Mike Pratt has been fighting for the subways and congestion pricing for over 45 years. First, as Campaign Director of the Straphangers Campaign, where he and Gene Russianoff imagined “tolling the East River bridges” as a critical piece of rebuilding an affordable, functional mass transit system.

After spending a decade as a civil rights lawyer, Mike returned to transit activism in 1996 as an early funder of the congestion pricing campaign at the Scherman Foundation. He then served as Scherman’s President and CEO from 2009 until his retirement in 2026, helping to mobilize funding for a series of congestion pricing and mass transit efforts including Riders Alliance, Straphangers Campaign, Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Transportation Alternatives, Move NY, and many other coalitions who have fought relentlessly and successfully.

As a former community organizer and long-time movement builder and racial justice champion, he is especially proud of encouraging the creation of Riders Alliance, which he claims is “the best thing to happen to the transit system for a long, long time.” As a native New Yorker and lover of the subway, Mike is forever grateful to be part of its rejuvenation.