A new poll from the MassINC Polling Group offers encouraging signs for a less-polluting future, but also offers a warning sign that officials can’t take riders’ comfort with mass transit for granted.
MassINC surveyed 670 registered voters living in Boston or its suburbs out to the Route 128 belt about a variety of transportation options in the last two weeks of May. The poll was sponsored by The Barr Foundation, a nonprofit that’s been involved in efforts to improve the MBTA’s service and performance.
Strong majorities said improving public transit – especially for underserved communities –making streets safer for walking and reducing congestion and pollution were “very important” priorities for the region. Most even supported ideas long considered to be lightning rods of controversy, including bicycle lanes protected from cars (either strongly or somewhat supported by 75 percent of respondents) and dedicated bus lanes (67 percent strongly or somewhat in support), even if it meant removing parking spots or driving lanes.
As experience in Massachusetts and around the world has shown, bike lanes that have a physical barrier like a curb protecting riders from cars are critical to making ordinary people feel safe enough to use bikes to get to and from work and errands. Indeed, over half of the poll’s respondents said such infrastructure would encourage them to bike more.
And dedicated bus lanes, including ones that have popped up in cities and towns around Boston in recent years, offer the best way to change perceptions of the bus from slow, crowded and unreliable to ubiquitous, comfortable and efficient by keeping buses out of traffic and on schedule.
Taken together with sidewalk and crosswalk improvements, experience shows towns and cities’ widespread adoption of bus and protected bike lanes can offer compelling alternative to cars for many trips to school, doctors’ offices, shops and work. In the process, they take cars off the road – reducing congestion and pollution – and make it easier for working people and seniors to get by without the financial burden of car payments and sudden car repairs.
These levels of support should give heart to civic leaders working for positive change.
But the poll also revealed that these positive attitudes didn’t match up with respondents’ intentions. Post-COVID, 31 percent said they would ride the MBTA’s subway less, 34 percent said they would ride the commuter rail less and 34 percent said they would ride a bus less. While some of this is undoubtedly linked to work-from-home expectations – more than two-thirds said they worked from home at least a few days a week during the pandemic and 60 percent said they hoped to do so in the future – it shows transit and political leaders need to make sure commuters feel safe riding transit as companies open their offices back up. Congestion was awful pre-COVID, but it can doubtless get worse.
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