Massachusetts needs to lean into public transit
Earlier this month, the Massachusetts House of Representatives decided to shelve its debate of Gov. Charlie Baker’s $18-billion transportation bond bill until 2020, postponing discussions on the impactful issue instead of trying to meet a somewhat arbitrary 2019 deadline. This is a wise decision, as something as complex as transportation reform needs to be fully vetted given its immense expense and long-ranging implications.
As state legislators go behind closed doors to understand the issue better before arriving at a comprehensive strategy, we urge them to consider a solution placing high priority on public transit, including increased commuter rail frequency between Central and Eastern Massachusetts, reduced or even free bus service, and more efforts to reduce last-mile issues for our top employers.
Yes, Massachusetts’ aging road and bridge infrastructure needs to be improved and made safe; but the solution to the state’s main transportation issues lies in getting more cars off the road. Commuters spend hours on roads and highways from Boston to Worcester because there are too many other drivers on the road, not because the infrastructure isn’t up to snuff. In order to get more cars off the road in Central Massachusetts, the public transit options need to be made much more viable.
The commuter rail is a great asset to communities in MetroWest, North County and Greater Worcester; and Union Station in Worcester has already spun off significant nearby development. But for the commuter rail to have a robust enough schedule to get people out of their cars and onto the train from Central Massachusetts to Greater Boston, we need trains to run much more frequently. Currently, the commuter rail schedule offers strange and often inconvenient times for people to travel to their offices, with hours-long service gaps in the afternoon. To reach a critical mass of service the Worcester to South Station schedule each day should at least be doubled from its current 20, and tripled if trains are to depart every 15-20 minutes. This would drive a significant increase in commuters.
In May, the Worcester Regional Research Bureau put out a thought-provoking report on the declining ridership of the Worcester Regional Transit Authority bus system. The WRRB suggested if the system were made completed free, ridership would drastically increase, not to mention the benefits to lower-income households who rely on buses as their main transportation option. WRTA collects about $3 million in fares annually, so the cost of going fare-free would be manageable, especially considering the cost savings of not having to collect fares. If the state transportation bill were to fund a pilot program for a fare-free Worcester service (or simply fund a permanent switch to fare-free), more people would view the bus system as a viable option. Worcester is filling up with more younger workers living in the downtown area, and the preference for a number of these folks is to go without a car. The more we can make urban life navigable without automobiles, the more attractive Worcester will become for this key demographic.
Outside of the main area WRTA serves, workers using commuter rail are plagued by last-mile issues, particularly in MetroWest communities like Framingham and Marlborough. The issue here is while workers can take the commuter rail to get from their homes to the train stations in the communities where they work, they have no good option to get from the train station to their offices. Certain communities like Marlborough and companies like Boston Scientific offer shuttles and bicycles, but these are limited options. The state’s transportation reform should take a hard look at this issue and explore solutions like increased service with smaller busses.
One of the few issues able to derail Greater Boston’s booming economy is the traffic congestion plaguing the region, and those issues are increasingly spilling out into Central Massachusetts. Rather than exploring transportation reform to make motorists’ lives a little easier, the state’s focus should be on getting more commuters off the road.
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