The Florida Transit Advocate

FORWARD THIS TO FRIENDS AND INVITE THEM TO JOIN.
The Florida Transit Advocate is an outreach service of the Florida Public Transportation Association and its purpose is to cultivate and grow a community of Floridians who agree that public transportation is
important to Florida's future.

There are three ways to enter:

1. Simply email us with your story and/or why you think that public transit is important. We want to hear from non-riders too!
2. Send us a digital photo.
3. Upload your short video to our YouTube channel.

Full contest info at FloridaTransit.org

Contest ends May 31, 2010 so send in your entry today.

Florida Transportation Fund Raid

We urge you to ask Governor Crist to veto $160 million in cuts to transportation.

Click here to sign a petition.

Click here to email the Governor.

Click here to see the Florida Public Transportation Assoc. letter to Gov. Crist.

OUR SPONSORS

Thanks to the good folks at TECTRANS for donating the HDTV.

Thanks to the following companies for donating iPods as promotional prizes:

iPods furnished by

ABC COMPANIES

BRASCO SHELTERS

CLEAR LIGHT COMMUNICATIONS

Call to Action for Transit Supporters

Transit agencies throughout Florida are suffering from severe budget cuts even as ridership swells. Agencies are being forced to make unfortunate decisions about cutting routes, making layoffs, etc. The people who control the purse strings are your elected officials.

We firmly believe that citizens like you who support public transportation will be our biggest allies as we together work towards advancing transit in Florida.

There are three things you can do to help:

Help us "put a face" on the issue. Submit your story, image, or video in our Tell Your Story contest which ends May 31. You might win an HDTV and your story might help us persuade elected officials that transit needs to be better funded.
Check out the article on the left about the raid of the transportation trust fund and email Governor Crist to veto transit cuts.
Help us grow a statewide community of transit advocates by forwarding this email to friends and asking them to click here to subscribe. This is very important. We have thousands of like-minded subscribers and our plan is to eventually unite 100,000 pro-transit Floridians.

Wes Watson, Executive Director,
Florida Public Transportation Association

Last Chance to "TELL YOUR STORY" and Win a Widescreen HD Television or iPod

Thank all of you for the stories, images and videos received from every corner of the state. Next issue of the FLORIDA TRANSIT ADVOCATE will feature stories and images, and the best entries will be posted on the FloridaTransit.org web site. In the meantime, here is an appetizer:

- deana

Sales pro Deanna Droira-Garcia set A monthly sales records using Miami-Dade Transit, Broward County Transit, and Tri-Rail to make outside sales calls. She has each system set to speed dial as she switches from fighting traffic to being productive while on transit.

Leenayka Yulaykis Isaac (and many others) have found romance on the bus. She is pictured here with her boyfriend who has just presented her with flowers on BCT route 16.

- Edu

ardo, a university student, is grateful for public transit because it has allowed his entire family to advance socio-economically by spending money on education instead of on the gas, maintenance, and insurance for a car. "For this reason, we will never live far away from a Metrorail station."

- Lynette, chooses to use Pinnellas County Transit for ethical, environmental, and economic reasons. The former university professor says she makes new friends, reduces her carbon footprint, and saves lots of money using transit. "I am much less stressed and more relaxed"

-

Andrea dumped her gas guzzling Jeep and is glad she did. Besides really liking the social interaction on buses, she saves money. "Considering the car payment, insurance and gas cost, along with the price of parking and repairs I used to pay, the cost for an unlimited ride pass is a bargain".

Urban Land Institute Agrees
Public Transit Crucial to Florida's Future

The Florida Public Transportation Association (FloridaTransit.org) congratulates the Urban Land Institute (ULI) for its statewide efforts to educate the public and

FPTA Legislative Chair Joe Giuletti addresses ULI Transit Forum in Ft. Lauderdale

elected officials about the importance of public transportation in planning Florida's future. ULI has created an excellent publication that we invite you to download, "Connecting Florida - Transit + Florida's Economy".

FloridaTransit.org and ULI have informally agreed to cooperate in educating the public and elected officials that public transportation is important to Florida's future.

An important strategy going forward for FloridaTransit.org is to team with organizations like ULI to build a statewide coalition of pro-transit citizens of sufficient size that elected officials cannot ignore. If you are a member of ULI who was forwarded this email, we urge you to be counted by simply clicking here.

FPTA Quarterly Newsletter Online

Click here to check out the latest issue of the Quarterly Newsletter that the Florida Public Transportation Association publishes for members. If you would like to become a member of the Association, please email news@floridatransit.org or click here.