HERE’S WHAT we know. Traffic congestion in metro Boston has grown, is worsening, and is now measured as the worst in the nation – worse even than Los Angeles. There is no strategy, no plan, to relieve this congestion in a meaningful way. Here’s what we know. Ridership on the MBTA Blue Line is skyrocketing, […]
James Aloisi
Posted inOpinion
Weekday sports victory parades have to stop
LET THE DAY be encapsulated by this message posted from the MBTA Commuter Rail’s twitter account at 8:10 p.m. on Tuesday, February 5: Update: Worcester Train 522 (5:20 pm inbound) is stopped at Boston Landing due to an unruly passenger and is currently 90-100 minutes behind schedule. You read that right – 90-100 minutes behind […]
Posted inOpinion
Boston’s port needs attention
IN A CITY AND REGION with a booming innovation economy, we run the risk of missing opportunities for growth and improvement that are hiding in plain sight. For example, most people know that Massport owns and operates Boston’s Logan International Airport. What gets less public attention, but is equally deserving of recognition, is Massport’s role […]
Posted inTransportation
A Transit Holiday Season
JIM ALOISI likes to write a holiday verse every year for CommonWealth, and this year he went all out. This year’s ditty is a clever take on linking the Red and Blue Lines. You can read/sing it yourself (to the tune of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) or you can listen to Aloisi and Chris Dempsey, […]
Posted inOpinion
Municipal input needed on next T oversight board
THE COMING NEW YEAR will present significant opportunities to advance the cause of sustainable mobility in Massachusetts. It’s not too early to begin to focus on seven specific areas that can (if resolved properly) have a powerfully positive impact on regional and urban mobility and, by extension, our economy and our quality of life. Those […]
Posted inPolitics
Bellotti going strong at 95
FRANK BELLOTTI IS 95, the kind of 95 you’d want to be if you live to be 95. Trim, tan, sharp of mind (but perhaps slower of gait), Bellotti joined me recently to record a CommonWealth Codcast. He is, I’m pretty sure, the oldest living former statewide office holder – he was lieutenant governor from […]
Posted inOpinion
Strapped to the status quo express
MASSACHUSETTS HAS A PROBLEM talking candidly about its transportation revenue needs. This is not a new problem. We have been in its grip for decades, and the result has been public policy based largely upon timidity, small and largely ineffective steps, and creative sound bites. Beginning in 1991, governors have often gone to great lengths […]
Posted inOpinion
Blue Line needs urgent attention
THE MBTA’s BLUE LINE is on the brink. Generally known as the best of the system’s subway services (largely because of its relatively newer, reliable, Siemens subway cars), the Blue Line is increasingly failing to provide riders with the transit service they need and deserve. And prospects are that things will soon be getting worse. […]
Posted inOpinion
Transportation equity: Is it a good thing?
What do we think about when we think about transportation equity? There is regional equity – the question whether every region in a state, or every neighborhood in a city, is equitably treated from a funding perspective. There is modal funding equity, which goes to whether public sector decision makers treat each mode fairly when it comes to the allocation […]
Posted inOpinion
Bustitutions aren’t the only option during shutdowns
THE MBTA RECENTLY ANNOUNCED that the Orange Line would be shut down on weekends between Ruggles and Forest Hills for much of this summer and into the fall. These shutdowns are the consequence of the long-overdue initiative to close the T’s $7.3 billion maintenance backlog. The work coming to the Orange Line now and in […]