taalib-din uqdah never expected to be an environmental activist — not in his wildest dreams. he was the kid who loved going to gas stations just to “stick my head out the back of the window and smell the gasoline.”

nowadays, uqdah is no fan of petrol — especially in public transit. the 70-year-old business owner, community activist, and washington, d.c., native is spearheading efforts to overhaul the renovation of the washington metropolitan area transit authority’s (wmata) northern bus garage in ward 4 of the city. in january, those efforts paid off when wmata announced that the northern bus garage will reopen with an all-electric bus fleet in 2027 — the first entirely electric, zero-emission garage in the city.

the commitment to an all-electric bus fleet represents a culmination of years of advocacy and community organizing. when wmata announced the renovation in 2018, the agency’s fleet management plan included buses running on compressed natural gas, standard diesel, “clean diesel” and hybrid fuels.
wmata considered all but standard diesel to be “clean fuel,” but even hybrid fuels contribute to the climate crisis. battery-powered electric buses provide more sustainable benefits by eliminating the use of fossil fuels, improving air quality, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and lowering noise pollution.

the bus renovation debate

located on a large lot between d.c.’s sixteenth street heights and petworth neighborhoods, the northern bus garage — also known as the northern bus barn — is surrounded by residential homes and retail businesses on 14th street. the facility has been operational since 1906, first as a barn for electric streetcars and later for traditional buses.

by 2018, the bus garage was in need of repair. rather than locate a new lot, wmata chose to renovate the garage for convenience and proximity to a high ridership corridor. they planned to demolish everything but the garage’s historic facade on 14th street and construct a mixed-use development to house over 200 buses and about 50,000 square feet of space for commercial space. the garage was set to include infrastructure for 175 electric buses — but wmata didn’t have these buses, or any plan to make the switch to electric.

many community members weren’t sold on the plan. some wanted the bus garage gone completely. some wanted it redeveloped into a grocery store or affordable housing. others wanted it to house electric buses. residents living near the garage brought up noise pollution and health concerns, such as asthma, which they say trace back to the diesel fumes of the buses.

uqdah, who has lived near the bus garage since 1984, immediately took interest in the project. he saw it as an important factor in the community’s quality of life, and he created the northern bus barn neighbors to organize community members against wmata’s plan to bring gas and diesel buses back to the garage. red signs began popping up in residents’ yards proclaiming, “no! bus diesel fumes”

diesel in the air

uqdah was especially concerned about diesel particulate matter, a part of exhaust that contains gas and soot particles, and nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel-powered vehicles. air pollution from diesel exhaust has long been linked to adverse health effects including asthma, neuroinflammation, cardiovascular disease and lung cancer, even in particle-filtered exhaust. in 2012, the world health organization classified diesel engine exhaust as “carcinogenic to humans” for causing an increased risk of lung cancer.

new research shows that exposure to diesel exhaust for even brief periods of time may cause cognitive impairment as well by disrupting the connectivity between brain regions.

and the impacts of air pollution disproportionately affect minority communities. in d.c. — which the american lung association gave a “c” rating for particle pollution last year — black residents are 126% more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than white residents as of 2021. 

ward 4 councilmember janeese lewis george cited this disparity in her remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony for the northern bus garage in january.

“when we talk about reducing diesel fumes in our neighborhoods, we know that it is both an environmental justice issue and a racial justice issue,” the councilmember said. in ward 4, the area lewis george represents, about 45% of the population is black.

uqdah and other community members have expressed their views in public meetings with wmata since 2019, with nearly 100 people sending messages to the wmata board about bus electrification at one meeting in october of 2020. many of those messages urged wmata not to reopen the garage unless the bus fleet would be fully electrified, often noting health concerns.

“i live in this neighborhood. my children have asthma. adding more diesel buses is a huge threat to our health and the environmental pollution is a terrible, terrible thing,” said resident blythe emigholz of sixteenth street heights. 

“we are very concerned. we’ve been making our voices clear at meetings, but it seems like there’s no response to the environmental concerns that have been voiced by these neighbors.”

a greener future

councilmember lewis george became involved in the advocacy as she was knocking doors on the 2020 campaign trail, hearing similar stories from countless ward 4 residents. once elected, she began pushing for bus electrification on the d.c. city council.

wmata got on board in june 2021, approving a plan to shift to a zero-emission electric bus fleet over the next 20 years. their aim was to replace the existing gas and diesel buses by 2045 in accordance with the 2018 clean energy d.c. act – the northern bus garage was set to house 150 of these electric buses. it was a step in the right direction, but many in the community were not satisfied with the far-off date. 

“two and a half decades is far too long to wait for public transit that aligns with our region’s sustainability goals and the urgent reality of climate change,” said lewis george.

city officials and community members continued negotiating, and in january 2023, wmata announced that the northern bus garage fleet would be entirely electric by 2027 — 18 years sooner than the initial date. the garage will feature rooftop solar panels that are expected to generate 726,000 kwh/year, electric vehicle charging stations for parking, and a leed platinum rating.

at the groundbreaking ceremony on january 25, councilmember lewis george acknowledged the efforts of community activists like uqdah and thanked them for pushing the initiative through. 

“an all zero-emission bus garage is a monumental step towards a sustainable future as we confront the urgent reality of climate change in our city, in our country, and across the world,” said lewis george. 

“this northern bus barn will make wmata, as it always has been, and dc, as it always has been… a national leader in providing green public transit that does right by our communities and by our planet.”

the electrification of the bus garage is just one piece in a community revitalization project that uqdah hopes will bring more business and affordable housing to the sixteenth street heights and ward 4 communities.

in contrast to other transit networks in major u.s. cities that have made alterations to the frequency of service, the san diego metropolitan transit system (mts) has been continuing bus and trolley service on schedules nearly identical to those pre-pandemic. according to brian lane, a senior transit planner at san diego association of governments (sandag), which works in conjunction with mts, keeping these schedules is crucial for both allowing for social distancing on board with reduced capacity, and ensuring that essential workers throughout the county are able to commute with as little interruption as possible.

one thing that differentiates san diego from similarly sized cities is the scattered nature of employment centers. the downtown region is the third biggest employment center, following kearny mesa and sorrento valley, suburban business centers located to the east of downtown. the geographic spread of employment makes improving first and last-mile options a priority, lane said, citing palomar airport as an example. many businesses are located along palomar airport road, but implementing a new bus line along the street would still leave many commuters at least half-mile from work. it is largely for that reason, lane says, that shared modes of transit for first and last-mile travel are so critical to the 2021 plan. 

the cornerstone of the 2021 regional plan is the “5 big moves”: five overarching strategies to change the way san diegans use transit. all of these moves are contingent on a willingness and motivation for commuters to both switch to or continue using transit.

a global pandemic understandably impedes some efforts to change commuting habits. the most significant losses in ridership occurred in mid-april, according to sandag’s regional travel survey. during that month, scheduling was reduced slightly to accommodate the need for drivers and essential transit employees to stay home. april also saw the most marked decreases in ridership attributable to the pandemic: system-wide, there was a 75 percent decrease in ridership. 

by the time of a joint meeting between sandag’s transportation, regional planning, and borders committees in mid-july, network-wide ridership had recovered by 53 percent. trolley ridership rebounded quickest, particularly on the blue line. the blue line trolley is regarded as the backbone of the mts network, with many essential workers commuting by a combination of trolley and bus. san diego transit is unique in that the mts network serves a bi-national metropolitan area, with blue line service at the u.s./mexico border in san ysidro. though the border has been closed to nonessential travel since march, essential workers have been commuting throughout the pandemic. 

while continuing to serve those working in person during the pandemic, sandag highlighted the positive environmental impact of teleworking as a means to achieve the 2021 plan’s long-term carbon emission goals. using data gathered from community-based organizations, sandag has set higher teleworking goals for the upcoming year, proposing that up to 25 percent of regional businesses could engage in some form of telework long-term. further development of the teleworking portion of sandag’s icommute program, which provides resources for organizations looking to transition into telework, is also a facet of the 2021 plan. although teleworking is connected to a decrease in emissions, the fact remains that those who are teleworking still drive for leisure, a fact that can obscure a clear understanding of exactly what highway driving trends will look like going into the future. 

what is much more evident is a persistent, longstanding need for accessible and equitable transit within the county. this is all the more crucial given the demographic of mts commuters, a group with an average annual income of $17,800 compared to a regional median of approximately $75,000. 

during july’s committee meeting, sharon cooney, the ceo of the mts board of directors, spoke about trends in the perception of transit as revealed by the 3700 responses to sandag’s regional transportation study. the results are promising: only 4 percent of respondents replied that they had used transit in the past, but would not again after covid. 18 percent of respondents reported having not ridden transit before and expressed an interest in integrating san diego’s transit network into their travel within the county post-pandemic.

in summary, cooney said, “fear of transit is not as profound as we expected.” 

while this is an overwhelmingly positive narrative, simply the idea of fearing transit implies that commuting by transit is a choice, which it is not for the 20 percent of mts commuters who do not have access to a personal vehicle. for these riders, it is not only the innovations brought forth by the 2021 plan, but consistency in and improvements to existing service that will prove critical in the coming months and years. 

rising junior grace jaeger said she was a freshman when she first noticed the transportation needs on northwestern university’s evanston campus. her first-year dorm was located roughly half a mile from her classes, and, as a result, she was frequently late. she found the campus shuttle system unreliable, and she resorted to calling uber to avoid tardiness. this, she said, was the inspiration for eo — northwestern’s first student-run subscription bike-sharing program.

jaeger with a team of four other northwestern students, officially launched eo this spring and expect to expand the campus service this fall. eo is a subscription-based service in which students pay $20 per quarter for unlimited rides and the ability to pick up and leave the easily identifiable purple and orange bikes almost anywhere on campus since the bike has a locking system triggered by a telephone app. 

within the first week, eo had over 100 memberships, more than 275 miles traveled, and — most notably — roughly 110 kilograms of carbon saved in uber rides and car commutes. by april 22, only three weeks after the company’s launch, that number had risen to almost 500 kilograms of carbon saved, according to jaeger. carbon — as in the heat-storing carbon dioxide greenhouse gas — is the thermostat for turning up global warming. 

“we want our system to decrease the environmental impact of students and community members by providing an affordable and accessible method of transportation,” jaeger said. “and [we want] to create a culture of sustainability on campus.”

thus far, eo has done just that, and the start-up is not alone. eo is just one of a growing number of bike-sharing programs that have been gaining traction over the last several years. just outside evanston, the city of chicago is helping lead the charge in encouraging residents to opt to use carbon-free or low-carbon transportation such as biking as a means to mitigate climate change and reduce carbon emissions.

most recently, the chicago city council, in tandem with the chicago department of transportation, approved a $50 million expansion of the city’s largest bike-sharing program that partners with divvy. as part of the expansion, divvy bikes will now be available and accessible in all 50 of the city’s wards. at a press conference introducing the expansion, former chicago mayor rahm emanuel explained part of his administration’s reasoning for supporting the investment. 

“my administration has made it a priority to create a variety of high-quality, reliable transportation options to get chicagoans and visitors where they want to go,” emanuel said.

under new chicago mayor lori lightfoot, support for green initiatives in transportation has continued. julia gerasimenko is the advocacy manager at the active transportation alliance, a lightfoot-supported non-profit advocacy organization whose goal is to improve conditions for bicycling, walking and transit, and engage people in healthy and active ways to be mobile. gerasimenko said the expansion of divvy bikes throughout the city is essential to ensure that all chicagoans have access to bikes and low-carbon mobility.

“at active trans, we definitely advocated for bike-share to come to chicago [in 2013] and we’ve been really excited to see the growth of divvy over the years,” gerasimenko said. “they will now be expanding to cover all of chicago, and we’re really excited to see that happen so that everyone in the city can have access to biking.”

chicago was recently named a winning city of the bloomberg philanthropies’ american cities climate challenge, based on city plans to expand bike-share programs to reach 100% of the city and policies that support car sharing and transit ridership while reducing vehicle ownership overall. in doing so, chicago joined 20 other american cities in sharing a $70 million grant from the organization to accelerate  efforts.

encouraging low carbon mobility options through bike-sharing is as important today as ever before. with more news every day unveiling the seriousness and pressing nature of climate change, the time for change is now. according to a recent report by the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc), “global warming will likely reach 1.5°c between 2032 and 2050, causing massive increases in already life-threatening environmental changes if it continues at its current rate.” 

this means that during the next 12 years, significant change must occur in the amount of carbon consumed across the globe to deter the climate from changing, and the planet from warming to life-threatening levels. a huge step in reaching this goal comes from the reduction of carbon through low-carbon transportation options. according to data published by the environmental protection agency in 2017, 29% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the united states result  from transportation — the largest contributor of any one category. 

encouraging people to reduce their carbon footprint through low-carbon transportation options such as biking is a vital part of the ongoing fight. when asked of the importance of encouraging more people to use low-carbon transportation options as a means of decreasing chicago’s carbon emissions, gerasimenko said that it is absolutely vital.

“if we are able to make a substantial impact in the individual day-to-day choices that people are making in their transit,” gerasimenko said, “i definitely think it would lead to decreased emissions and to better air quality for everyone.”

while chicago was not the first city to launch a widespread bike-sharing service, the business of bike-sharing has expanded rapidly across the united states since divvy bikes debuted  in chicago in 2013. more specifically, motivate — the parent company that owns divvy — has expanded its efforts vastly in recent years. today, motivate owns city-wide bike-sharing operations in nine major american cities, including new york, chicago, boston, and san francisco, and has teamed up with major ride-sharing services like lyft. 

not only is motivate helping to promote sustainable and healthy low-carbon modes of transportation across the country, but the company is proving that doing so can be a profitable practice. according to a report from the bike-sharing service market, the global bike-sharing industry was valued at nearly $1.6 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $5.4 billion by the end of 2024.

at northwestern university, eo team member and co-founder grace jaeger also sees the profitability of bike-sharing, especially on college campuses like northwestern’s.

“we believe eo is economically profitable on a campus like northwestern,” jaeger said. “it’s a niche community where we are all close and have pretty uniform needs in terms of where we need to go” 

commuting to classes is a high priority and, at northwestern, eo fills that niche. further, as a source of profitability, eo team members say they believe investors will be attracted to their service, and invest in their program, subsequently investing in low-carbon transportation.  

“we believe that we can grow as a company by expanding to other campuses,” jaeger said. this summer, jaeger and the eo team say they plan to conduct research in order to determine which other campuses in the nation are marketable and open to eo’s expansion, as well as possible ways that they can best manage that potential expansion.

at a recent conference on sustainability held at northwestern’s kellogg school of management, valueact capital founder and ceo jeffrey ubben stressed the importance of encouraging business leaders to invest in sustainability. ubben said that, to change the industry, business leaders must work to make active investments and be a part of the change themselves, rather than giving their money to others as a way to promote change. 

“you can’t go into the system, take advantage into it, then come out and try to fix it through philanthropy,” ubben said. “you have to combine the two, and fix the issue from the inside and that’s what i’m trying to do…we are tomorrow’s company now and not yesterday’s.”

according to ubben, profitability in sustainable businesses is the key to gathering investors as well as maintaining progress in reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change. in the greater chicago area, bike-sharing companies like divvy and eo are proving to be a profitable and sustainable business.

at a time when reducing the collective carbon footprint must be an ultimate priority for businesses and nations around the world, it is small businesses like eo, and larger corporations like motivate, that must lead the charge. by creating profitable business models anchored in low-carbon mobility, and specifically bike-sharing, eo and motivate are successfully doing their part. 

george washington university students ellen wang and jacob samuels talk to erik belmont from the district department of transportation about dc’s new electric bus fleet and to electric vehicle experts about the future of transportation in america. they learn about the benefits, drawbacks, and challenges of electric bus programs. even though there are a lot of hurdles to overcome, through making this video they discover that electric vehicles are indeed the ride of the future. 

the hyperloop will help to improve the environment and humans’ mobility. cars, planes, boats, and other forms of transportation emit a huge amount of pollutants, while the hyperloop does not emit any gases. the hyperloop will take a lot of investment to build, however, once we have it, it can help improve the environment. people will be able to travel much faster, which would increase benefits both for businesses as well as people’s own leisure. with the hyperloop we would be able to reduce congestion, as we will have one more essential form of transportation.

badgerloop is a student organization at uw-madison that was created in 2015. the team of engineers and students from other majors built a hyperloop pod and presented it at the spacex competition. at the design weekend two years ago, badgerloop got third place among 127 teams. they also won an innovation award for their design at the competition in january 2017, and an innovation award for their propulsion system at the competition in august 2017.  they are the only team who received two awards. currently, badgerloop is building their third pod for the competition coming up in summer 2018.