New narrative routes for public transit

So much good that can come from getting more of the world moving around by bus, train, walking, and biking — health, safety, clean air, financial savings, and the list goes on. Yet America’s public transit systems are plagued by systemic underfunding, leading to a vicious cycle of fewer infrastructure improvements, more service cuts, ongoing public perception problems, declining ridership, and further loss of revenue from fares—all of which contribute to a harmful narrative.. 

So what can be done? How can we build and bolster political will and narrative power for transit investment? Resource Media has been in the trenches with TransitCenter and its grantees to tackle this challenge. We know a narrative shift is needed to expand and intensify support for transit investment beyond the base we start with today.  

Revealing resonant themes 

Working closely with transit coalitions in three states — Transit for All PA, New Yorkers for Transportation Equity, and Active Transportation Alliance and other advocates in Illinois — we ran three state-specific persuasion tests designed to surface underlying values to anchor transit communications and long-term narrative work.

Here’s what best moved attitudes for transit: 

• The important role transit plays for people who don’t drive, like an elder or a young person without a driver’s license. For anyone who doesn’t drive — including our neighbors and family members — getting where they need to go isn’t easy, and public transit is vital.
• The way that transit provides a choice for how to get around. Of course we may not head to the bus stop every time, but we should have options. A viable transit system is part of living in a place to take pride in, a place where we have the choice to hop on a bus or train when we want to avoid a car trip. 
• How public transit can mean access to a job and contribute to job creation and economic vitality. It’s the way that access to a good transit route can open up opportunities we couldn’t get to otherwise or that are too much of a hassle in terms of a daily car commute. And it’s how transit brings workers and customers to businesses, how transit investment itself creates jobs in construction and operations.  
• How public transit can save us money and make life more affordable. The costs of gas, car insurance, parking tickets, and auto repairs add up. Transit is part of making a household budget work in a world of ever-rising bills and costs. 

In places like New York state where big corporations push public money into highway expansions to serve their corporate interests, effective messages tap into public frustration with corporate profiteering. Warehouse corporations pushing transportation spending on a big highway for their truck traffic and profit doesn’t go over well compared to transit investments that benefit  neighborhoods and local businesses.

Leveraging the user ease of in-platform lead generation on social media, our outreach campaign in Pennsylvania signed up nearly 1,900 new residents for the coalition’s email list, reaching 200,000 residents; and we saw similar results in New York and Illinois. 

Our partnership with state transit advocates and TransitCenter continues, now centered on video storytelling that carries the narrative goals the state coalitions have designed, and we’re deepening in-house capacity for narrative work as we go.