| For such a smarty-pants state, we can be so spectacularly stupid sometimes.
Virginia is spending a couple billion dollars to expand light rail along its equivalent of our Route 128 corridor, scrambling to keep up with the rapid development of big Washington suburbs.
By contrast, here in Massachusetts, where we like to think of ourselves as the brains of our country, we are throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars filling potholes, literally.
And what of our own 128 corridor? State officials are balking at spending a few hundred thousand dollars to study the feasibility of a regional bus and rail transportation hub for 128.
At stake is the long-term viability of one of the vital drivers our regional economy, with 128’s importance only growing in the years to come as downtown Boston and Cambridge are increasingly built out.
But as it stands now, the future looks increasingly traffic clogged, with the ostensibly progressive Patrick Administration unwilling to take even small steps towards exploring long-term solutions.
Missing The Big Picture
It’s not a question about money being spent on our state’s roads, both local and otherwise. Lots of dollars are being showered on all manner of little projects.
In fact, this fall saw an explosion in pothole filling in towns across the state, as anyone who spent any amount of time in a car over the past few months can attest.
Beacon Hill, after chewing up and spitting out Gov. Deval Patrick’s grand, multibillion-dollar transportation plan, wound up passing its own version.
The legislature left the governor’s big initiatives on the cutting room floor – though none involved 128 – and dedicated $200 million for local road repairs, nearly 30 percent more from two years ago.
Not that filling potholes isn’t a good idea, but it’s also called bringing home the pork, with a field day for local police departments, who get to cash in on all those paid details.
But, in the end, it’s the wrong type of work to be sinking precious taxpayer dollars into.
Filling potholes and repaving local roads is more than just a dumb long-term transportation investment, it’s completely moronic. It does nothing to address the long-term problem of traffic gridlock that threatens to turn both 128 and all the local feeder roads into one massive parking lot.
This 12.6-mile stretch of 128 cuts through one of the most valuable swaths of real estate in the world, packed with booming life science companies, software giants and tech upstarts and defense contractors.
Nearly 50 new buildings and projects are either in planning or, in some cases, under construction along 128’s central corridor.
However, traffic gridlock threatens to kill the golden goose of not just Massachusetts, but of New England as well.
Traffic on 128 between the intersection with the Massachusetts Turnpike in Waltham and where the highway meets Route 3 in Burlington is expected to skyrocket by 77 percent over the next few decades, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council has warned.
Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
While our state leaders have no problem blowing millions on local road projects, there is apparently not a dime to start exploring more forward-thinking ways of moving commuters around.
How else to explain why the Patrick Administration is balking at spending $500,000 to study a proposal to build a regional transit hub for 128 commuters?
Proposed by a panel of local officials from towns along 128, the study would explore the feasibility of a regional bus and train transportation hub in Weston to help commuters get to work at the sprawling corporate campuses and office parks that line the highway.
As it stands now, the commuter rail, when it shows up on time or at all – not always a given in such freak weather events as winter snow, always a rarity here in New England – is geared towards getting people in and out of Boston.
That was great in 1965, but not so much now.
Instead, this new transit hub – along with some added trains – would bring in commuters from both directions, from the inner suburbs near Boston and the outer suburbs along 495 and beyond.
The commuters would then board shuttle buses, taking them to work along 128, or so goes the idea.
This is no radical idea, being pushed by environmentalists. Rather, two major business groups, the 128 Corporate Alliance and the 128 Business Council, are championing the idea.
Yet for whatever reason, Patrick Administration officials won’t even address the request, let alone cough up the relatively modest change needed to pay for it.
Instead, questions about the lack of long-term planning for 128 only seem to produce increasingly defensive answers.
Asked about exploring public transit options for 128, state transit officials respond with a litany of all the latest improvements made to 128, from widening to next exits, to improve traffic flow.
All that’s great, of course, but it is also a bit of a dodge.
The highway is already overcapacity, so such improvements, however needed, are just a Band-Aid.
Shamed By Virginia
Down in Virginia, they are taking a different approach – and putting our supposedly brainy state to shame.
The Old Dominion is forking over $2.6 billion to extend light rail in Northern Virginia’s growing suburbs, with new stations and a direct link to Dulles International Airport in Washington.
Imagine that, being able to take light rail to work in Waltham or jump on the train for a quick ride into Logan.
Right now, that’s light years from where we are in terms of transportation planning here in Massachusetts.
So where to start? Well maybe, just maybe, the Patrick folks could find a way to fill one less pothole and pay for that half a million dollar study for a 128 transportation hub.
Given the amount of money being wasted on inane local road improvements, it’s chicken feed.
Scott Van Voorhis can be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com
