Mayor honks horn at traffic report
Says drive-time comparisons unfair because of T success
Mayor Martin J. Walsh pushed back on a recent traffic report that claimed Boston had the worst congestion in 2018 — writing in an online post Tuesday that a study calculating drive times tells less than “half the story.”
“Independent analysts have pointed out that this annual report, historically, prioritizes fast driving over steady progress and punishes older, denser cities, where distances are shorter and alternatives to driving are more plentiful,” Walsh wrote in a post to his Medium account. “In Boston, for example, fewer than 50% of commuters travel by car, so a drive-time study is telling less than half the story. Our focus is on helping people move safely and reliably, not just in cars and trucks but on foot, on bikes, and on public transit.” Walsh’s post was in response to the INRIX report Monday that contended an average driver in the city lost $2,291 while waiting in increasingly gridlocked traffic and waited 164 hours stuck at a standstill last year. Boston was the seventh-worst city in the country in 2017 based on the total amount of traffic in one full day. But, in 2018, the study shifted focus to time lost due to congestion. Washington, D.C., ranked second, while Los Angeles, a city notorious for bad traffic, was fifth.
Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack voiced concerns about the report’s finding, but added that state officials want to use a wider scope to address traffic problems.
“We didn’t really need a report from INRIX to tell us that congestion is a growing problem in Massachusetts, particularly in Boston,” Pollack said. “I think our goal is to understand why. Why is congestion worse? Because then for every why, there’s something we can do differently.”
Charlie Chieppo, a transportation expert from government watchdog agency Pioneer Institute, said the issue is only getting worse.
“This is a huge problem that’s doing harm to the economy and holding back economic growth,” said Chieppo. “We have to get serious about how to deal with this issue.”
Chieppo says focusing on the MBTA and a better path for pedestrians isn’t enough. He pointed to a recent proposal from the Carbon Free Boston report, which suggests a $5 fee for drivers coming in and out of the city as a potential solution. Walsh shut down the proposal and said the city wouldn’t be implementing that particular recommendation “at this time.”
“I think that it is something we really need to take seriously and consider,” Chieppo said. “Folks may not like it, but it would reduce congestion.”
Chris Dempsey, the director of transportation for Massachusetts, agrees.
“That’s a tool that competitor cities are using,” he said. “I hear people talking about ‘Beat LA,’ but I don’t want to beat them in a traffic contest. So, we need to take this seriously.”