The Ticket to Ride Free
Both the suffragettes and the Freedom Riders organized using transportation. Here's why that matters when looking closer at recent rollbacks on public safety.
A note on newsletter circulation: I post the latest updates for Route 24 in the Notes section rather than have any scheduling changes park in your inbox. If you have feedback you’d like to share, such as ideas for what you’d like to see in that space, please leave a comment or send an e-mail my way: route24@substack.com.
The Route 24 Roadmap
I’m on a mission to help restore public trust. This is where I look closer at moments of global and national significance to show how cycles of misinformation and disinformation disorient communities.
Probable Cause is an XR civic education gaming experience that puts you in the driver’s seat during a routine traffic stop. Route 24 is its companion newsletter that invites you to explore our creative process on the project as we build, deconstructing traffic stop data, policing trends, and their community impact to jumpstart public awareness and, in turn, mobilize narrative change.
Driver’s Ed parks in your inbox on Mondays to shift your gears on key policy debates and test drive people-powered solutions.
Here’s where you come in. Every follow, share, and subscription helps to keep this work going and reach the people the mainstream media often misses. For riders in a position to financially contribute, your dollars support the creative team with the critical resources needed to iterate, travel, and scale.
Start your engines…
In this issue: It’s April 1916. 23 women from The Congressional Union for Women Suffrage (CU) board a train at Washington D.C.’s Union Station and embark on a five-week tour to recruit women voters residing in the West. These rides became known as the “Suffrage Special”.
Then it’s the spring of 1961. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organizes interracial trips with civil rights activists along interstate routes on public transit to test the limits of Jim Crow laws in the South. These rides became known as the “Freedom Rides”.
Both the Suffrage Special and Freedom Rides were organized using transportation as the pathway to future progress. Given recent rollbacks on public safety, such as the federalizing of the D.C. police, the redistricting in Texas, and the targeted ICE raids in California, it’s worth considering how urban design, transit policy, and community organizing intersect to improve our moral navigation.
Stay the course,
Sam
Sam Reetz, is a filmmaker, performer, and founder at Millennial Ethics, creating narrative solutions to complex issues.
Follow her work on Bluesky, Substack and Instagram.
Traffic School
Michigan’s “Fair and Reasonable” Reforms Allowed Car Insurers to Charge More in Black Neighborhoods
The SEPTA funding debate digs up Pennsylvania’s perennial rural-vs.-urban divide
The Feds' hidden immigration weapon: Virginia's surveillance network
Trucks Entering Alligator Alcatraz Are Hiding Their Logos, DOT Numbers
Driving Test
Further Reading:
‘Memification of Politics’: What to Know About Jubilee Media’s Viral Debate Show, Surrounded
Galvanized by Trump, These States Are Passing Harsh New Laws Against Immigrants
