Equity & Inclusion

Mission

Access to transportation services enriches lives and supports the health of our community. Metro Transit’s Equity & Inclusion department cultivates leaders who make our community stronger by ensuring services are accessible, providing a welcoming experience and respecting the individual value of employees, customers and community members.

Our goal? A community that thrives because each individual has access to their destination and feels welcomed.

Our team champions Equity & Inclusion by:

Ensuring Metro Transit promotes diversity to make employees feel valued, respected as their unique selves and supported in their work.

Advancing accessibility for our customers and providing a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment throughout our service options.

We do this by:

  • Building inclusive leaders
  • Transforming internal culture to better attract and retain employees
  • Evaluating agency patterns to find new innovative solutions to equity challenges
  • Influencing agency policies that will generate more equitable outcomes
  • Fostering an inclusive transit climate for all - Partnering with regional leaders to enhance shared mobility and improve transit accessibility
  • Connecting with customers to understand external needs

For information about Metro Transit's Equity Statement and our Transit Equity Day commemoration on Feb. 4, see metrotransit.org/TransitEquity

Explore our work

Our Equity and Inclusion framework outlines how equity and inclusion is influenced by issues related to gender, safety and access, among other things.

Equitable Access

Ensuring all customers have access to the same standard of transportation regardless of community.

Service Equity Evaluation Metro Transit is committed to delivering transit service that benefit all, especially historically underserved communities. Network Now framework evaluation of service improvements includes how low-income populations and communities of color in our region may be affected. This evaluation also includes a Title VI analysis of the impact of planned Network Now service changes.

Network Now Framework 

Equitable Funding

Evaluating our decision making and funding supports and benefits our communities.

Transit Assistance Program (TAP) This program makes public transit more affordable for low-income residents by offering $1 rides to certified riders.

Better Bus Stops This program focuses on neighborhoods in areas of concentrated poverty where more than half of the residents are people of color. Bus stops are evaluated for new or enhanced shelters based on a set of use-based guidelines.

Electric buses Metro Transit is the first transit provider in the region to invest in whisper-quiet electric technology, with eight electric buses on the new METRO C Line. Annually, electric buses help reduce pollution in our local neighborhoods by about 58 tons/16 tones of CO2 emissions per bus.

Equitable Environment

Creating a safe and inclusive environment for our customers.

Anti-harassment This initiative launched in April 2019 targeted street harassment against women and nonbinary customers. Built around Respect, Kindness, and Inclusivity, it educated customers about creating a harassment-free environment where everyone feels comfortable and safe on transit.

Text for Safety Customers can contact Metro Transit by text at 612-900-0411 for non-emergency situations to silently report something that doesn’t look right on a bus, on a train, or at a transit shelter. This service is also accessible via the Metro Transit mobile app.

What is Diversity?

Who makes up Metro Transit, including aspects that are seen and unseen.

What is Equity?

Access to opportunities for everyone.

What is Inclusion?

An environment where diversity is leveraged to make people feel valued, welcomed and respected.

Contacts

Rachel Cagle
Coordinator, Equity & Inclusion
[email protected]

Celina Martina
Senior Manager for Transit Equity
[email protected]