The time of year so many dread is now upon us. The time where we must spend extended amounts of time confined in frequently small places with people tied to us by blood and marriage, even if we may not like them.
The U.S. House of Representatives may be neck-deep in impeachment hearings, but fear not the dinner table political discussion! This year, there is something everyone in Greater Boston can agree on.
The state of our roads, bridges and trains.
You and your least favorite local relative can easily pass an hour regaling out-of-town visitors with stories from the last year of commuting. Remember the Red Line derailment? Or the time last week you considered climbing into the overhead luggage racks because even the aisles of your commuter rail train were packed? Or the time last month you missed two whole morning meetings because you tried to take Route 9 between Worcester and Shrewsbury?
You could even make a game of it, comparing records broken and broken again. What’s the greatest number of podcast episodes it took you to get down the Southeast Expressway? The largest number of doors on your Orange Line train that won’t fully open? The fastest you’ve burned through a tank of gas stuck on Route 3, day after day?
You could even make a game of it, comparing records broken and broken again. What’s the greatest number of podcast episodes it took you to get down the Southeast Expressway? The largest number of doors on your Orange Line train that won’t fully open?
If you’re feeling adventurous – or desperate, if the turkey is taking too long to cook – you could dip your toe in state politics. Unless you’re a unique type of sadist or your preferred solution to persistent gridlock involves nuclear weapons, House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s decision to put off discussion of a big legislative package intended to help fix the traffic mess is worth at least five to 10 minutes of moaning and groaning per person involved in the conversation.
If you’ve done your job right, by this point everyone will be so emotionally exhausted all they’ll be able to do is enjoy the sweet potatoes and the cranberry sauce, and roll their over-stuffed selves out the door.
It’s a sad reality that Greater Boston finds itself saddled with the consequences of 20 years of inaction on this problem. Time and time again, mobility-clueless politicians on Beacon Hill and in town halls across the commonwealth have put off discussions, under-funded transit solutions or simply ignored the building problem.
There’s reason to hope things will be different in 2020. Dedicated volunteers and activists have assembled good, sensible proposals that legislators can use as a framework for transformative transit legislation come January, and which can help local governments realize what they must do to help, as well, from helping the MBTA speed up its buses to encouraging better, more walkable development.
Leaders up and down the chain of government can’t be let off the hook if they drop the ball this time.
