Public transit moves working families. And we need to support it. 

Keith Williams – op-ed

Everyone deserves access to reliable, safe, and affordable transportation—especially working families who need to make the most of their earnings. Working families rely on public transit, whether they live and work in big cities, small towns, or rural communities.

As a father of five, a community organizer with For the Many, and a former Amazon driver and warehouse worker, I know about the struggle to get to work all too well. 

Many people don’t know that housing and transportation are typically the two highest household expenses for most families in the United States. In 2023, U.S. households spent an average of $13,174 on transportation, making it the second-largest annual household expenditure after housing. The significant proportion of household income spent on transportation and housing highlights the financial challenges working families face.

In Newburgh, public transit is almost nonexistent. The buses don’t reach many places, including where I used to work at Amazon. If you don’t have a car, your options are paying $20 one way for an Uber or taxi, which adds up to $160 a week or more, or walking miles in dangerous conditions. Because there aren’t options for people to get to work, it’s not uncommon to see people walking out to the Amazon warehouse in the dark. At best, it’s undignified, and at its worst, it’s dangerous. 

In early 2014, a friend of mine was tragically hit and killed by a drunk driver on his way to work. He was walking to work because he had no other way to get there. No one should be killed just trying to get to work, but these are the kinds of risks that working people take when there aren’t better options. 

When I worked at Amazon, we tried to solve the problem ourselves by carpooling. But relying on one person’s car is risky. If their car breaks down—and with Newburgh’s potholes, that happens often—it leaves everyone stranded. Amazon’s attendance policies are so strict that being late by a few minutes can cost you your job. But instead of offering solutions, they tell workers to figure it out themselves. Even in snowstorms, when other workplaces are more flexible, Amazon expects you to show up—and their parking lots aren’t even plowed. It’s frustrating and unfair.

Public transit could change everything—it gives people access to jobs, reduces financial stress, and ensures we’re treated with dignity. If employers like Amazon partnered with transit agencies to run shuttles or invested in bus routes to their facilities, it would make life easier for thousands of workers. People shouldn’t have to choose between paying for a ride and paying for rent, and they shouldn’t have to risk their lives walking to work at 3 a.m.

Public transit is essential to working families. Our local leaders must prioritize it by expanding bus service between job sites like Amazon and population centers like Newburgh and Goshen instead of spending over a billion dollars to widen Route 17.

Williams is a community organizer with For the Many and a resident of Newburgh, NY.