The way Akshai Singh sees it, the ongoing debate concerning the future of public transit in Northeast Ohio, especially in Cleveland, was lacking a certain voice: the rider. Enter Clevelanders for Public Transit, a relatively young organization that charges itself with ensuring safe, accessible, affordable, reliable and sustainable public transit for the city's residents.

As for Singh, a Case Western Reserve University graduate with a degree in economics, he's a lifelong transit rider and sees his organization's goal as "improving the value of riders' time and money."

"These people are taking transit daily to get to work or school, but over the last couple of decades, we've seen a lot of deterioration of that value — both their time and money," Singh said. "We're trying to figure out how to stop that backslide." Over the last year, Clevelanders for Public Transit has been a key voice in the ongoing debate over transit funding at the state level and also views itself as crucial in ensuring the public knows about the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's looming fare hikes. This interview has edited for length and clarity.

Where did this passion for public transit come from?

My background is in organizing, and I want to make public finance digestible at a grassroots level for people who don't have access to what the public budget process looks like but are very much impacted by it. I always got to ride the bus as a kid growing up in Iowa and visiting Chicago. But after the invasion of Iraq — I was vehemently opposed to it — I was trying to figure out domestically what the continued drive for oil supremacy impacted.

What's the biggest challenge to confronting this transit issue?

It's typical for there to be a disconnect between an agency and riders, but here there's a big disconnect between what people's stated goals are — like economic development — and the stigmatization of transit riders and what it means to have transit access in an area. Public Square was the embodiment of that, and that debate took up a year of our time. One of the things we've been fighting for is basic dignity in public space for all riders. You couple that with talking about economic development. Despite that being a stated goal for Ohio, the major metros and chambers, transit doesn't seem to be on the radar. This next cut (due to a change in federal regulations resulting in the loss of Medicaid managed-care organization sales tax revenue for transit) isn't even on the radar of the county properly. They don't realize what it means in terms of service and for people's ability to get to work.

RTA acknowledges this reality. The state is the obvious problem, but are there other solutions?

Dollar-to-dollar for state money, Ohio puts in less than Iowa, Vermont or Alaska — and those are not urban powerhouses. This MCO cut is pretty drastic. This governor has been anti-transit and anti-local government for his entire tenure. But the county is letting its bond rating deteriorate because it's throwing money at a renovation deal for The Q while the key public assets the arena relies on are deteriorating. The reason the Red Line wasn't up for the holidays was because the upgrades were being pushed back because we thought we were getting the World Series.

So, there's an acknowledgment stadiums need transit. But there's been no one to ask Dan Gilbert to put money into transit like he did in Detroit (Gilbert's Quicken Loans purchased naming rights to Detroit's M-1 Rail streetcar line). If the state wants to kill our transit system, you need to react to that reality. It shouldn't be on riders to have to do that work.

There's been talk of increasing the county sales tax to support transit. Do you think there's an appetite for that?

Lorain County had attempts to get funding for transit, which failed. That's going against the grain a bit because the public across the country tends to support increasing revenue for public transit. Cuyahoga County has one of the highest sales taxes in the state, so asking for more is a big challenge for voters at this point. But if we had to make an ask of RTA, it would be that they make things interesting for voters.

How so?

By improving the quality of the rider experience. One thing would be to introduce smart cards. Also, this proof of payment situation on the HealthLine is a mess. You're not going to attract more money if riders are uncomfortable because of the presence of transit police or bus delays. That's going to be an impediment. But whether looking at Cuyahoga County or broader tax, if the system looks good and is usable, there would be a will.

There are people who see the value in whatever town who know this is important. Mayors from all over need to be engaged in this conversation. They're going to need to sell it, but RTA is going to need to put itself in a position to be sellable.

How has the whole Public Square debacle — the debate over whether buses should be allowed to go through the Square, rather than around it — colored region-wide transit debate?

Public Square piqued people's interest because it is iconic. Some people were blasé about sending buses through the Square, but once they knew there was an agreement and $12 million in funding was at risk, they backed off. That was a moment we could engage in this conversation a little more seriously. I think Ohio City is ready to talk about bus lanes on West 25th. How do we use these sort of moments like Public Square to move to this next step?

Next year's governor's race is going to be huge. We are looking to make sure this is part of the conversation. A lot of times everyone will say the state is the problem, but you need to say what the state needs to do. There is a lot of federal funding we could be moving to transit.