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Only 11 percent of Chicagoland residents ride transit to work.

The future of sustainable transportation needs you today

May 20, 2020 | by Julie Strand

Today Active Trans is hosting its first-ever Giving Day. If you are able to support Active Trans during this time of great need, you can get a couple of one-of-a-kind perks, including access to our Virtual Fifth Third Bike the Drive, being held this Sunday.

The unexpected cancellation of our annual bike ride on Lakeshore Drive — which accounts for roughly half of our operating revenue — is putting our advocacy work in peril at a time when it’s more vital than ever.

Indeed, sustainable transportation is facing an important moment.

If we don’t take bold steps to make walking and biking safe and welcoming, traffic will exponentially increase as travel restrictions begin to ease. If nothing is done, inevitably there will be more driving, more congestion, more pollution, and more traffic deaths.

With hundreds of thousands of people in the region relying on public transit to make essential trips each day, we need to ensure that transit riders and transit drivers are safe. Bus and train service must be maintained for the healthcare system and local economies to continue to function.

With these weighty issues in front of us, it came as a major blow when our main fundraising event, Fifth Third Bike the Drive, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To make up for some of this loss, we need your help. Your support will allow Active Trans to keep moving ahead with this important work.

You’ve already invested in these efforts by taking action and signing petitions. Can you help ensure this work continues by supporting Active Trans on Giving Day?

Here are a few of the things we’ve done since the pandemic took hold:

  • We successfully fought alongside a national coalition to get emergency assistance for public transit included in the federal stimulus measures.
  • We rallied behind local bike shops so they could stay open during the business shutdown.
  • We are continuing to strive for greater safeguards for bus drivers and bus riders.

These are important wins, but it can’t end there.

We’re currently looking at bold solutions to make walking, biking, and transit safe and reliable options as restrictions ease and travel increases. Can you help ensure a solid footing for sustainable transportation in the future? Can you help head off a surge in driving when people start traveling more?

Thanks to the generous support of hundreds of donors we have already raised $60,000 to support our work! We could not be more grateful for this outpouring of support!

Can you help us keep the momentum going? Can you make a donation and help us raise $75,000 this Giving Day?

It’s an ambitious goal, but with your help we can get there. Every single donation will help fill the need at this critical moment.

And when you do give, you can get special perks:

  • Donate $20 or more and you’ll get free entrance to our Virtual Fifth Third Bike the Drive event on May 24.
  • Donate $40 or more and you’ll get entrance to the event and the special stay-at-home edition of our Fifth Third Bike the Drive t-shirt (see right)!

If you’re able, please give to support the future of sustainable, equitable transportation. We know this work is important to you. Now we need your help to build this future together.

Donations to Active Transportation Alliance are tax-deductible to the extent the law provides, and the CARES Act makes it easier than ever for those who do not typically itemize donations to get this deduction.