Boston Globe: “In Lawrence, a long-struggling city heavily populated by immigrants and the working poor, the decision to spend a small portion of surplus cash on access to transportation is so blindingly simple that it turns out it can actually be a little bit difficult to get your head around: FREE BUS?”
“In some of the poorest communities, this is the only mode of transportation,” Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera said. He’d heard Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu advocate for making the T free, and he got to thinking: Maybe the bus could do more than move people from place to place. “Maybe,” he said, “it should be a way to uplift communities.”
Best type of incentive for public transportation!
Agreed!
Beyond helping the folks struggling to make ends meet, a free MBTA would make its pain points more tolerable. Fares innately creates an expectation of levels of service.
IMO, if reducing carbon is as high of a priority as many say it should be, the sequence should be….
Service -> Ridership -> Density
…and not the other way around.
Would this work in Newton? Without a bus only lane, you’ll be standing on a completely FULL bus crawling in traffic on the pike.
Bus only lane on pike and local roads leading to pike with frequent schedule and free = no brainer to reduce pollution.
Wonder why it cant get done?
How about making school busses free???? Picking up a child at South, Brown or Oak Hill is terrible. Make the busses free and efficient and it will cut down on the traffic at the schools.
Great idea. Another one I have seen: in Switzerland, whenever you check into a hotel they give you a free public transportation pass for the duration of your stay. Why can’t we do that? We could hike the hotel tax a little bit to cover it.
Chris Dempsey at Transportation for Mass. has pointed out for a while now that if we institute congestion pricing we could have the funds to do something like this. Other advocates have called for things like tolling for through trips on other state highways and roads (everything from I-93 to tolling those who use Needham Street as a cut-through from Needham to Route 9), and a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) tax. The simplest solution, however, is just to increase the gas tax.
Data on the drivers in the state shows that the vast majority of drivers are more affluent, which runs counter to the common the “these tolls/taxes are regressive” argument. Plus, all this additional income could be used to pay for upgrades, bus lanes, and reduce the fares.
Matt Lai says:
> a free MBTA would make its pain points more tolerable.
> Fares innately creates an expectation of levels of service.
Offering a service creates an expectation of levels of service.
People need to get to work on time. They need to get to school/after-school pickup on time. That’s what our society and people’s lives run on.
The working poor and middle class are the most vulnerable to unreliable transportation. For them, being late for a job likely means losing their job, with catastrophic consequences. For those who are working two or more jobs, reliable early morning and after-hours service are the difference between feeding your kids and wondering if you can.
I appreciate the decision by Lawrence officials to address local concerns any way they see fit. But locally subsidizing fares can only go so far. We don’t have local control of transportation. Local communities can’t make things really better alone. For instance, we can’t by ourselves compensate for the impact increased ridership may have on the system.
I think there are a lot of merits to the idea of free or low cost transportation. But price is only a piece of the puzzle if you want a functional system of free and ubiquitous transit.
The situation regarding school buses is quite different. We have local control. We directly feel the effects of parents or kids driving to school. The cost/benefit tradeoff for parents is much clearer. But we’d still have to plan ahead to deal with success. Free and less reliable isn’t a solution.
Reducing congestion is not only a Climate issue and economic issue but a health issue. Air pollution has recently been linked to brain cancer and depression, on top of all the other know health risks. Who’s breathing the most polluted air – people sitting in their cars stuck in traffic jams. Idling cars & trucks emit more pollution than moving cars.
All public transportation should be free and massively improved. MassDOT spending millions on a new fare collection system is beyond foolish.
https://nypost.com/2019/11/13/air-pollution-from-traffic-linked-to-brain-cancer-for-first-time-study/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/18/depression-and-suicide-linked-to-air-pollution-in-new-global-study
Bugek, I hate to break it to you but most of the 502, 504 and other 500 busses are ALREADY standing room only at rush hour by the time they get onto the Pike. It is a rugby scrum trying to get on first to claim a seat at Newton Corner.
Addendum to the above: hopefully the state follows thru on electrifying the commuter rail, and our elected officials don’t mortgage our future by spending millions on single platform stations that will preclude rapid transit style service there.
Show of hands, who us willing to vote for a gas tax increase to fund the program?
*Raises Hand
Even better if it would be possible for the City could tack a couple cents on to improve roadways and sidewalks. In the 20+ years I have been in Newton the only thing that has deteriorated worse is the D line.
@Bugek I’ve talked with some of the city council-elects and one of them (I don’t know if the elect wants to be named so I will keep the elect anonymous for the time being) wants to have a bus only lane on the Pike. The elect really is passionate about this since the elect realizes the only way people will ditch their cars for public transit is if its runs faster than the car. I’m pretty sure the elect will make several allies on the city council and I will definitely speak in favor of the elect’s proposal.
About time. Now we should have a fare-free T.
@Mike Halle. I’ve read more frequent stories recently from across the country about low income employees losing jobs when a transit breakdown, or some other event beyond their control, causes them to be late for work. Poor transit coupled with stressful and harried working conditions. Time to organize. We are all so fortunate to be living here regardless of the daily challenges we all face.
@ Terry. All of your suggestions make sense, but I sense they will be a long time coming because the immediate task is to get the system we have off ofwhat is essentially a life support condition. Rebuilding this foundation has to take place before adding a lot more riders to the trolley and subway systems. @ Terry again. See you in Braintree in January.