Worker Transit Authority

Date: Spring 2012

Location: Vacant building space, downtown Tucson, Arizona.

Organization: Worker Transit Authority

Collaborators: Jeffrey Buesing, Ben Olmstead, Alex Von Bergen, Peter Wilke, Tyler Jorgenson, Siri Trumble, Michael Sullivan, Dwight Metzger, Ron and Patricia Schwabe, Megatrend Construction, Phil Lipman, Brian Andrews, Patti Van Leer, and the Apparatchiks (BJ Bartlett, Darcie Hazelbaker, Dale Rush, Jeffrey Buesing, Simon Donovan, Katie Rutterer, Kimi Eisele, Amy Von Harrington, Dana Decuzzi, Eric Sterner, Annie Kurtin, Madeline Gradillas, Robin Shambach, and Patrick Bradley) Support: The project is funded through the Tucson Pima Arts Council / Kresge Arts in Tucson II: P.L.A.C.E. Initiative Grants. In kind support from Reproductions Inc., Peach Properties, Organic Kitchen & Zocalo Magazine. Letters of support from City of Tucson Department of Transportation, City of Tucson Ward I and VI, Living Streets Alliance, Downtown Partnership, Drachman Institute, School of Geography and Development University of Arizona, School of Architecture University of Arizona, City of Tucson Office of Conservation & Sustainable Development.

What if private industry participated fully in our cities' transportation systems - not just naming stops after themselves, but actually ran a single line? What if the laws, customs, and norms that regulate traffic were connected directly to nature? What if the last thing on our mind when we got into our personal automobile, the bus, our bicycle, or walking shoes was efficiency; that we actually enjoyed moving through the city and took our time? Traffic, transit, moving through the city. It has always been an issue. We continually try to fix the problems that arise from these necessary components of our lives. We build more roads, we invent different forms of transportation. we create new zoning laws. We create a variety of economic incentives. Enter the worker transit authority (wta), a new form of authority that investigates and produces projects for the built environment through the convergence of planning and art.

The exhibit, the Worker Transit Authority, is a display of mock planning projects created by a mock planning authority. The Worker Transit Authority asks the community, "How do you move through the city?" And, for three weekends, Tucson residents participated in this important discussion about land use, infrastructure, transportation, environment and distribution.Like actual transit authority public processes, the project is a form of civic engagement, but unlike actual transit authority pubic processes the WTA events are fun! The project wraps art, parody, and beauty to format new and radical notions of how we can function as individuals and as a society. The projects include: an overview of the Worker Transit Authority (WTA), the Consumer Transit System (CTS), the Bicycle-centric Approach to Planning (BcAP), and Distribute This! (DT!). The exhibits include interactive maps, brochures, surveys, drawings, sculptures, videos and text.

Photography by Roy Chamberlin