Gene Russianoff
American public-interest lawyer
Gene Russianoff is staff attorney and chief spokesman for the Straphangers Campaign, a New York City-based public transport advocacy group that focuses primarily on subway and bus services run by New York City Transit. At the same time, Russianoff has also served as a government reform advocate for New York Public Interest Research Group.
Education
Russianoff was raised in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and is a graduate of Brooklyn College and Harvard Law School. He has worked for New York Public Interest Research Group (Straphangers Campaign's parent organization) since his graduation from Harvard Law in 1978. In 1983, he was a Revson Fellow at Columbia University.
Work
Gene Russianoff has advocated for subway commuters since about 1980. He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Since 2002, he has promoted in coalition bus rapid transit for New York City. BRT—whose current New York City version is called Select Bus Service—gives buses priority, resulting in greater speeds and reliability at much lower cost than new subway lines. To further awareness of the need to provide better bus service in New York City, Russianoff and Transportation Alternatives annually bestow "uncovered" Pokey and Schleppie Awards to the slowest and least reliable bus routes in New York City.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5531427. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1978, 1983, 1980 and 2002.
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