Earth Month is here, and, to celebrate, the Sierra Club is kicking off our Transit to Trails Campaign. Transit to Trails (or T2T) is a phrase commonly used to describe public transportation services and provisions that provide access to green spaces and public recreational amenities. Those amenities include hiking trails, parks, conservation areas, recreation areas, ski areas, waterways, and more. Currently, 100 million people, including 28 million children, cannot safely walk to a park or green space from their homes and lack the transportation necessary to access green spaces. This barrier keeps many city dwellers, particularly low-income communities and people of color, from enjoying the great outdoors. T2T projects are integral to undoing the transportation and environmental inequities baked into the American landscape because of policy decisions including highways that divide communities, disinvestment, and redlining.
Public transit does not always connect to nearby green spaces, and it’s even more difficult to find public transit that goes as far as our public lands. As part of supporting the existing T2T movement and new efforts across the country, the Sierra Club is encouraging chapter staff, volunteers, and partners to host scouting trips and outings in 2024 during what we call #Transit2Trails Season. Together we can help showcase what is working and what is not working with your local transit system, which will help advocate for the need for a T2T system for disadvantaged park-poor communities. We want you to share your stories by participating in the Epic Trails and Epic Fails challenge. To learn more about how you can participate, contact Chapter Outings Chair, Cecilia Garcia-Linz at cecilia.garcia@sierraclub.org or visit the Transit to Trails story map.
Sierra Club’s Inspiring Connections Outdoors Team continues to partner with the Bus for Outdoor Access and Teaching (BOAT), which serves schools and youth serving organizations across the Detroit Metro Area, to advance conversations with the MI Department of Natural Resources as a way to secure new bus capacity for BOAT and acquire funding to support connecting youth with nature through Governor Whitmer’s “Nature Awaits” initiative.