In June 2020, GObike Buffalo made an explicit and public commitment to advance our values of equity and inclusion in our operations and our community. We are sharing some critical updates to hold ourselves accountable and demonstrate that change is not only necessary but possible and measurable.

What is mobility justice? The ability of marginalized groups to move easily, fairly, and unafraid.

While we know there are more places for us to take leadership in equity, we also acknowledge there are places we need to step back to create space for leadership from communities and organizations of color. As a result, GObike will be playing a supportive role in a new initiative led by Colored Girls Bike Too addressing mobility justice in our region.

Internal Equity Work

This past summer, GObike’s staff conducted six weeks of anti-racism learning and reflection utilizing Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad to guide the conversation. We have begun implementing a racial equity impact analysis in our decision making, starting with job posting, hiring, and personnel procedures evaluated through this lens. We have also hired an engagement coordinator to focus on communities of color that are not sufficiently represented in our organization.

We have also seen how a racial equity lens can strengthen and sharpen our external work. GObike has joined the Black-led Fair Fines and Fees Coalition to ensure that fines are fairly imposed and enforced, to eliminate fees, and to end exploitative traffic enforcement practices in Buffalo. We have also helped with the intentional diversification of the City of Buffalo’s Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Board to ensure representation from communities disproportionately impacted by access barriers and traffic violence.

While we know there are more places for us to take leadership for racial equity, we readily acknowledge there are places we need to step back to create space for leadership from communities and organizations of color.

 

Addressing Mobility Justice in Our Communities

As defined by Untokening, mobility justice is the ability of marginalized groups to move easily, fairly, and unafraid. Equitable transportation options are essential for marginalized communities to participate in society fully and benefit from opportunities in our region, and are fundamental to improving outcomes for individuals, neighborhoods, and the city.

Last fall, GObike and our partners were awarded a planning grant to consider systems change within the transportation sector in Western New York through the lens of mobility justice.

Our transportation and mobility system is built on an exclusionary framework that, when coupled with regional segregation, has tremendous race and class implications that continue to disproportionately harm those least served. This includes pollution in communities of color, traffic violence (crashes into people walking or biking, and property), unaffordable and inconvenient bike hubs, bus, and train routes, and inequitable traffic enforcement that contributes to violent or unnecessary interactions with the police, fines, fees, over-surveillance, and incarceration of people of color.

GObike assembled an area for organizations, agencies, and community groups to examine needed changes in our organizations and communities.

The takeaway for us: GObike can support this work with its existing capacity and experience in transportation and mobility, but GObike should not lead this work. To authentically address the perspectives of those who have been systemically excluded, mobility justice must be led by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), people with disabilities, immigrants, LGBTQ people, women, and youth.

Next Steps

Though we aspire to be an organization that is welcoming and inclusive for people of all identities and experiences, our current leadership and staff do not represent our region’s diversity.

For GObike to advance mobility justice in our region — which is necessary to fulfill our mission — we must support leadership from these communities to define and implement a mobility justice plan and strategies for accomplishing it.

As such, Colored Girls Bike Too has taken a leadership role in our grant request to continue this work, and we hope that this application is successful. This is an opportunity for us to start to address the imbalance in capacity and funding for Black- and Brown-led organizations doing this critical work. Their efforts and expertise need to be both valued and elevated if we ever hope to achieve equity in our region or in our country.

This is not a final step but another piece of the journey. There will be additional twists and turns in the uncertain path ahead. But we know that the path that we were on was not sustainable or just.

We will continue to foreground equity in our work and challenge ourselves to think critically across our organization. We encourage our colleagues, both locally and nationally, to do the same.