The MBTA is bigger than Newton, but when it has a spectacular fail like this week’s, it affects many, many Newton commuters.
Even dedicated car-commuters are affected as snow-bound streets make driving dangerous–and there are no good public transit alternatives.
And if the more than a million daily T commuters switch to driving? Yeah, that’ll work.
I volunteer with the Transportation Advisory Group, a dedicated group of 8 volunteers and 8 terrific city staff, who are trying to expand transportation alternatives in Newton by upgrading our (street & sidewalk) infrastructure and positioning the City for better T service.
But what we do is only a complement to the state’s transportation system.
Unfortunately, the state has not been investing in maintenance. Expansion is sexy, but buying new buses and rail cars, fixing switch heaters, and, yes, even planning for hurricanes like Sandy to hit at HIGH tide by protecting the underground tracks is essential to a working system.
But T is just the canary in the coal mine. This isn’t just about trains and buses. Roads and bridges have not been kept up either. More funds for cities & towns to maintain roads have come through in the last few years, but according to the state Transportation Finance Report Massachusetts had more than 550 structurally unsound bridges in 2003–and we are just one year into a plan to fix them–more slowly than they need to be fixed.
Here’s a visualization for you:
The legislature needs to hear from us that we cannot continue underfunding the basic networks that sustain our lives and our economy. See what you can do here.
Andrea,
As I have mentioned earlier on this blog, check out a book written by an ex Newton Citizen / Harvard Economics Professor, now heading up Columbia’s Earth Institute, Jeffery Sachs, entitled ” The Price of Civilization “. Jeff’s answer,.. Taxes !
PS
See same on Charlie Rose /Jeffrey Sachs. YouTube oct 06, 2011
BPB – what’s your solution for maintaining our public infrastructure?
Nathan,
I don’t know what is immediately / legally possible, but we have to maintain /fix what we have.
Cut benefits on sliding scale to public employees ? Stop educating METCO students ?
Use CDBG funding instead of on Housing ?
Increase taxation on RealEstate ? Maybe a graduated taxation or higher valuation on new construction ? A sliding scale taxation on Real Estate ?
Slow down the increasing burden on city expenditures due to the promotion of population increases into the city ??
Spend more now on MWRA projects to cut long term / future burdens ?
OK , ready , aim, fire ! Tell us how this is all impossible !
PS,
And stop tearing down perfectly good school buildings and pissing away monies on new monuments to politicians and school committee members ??
One part of Newton’s infrastructure that the City has committed to (it sort of has to because it has been mandated to do so by the regulatory agencies) is the water/sewer/stormwater systems. The work to address inflow & infiltration in the sewer system is already saving the city money and the $42 million it will spend over the next 22 years on stormwater will mitigate flooding and help clean up the environment. But Friday’s water main burst in Waban demonstrates there is a lot more that needs to be done, and that routine maintenance cannot be overlooked. Kudos to the current administration and Ald. Crossley and Ald. Fuller for working so hard to put together a plan and get the Board of Aldermen’s approval of something that has been neglected for decades.
All of this essential work will be paid for by the ratepayers, i.e., every residential, commercial and other customers who are hooked up to the City’s water/sewer system. With the roads, bridges and the MBTA, the highway and bridge tolls and T fares are simply not enough to pay for all the work that needs to be done. You can only raise or add so many new tolls and fares before people stop using the toll roads and the T and find another way to get to work. Just look at how the T parking lots emptied out and everyone started parking on the street in Auburndale and West Newton when the T raised the fee from $1 to $4 a day.
We are just all going to have to bite the bullet and accept higher taxes or expect more broken bridges, highways and trolleys that prevent us from getting to work or worse.
@ted. Yes. We need some reliable funding stream and the same kind of excellent oversight MWRA has on water utilities for our transportation infrastructure. And I fully agree on the terrific work of ald fuller & Crossley
I think Representative Geoff Diehl said it best when he noted that 49% of MA fuel taxes diverted to mass transit and the MBTA still can’t manage operations. Instead, they’ve spent $13M on a connector line to CT that CT has chosen not to do, $23M for a special rail to Gilette Stadium, and $190M for new rail cars and 40 of them were defective and are being repaired. (Oh, and does anyone remember the “Yes On 1” campaign when our opponents said all the money is needed for “Roads & Bridges!!!!”)
Also, Zoning and Planing Chair Brooke Lipsitt should always require the full mitigation money requested by the City Engineer for Inflow and Infiltration for any Residential project; not ask the developer for a ratio of 1:1, or 4:1, when 8:1 has been requested.
@Isabelle–funding for I/I work is certainly important, and developer fees help. But Newton also needs to deal with stormwater infrastructure–both to control pollution into the Lake and the Charles. A discussion of that happens tonight at Public Facilities, probably starting after 8:30 pm (fire station #3 at 7 pm, streets near Angier after that, then the restructuring of the stormwater fee).
Reform is certainly important at the T and MassDOT, but ultimately, more funding is still needed–see “Maxed Out” – a 2011 report on years of underfunding transportation. It explains the scope and history of the problem, and how the state can spend money smarter. Ultimately, it argues that “faced with a crushing burden of debt, the system lacks the revenue to maintain its current condition, let alone meet future needs.” (link: http://www.t4ma.org/site/wp-content/uploads/Maxed-Out.pdf)
MBTA:
Might
Be
Trains in
April