time to dream big and set meaningful objectives.

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That’s why I overwhelmingly supported increased funding for WeGo Public Transit earlier this year in both the Spring CSP and Metro’s Operating Budget.

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Research has proven that the utilization of public transit can play a significant role in reaching economic sustainability, supporting healthier/safer communities, and protecting the environment–all while providing critical access for residents for jobs, education, healthcare, leisure, and more. Our growth demands improved transit options. It is a critical investment for Nashville.

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Unfortunately, after years of funding and funding cuts, our transit system mirrors its own unreliable funding ebbs and flows. We simply risk too much by not funding our city’s transit agency adequately and regularly. If Nashville is to be a city where all can prosper, then all must be mobile.

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Individual freedoms are directly tied to mobility. Those of us with less access to traverse our city lose out on opportunities for personal educational and economic growth.

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Thank you,

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Sample Tweet

Nashville needs public transit. Transit means access to jobs for our economy & to education for our communities. #TransitIsEssential @FreddieOconnell [@yourcouncilmember] @WeGoPublicTransit @TAllianceMidTN

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More advice on communication and messaging is available. Contact Transit Alliance at tcla@thetransitalliance.org.