Commuting doesn’t have to be an absolute nightmare
‘Our region can’t survive, let alone thrive, without a safe, reliable, and affordable transportation system.’
KATE DINEEN Chief executive, A Better City
The Sumner Tunnel began a two-month shutdown for extensive renovations last week.
Drivers hit heavy traffic coming into Boston over the Tobin Bridge and through Ted Williams Tunnel on Tuesday, the first big commuting day following the lightly traveled July 4th week.
Unlike the MBTA’s abrupt decision to shutter the Orange Line for a month last summer, closing the 89-year-old tunnel has been well organized. Still, it’s another in a litany of disruptions that have exasperated drivers, subway and bus riders, and commuter rail passengers for years.
There’s no denying that Greater Boston’s troubled transportation network has become an economic liability, just like the housing shortage and high taxes. Like we need another reason for people and businesses to avoid or abandon the state.
“Our region can’t survive, let alone thrive, without a safe, reliable, and affordable transportation system,” Kate Dineen, chief executive of A Better City, a business-backed group that has long pushed for transit and infrastructure improvements, said in an interview. Aversion to coping with a daily commute, she said, “is the number one hurdle to bringing people back to the office.”
Yet Dineen is optimistic that a turnaround is achievable.
Her new hope starts with the new transportation leadership brought in by Governor Maura Healey: Gina Fiandaca in the top job at
MassDOT; Thomas Glynn, the new MBTA chairman; and perhaps most significantly, recently installed MBTA general manager Phillip Eng.
“They have the experience, values, and credibility to make the system better,” Dineen said. “The previous administration seemed more focused on technical metrics like feet of rail and track replaced than on real tangible impacts to riders like travel time saved.”
But the new team’s talents will be squandered if they don’t get the money required to tackle some very big challenges. Consider:
Nearly a quarter of the T’s subway tracks are under speed restrictions, up from 6 percent at the start of the year.
Weekday bus and subway service has been cut by 20 percent this summer compared with four years ago.
The Boston metro area had the fourth-worst traffic congestion of all cities globally in 2022, according to the INRIX traffic scorecard for 2022, up from No. 18 the previous year.
Half of the $1 billion to $2 billion in annual revenue generated by the new “millionaires tax” is slated to go to transportation investments, on top of already-planned funding. But that’s a drop in the bucket.
The draft of MassDOT’s most recent capital investment plan proposes $14.5 billion in state transportation spending from 2024 to 2028. The MBTA’s capital investment plan for the same period lists $9.2 billion in outlays.
According to a 2019 report by A Better City, $50 billion will be needed over the next two decades to keep roads and mass transit in good repair, expand capacity, and “modernize and decarbonize.”
With inflation and four more years of wear-and-tear on the system, the total now would be significantly higher. Even with federal money and previously authorized state bond sales, the state is going to need additional revenue sources.
Dineen said there are many options to weigh, including new highway tolls, congestion pricing, increasing the gasoline tax, and expanding fees on services like Uber and Lyft.
“Roadway pricing strategies have the potential to raise revenue, while encouraging transit use and reducing traffic and emissions — and the legislature is currently contemplating establishing a mobility pricing commission to assess options,” she said.
Dineen said the state should also consider using millionaires tax revenue to back the sale of bonds, which would increase the amount of money available for transportation spending.
There would no doubt be strong pushback on each and every one of these options. So consensus-building among lawmakers, municipalities, the public, and the business community needs to get started now.
Just as important, Fiandaca and Eng must change the notoriously insular and risk-averse cultures of MassDOT and the MBTA while making both organizations far more transparent and accountable.
Otherwise, a faster, more reliable commute will just be a false hope.