Evaluating Phoenix's Public Transit Futures Under the Scope of a Green New Deal

The global climate crisis threatens to negatively affect all human activity on earth. Within the United States, the Green New Deal is the only proposal that plans to address and stop the climate crisis in full, promising net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, green jobs, rebuilt infrastructure, access to resources, and reparations for frontline and vulnerable communities, achieved within it's 10-year mobilization period. If enacted, public transportation would be one of the first areas for intervention. Within the Phoenix Valley, a shift to public transportation would not only aid in stopping the climate crisis, but would improve resident equity, comfortability, and increase quality of life. In order to build up an effective public transportation system, all potential and current obstacles that public transit faces and will face in the wake of a Green New Deal must be analyzed: local government capacity, resident attitudes, current city layout and urban sprawl, the security of federal funding, and corporate opposition are addressed in this thesis. The security of federal funding and corporate opposition are the biggest obstacles of transit growth and create four distinct scenarios that the Phoenix Valley can utilize to understand progress towards the Green New Deal's Goals.