Old mindset exacerbates new traffic problems

Old mindset exacerbates new traffic problems
Thursday, March 29, 2018

Commuting in Greater Boston has become a colossal headache, but it's more than just our roads and trains that seem gummed up. Maybe our thinking is too.

That's the argument Globe columnist Dante Ramos makes today.

We have been so stuck on the idea that the region is one that sees an exodus of people for sunnier and faster growing spots, he says, that we haven't taken stock of the fact that we're growing too, even if not at the pace of places like Arizona or Florida. Ramos points to new Census data showing that the four counties that make up the bulk of Greater Boston have added 250,000 residents since 2000. And there are 300,000 more people working in the Boston area today than was the case in 2010.

Earlier this week, the Globe's Beth Teitell documented just how much worse traffic has gotten. The examples were jarring. A decade ago, a commuter bus from Fairhaven to Back Bay made the trip in 90 minutes. Today, that trip takes 130 minutes. An express bus from North Londonderry, New Hampshire, to South Station clocked the trip at 65 minutes in 2008. Today, it's a 100-minute slog. And on and on.

Despite the evidence piling up on just how much longer commuters are stuck in traffic, Ramos says we're stuck in a mindset more oriented toward fixing 2000-era problems than dealing with the new reality of a growing region.
   

    Time to talk about buses

"So far, Baker has taken a Mr. Fix-It approach, which works up to a point," he says of the strategy for a creaky MBTA from the state's three-yards-in-a-cloud-of-dust governor. The reform before revenue mantra may have been defensible a decade ago, says Ramos. It looks less so with the addition of 250,000 new people to the region.


Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, meanwhile, has been timid about removing parking spaces from streets, Ramos says, in order to create bus-only lanes that would greatly speed trips for beleaguered riders.

There are plenty of ideas being generated from groups like Transportation for Massachusetts, which is pushing congestion price tolling, and TransitMatters, which is advocating a major remake of the commuter rail system. Legislation has also been filed -- and stalled in the House -- to allow local option taxes to support transit upgrades.

All that's missing, it seems, is the leadership to make things happen.

MICHAEL JONAS