WHAT I REMEMBER most about September 11, 2001, was feeling lucky that I could walk home. I was at a meeting at the Meridien Hotel in Post Office Square, and […]
James Aloisi
Posted inOpinion
Rural transportation article fell short
A recent article in Commonwealth that undertook to advance the worthy goal of transportation investment equity for rural counties and communities in Massachusetts fell so far short of making its […]
Posted inOpinion
RFK – and what could have been
THE MEMORIES flood back, of the exuberance of youth and the thrill of believing, if just for a moment, that you were making a difference. Caught up in the windstorm […]
Posted inOpinion
Fed support for transit operations needed
AS CONGRESS SLOWLY advances what will become a complete package of transportation funding and policy decisions that define the federal role for at least the next decade, it may be […]
Posted inOpinion
REAP is good role model for federal action
AS THE SENATE’S $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan advances, one approach to paying for the bill could be stepped up enforcement of federal tax collections. Just this Sunday during a […]
Posted inOpinion
Requiring masks on public transit makes no sense
THERE ARE FACTS and there are perceptions. These are often very different things. And when you are trying to guide and inform human decision-making, perceptions often matter more than facts. […]
Posted inTransportation
We must guard against human isolation
Second of two parts. THERE’S NO STATUS QUO for a river. That’s what’s behind the old saying that you can’t step in the same river twice. Rivers are inherently dynamic, […]
Posted inOpinion
With transportation, we must not return to ‘normal’
First of two parts Welcome back. Welcome back to the post-pandemic world. Welcome back to being with family and friends in person and without masks. Welcome back to dining in […]
Posted inOpinion
Biden infrastructure plan and ‘fix it right’
THE BIDEN INFRASTRUCTURE initiative, branded as The American Jobs Plan, may be the most important transportation investment program since the Eisenhower Interstate Highway Act. The Interstate Highway Act kicked off […]
Posted inTransportation
We can’t follow on transportation; we must lead
NOTHING LASTS FOREVER, and that particularly includes time serving in public office. For some, longevity in office can be a rare opportunity to make impactful change; for others, it can […]
Posted inOpinion
We cannot be passive actors in COVID recovery
WELCOME TO 2021, the post-pandemic year, the year of recovery and restoration and of reclamation, when we take back the routines so abruptly removed from our lives. Welcome to a […]
Posted inTransportation
‘Santa Baby’ with a transpo twist
Listen to the TransitMatters singers by clicking below. The lyrics, courtesy of Jim Aloisi (with apologies to Javits & Springer), can be also be found below. […]
Posted inOpinion
The era of Christopher Columbus is over
WHEN I WAS A KID growing up on the second floor of an East Boston triple decker, Columbus Day was a pretty big deal. Alternating with the North End, the […]
Posted inTransportation
Doubling down on the past
THIS IS A TALE of two transportation issues – a window on how we may be losing the opportunity moment provided by a generationally disruptive pattern break. The pattern break, […]
Posted inOpinion
Don’t let pandemic stifle bold transportation policy
WE ARE IN a crisis, with little apparent prospect of advancing toward a better future. It’s not COVID-19 I’m talking about, not directly. But all things converge, and the state […]
Posted inOpinion
Getting to the new normal
EXPERTS AND THOUGHT LEADERS across the globe are putting a lot of thought into the urban response to COVID-19, and particularly the best approaches to steer our cities and metropolitan […]
Posted inOpinion
We cannot return to pre-COVID congestion
WE HAVE BECOME ACCUSTOMED to describing 21st Century innovations as “disruptive” to established practices and behaviors. Yet in this era of disruptive technology, historic inertia has prevented or slowed the […]
Posted inTransportation
Let’s plan for the coming ‘new normal’
THE HEALTH CRISIS that has the world in its grip presents each of us with challenges the likes of which few have known. We are all living under stressful, trying […]
Posted inOpinion
Sargent’s actions 50 years ago resonate today
LEADERSHIP MANIFESTS itself in many ways. In Massachusetts, in my lifetime, one of the most powerful displays of leadership came from a Republican governor. It happened 50 years ago, and […]
Posted inUncategorized
What’s getting me through tough times
IT’S BEEN a rough time. In September, my mother died. She was 93 and lived a long life but we were very close, and her death (following a horrific week […]
Posted inTransportation
Calling out the guardians of the T status quo
IT WAS STUNNING and deeply disappointing to read last week that the MBTA’s general manager didn’t see a time horizon earlier than 2030 for the completion of the Red-Blue connector […]
Posted inOpinion
TransitMatters rebuts Brownsberger
METRO BOSTON enters 2020 in the firm grip of a transportation crisis. That crisis manifests itself as a combination of the worst traffic congestion in the nation, an unreliable inner-core […]
Posted inOpinion
TransitMatters: Our plan for regional rail
MASSACHUSETTS BENEFITS GREATLY from a legacy passenger rail network mostly built out in the late 19th century. Thankfully, much of it was saved from the worst impulses of mid-20th century […]
Posted inTransportation
What’s the plan?
IT’S HAPPENED TWICE this year. It will certainly happen again. A major incident shuts down a critical section of the inner urban subway system. In June it was the Red […]