It’s easy to look at the short length of the proposed Red-Blue Connector – less than half a mile – and mistake it for a project with small impact. Nothing could be further from the truth.
James Aloisi
Posted inOpinion
Yes, the MBTA operating budget has increased significantly – and that’s a good thing
To provide the services we need, want, and expect from our public transit system, the T needs to do more things and hire more people and pay them competitively. There’s nothing controversial or troubling about this.
Posted inOpinion
Why the MBTA’s electric bus mandate is a bad idea
Massachusetts would do substantially more to reduce carbon emissions if it invested in an electric regional rail system with 15-30 minute frequencies that enabled more people to take the train rather than drive.
Posted inOpinion
Bus and bike lane brouhaha part of bigger transportation battle
Expanding bus and bike lanes is a forward-looking way to approach an important matter: the fair sharing of a finite public space.
Posted inOpinion
Transportation funding plan falls short
The Transportation Funding Task Force report and recommendations do not represent a breakthrough moment, but more of the same.
Posted inOpinion
3 critical transportation issues we must confront in 2025
At the state level, 2025 presents a generational opportunity to reverse the failed policies of the past that have left us with the unacceptable status quo of chronic traffic congestion, substandard sustainable access to key regional destinations, degraded air quality, and poor land use.
Posted inOpinion
How Frank Bellotti helped launch my career — and saved my life
Frank Bellott, who died at 101, led a large, impactful life, not because of its extraordinary length, but because of what he did, and the ways he served as a role model and mentor, and shaped much of Massachusetts public life over more than three decades.
Posted inOpinion
The Allston I-90 project: once again off the rails
It was disappointing when Secretary of Transportation Monica Tibbits-Nutt announced that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation was embarking on a path forward for Allston Landing that backtracked on prior commitments to the impacted communities and may jeopardize (and in some ways reverse) the project’s commitment to providing important environmental, economic, and social justice outcomes.
Posted inOpinion
Bruce Mohl made CommonWealth must-reading — and brought me back into civic life
CommonWealth Beacon editor Bruce Mohl retired last week after 16 years. Longtime opinion contribtor Jim Aloisi offered this tribute and reflection on the mark he made. I’VE BEEN A somewhat […]
Posted inOpinion
My roadmap for funding the state’s transportation system
Ultimately, Massachusetts’ political leaders need to do two things next year: stop the T from falling off the coming fiscal cliff, and then build a financial bridge enabling the T to reach across the chasm to the other side, which is the future. That means not simply solving the fiscal cliff crisis but making essential and strategic investments in a better transit system.
Posted inOpinion
Flap over zoning appointee really about old Boston vs. new
Stories about Mayor Michelle Wu’s decision not to reappoint the longtime chair of the Boston Zoning Commission have been turned into a manufactured controversy. Boston mayors get to appoint people to municipal boards who support their agenda.
Posted inOpinion
Bike lane brouhaha a test of Boston’s resolve
The great Florentine observer of human nature, Nicolo Machiavelli, famously wrote, “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Boston leaders are learning that lesson anew as they push to end the era of automobile dominance in urban mobility.
Posted inOpinion
Biden’s candidacy has to end
The only way the Democratic Party can win the upcoming elections is to be perceived as fresh, new, dynamic.
Is this fair? When has politics ever been fair? This is not about fairness but about reality.
Posted inOpinion
Senate needs to get in line with House, Healey on transit funding
In brief, the House takes Gov. Maura Healey’s budget and, in several ways, improves it.
Posted inOpinion
Let’s get our terminology right on road pricing
Road pricing can be introduced as a way to manage traffic congestion, but that only works if we also significantly improve public transportation alternatives, because the traffic management/congestion reduction benefits of road pricing go hand-in-hand with providing enough people with viable public transit alternatives that it makes a difference to highway levels of service.
Posted inOpinion
About $115 billion — that’s what it might take to fund the MBTA over next 15 years
Here is the exercise I would like to recommend to the governor and her leadership team, and indeed to each of us: What is the public transit and rail system we want operating in metro Boston in 2040?
Posted inOpinion
First steps toward a coherent transportation revenue plan
These issues – the short-term need to generate ample net new revenue for the MBTA and the state regional transit authorities (RTAs), and the long-term need to find a permanent, fair, and viable replacement for the gas tax – intersect, and it’s important to understand this as policymakers decide what course to take.
Posted inOpinion
EV charging can get very complicated
There are many factors that make EV charging infrastructure much more complicated than refueling a car with petrol or diesel. One simply cannot draw parallels between the two.
Posted inOpinion
Why is EV adoption slowing down in the US?
Let’s start with a simple and obvious reason for the EV sales slowdown. Electric Vehicles still cost a lot. Despite a rash of EV price reductions in 2023, EVs still have a hefty price premium.
Posted inOpinion
A need for speed on MBTA, transportation funding
We cannot wait until the crisis of lost gas tax revenue is upon us. Now is the time to consider what will replace this unpopular tax and whether that replacement revenue will come from one or from multiple sources.
Posted inOpinion
MIT students propose better ways to connect Kendall Sq. and Logan
Students taking my Urban Planning and Policy class at MIT this fall were given an assignment: come up with a viable plan to improve travel between Kendall and Logan via some form of public transportation.
Posted inOpinion
The MBTA is in crisis. Let’s treat it that way.
AT A CRITICAL moment in Shakespeare’s King Lear, the raging, aging king bellows into the fury of a great storm, defying nature to “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, […]
Posted inOpinion
Are we being ‘yessed to death’ on Red-Blue connector?
MY MOTHER was a very exacting person, and I can remember times when she asked me to do something that I really didn’t want to do (most likely attend a […]
Posted inOpinion
Taking stock of the T after 6 months under Healey
IT’S BEEN ABOUT six months since the Healey-Driscoll Administration took office, an opportune moment to assess its performance in connection with the revitalization of the beleaguered MBTA. Let’s look at […]