Make Boston a More Equitable City?

HOW A 2015 BLIZZARD HELPED SHAPE THE CITY’S TRANSPORTATION INITIATIVE, WHICH AIMS TO TRANSFORM THE LIVES OF ALL ITS RESIDENTS

In the winter of 2015, Mayor Marty Walsh sent a large box truck, with a window cut out on the side, through 20 different neighborhoods of Boston. The purpose of the truck was to elicit feedback and take questions from residents as part of the ɿrst comprehensive transportation planning initiative the city had held in 15 years. The truck’s journey happened to coincide with a series of record-breaking blizzards that crippled the transportation network, shrinking roadways down to a fraction of their already constrained size and forcing delays and closures on many of the city’s rail lines. While all this was going on, we were asking residents for their ideas about the future of mobility in our city.

Despite the cold and the snow—or perhaps because of it—thousands of Bostonians shared their thoughts on how Boston should plan for the year 2030. The overwhelming majority of people wanted three very simple things: roadways that are safer, public transit that is more reliable and better access to mobility.

The experience helped us shape our autonomous vehicle program. Three years ago, local leaders gathered at City Hall and mulled the idea that perhaps this new and much-hyped technology could help us achieve these goals. How could we use it to transform the lives all of our residents?

In partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Boston Consulting Group, we surveyed thousands of people and used their

answers to build a transportation demand model that incorporates autonomous ride-sharing services. We learned that we could move more people with fewer vehicles, but that the average vehicle would travel more miles each day, and that the savings in travel time will be relatively minimal. But perhaps the biggest insight was that with AVS, we would need 48 percent fewer parking spaces. That would free up land for bus and bicycle lanes, wider sidewalks, open spaces and housing. It would be the biggest land grab in Boston since we ɿlled in the Back Bay in the late 1800s. It has the potential to reduce the cost of home ownership, mitigate coastal ʀooding and, most critically, help us become a more equitable city.

But equity isn’t just about space; it’s also about access. The average commute in Boston is 29 minutes. In the neighborhood of Mattapan, where 82 percent of the population is African-american and the median household income is more than $20,000 less than the city’s average, a quarter of residents experience a daily commute of over an hour. Neighborhoods like Mattapan need better transportation options. Are ʀeets of autonomous vehicles part of the solution? Maybe. Is making more roadway space available to run faster bus and train services and safe bicycle connections part of the solution? There is no doubt.

The city’s plan calls for shifting more people out of single-occupancy vehicles and get them walking, biking and taking public transit. We have policies, programs and infrastructure projects to support those goals. We are collaborating with AV companies to help us bring the public (and the public sector) along with this technology in a way that respects people’s questions and insights. We’ve created test plans with provisions for ensuring that passengers in AV pilot programs focus on aging and mobility-impaired populations. With our partners in the state and neighboring cities, we’ve baked this commitment to equity into our regional agreement on testing.

We are just beginning this journey, but on a good day I think I can see a shift to a people-centered paradigm for new mobility that involves fewer parking spots and more city. Now, we just have to get the public policy right.