Forty-plus inches of accumulated snow did not stanch the enthusiasm of thousands of Patriots fans, who last week lined Boylston Street for the victory parade. Despite concerns about crowd control and commuting logistics, the celebration played out largely without adverse incident, deflecting previous criticism of Boston Mayor Martin Walsh for his decision to stick to tradition. An interesting twist: The day before Walsh urged Pats fans to take the T into town, the T’s General Manager Beverly Scott had been urging riders not to use it.
All turned out well at the end, but not the same can be said of the longer term, more entrenched problems of the MBTA’s rolling (and not-so-rolling) stock. On Feb. 3, Scott, a 30-plus year transportation veteran who has been with the T since late 2012, urged riders to seek alternate transportation, adding that for her, it was an unprecedented suggestion.
The MBTA’s weather-related delays are hardly news. Aging trolley and train stock, and a debt burden that consumes approximately 25 percent of the T’s budget, exact an additional toll on the system’s riders in the form of lost work hours and personal time, particularly stressful and onerous to hourly workers who are required to clock in on a schedule.
The MBTA system’s reach far into the north, south and west provides an alternate to driving to and from the Metro Boston area, expanding Greater Boston’s labor pool. Conversely, the system improves commuters’ living standards by reducing or, in the inner belt, eliminating, the need to own a car – though we can almost hear the blogosphere going “hah!” right now.
The nonprofit American Public Transportation Association reported last November that Boston ranked second only to New York City in savings on transit costs by those who use public transportation. Based on unreserved parking space expense and gas costs, Metro Boston drivers saved $1,108 per month and $13,298 annually.
Another national report titled “The Innovative Transportation Index: The Cities Where New Technologies and Tools Can Reduce Your Need to Own a Car,” issued last week by the nonprofit public interest think tank Frontier Group, ranked Boston fourth on a list of 70 metro areas around the country in terms of transit choices – but that report does not take into account weather conditions that compromise the use of many transit modes.
The issue of how to pay for infrastructure improvements in Massachusetts is as perennial as snow. General arguments over using the gas tax to fund public transit, regional bickering over who pays tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike, and the ever-resurrected grudge about Big Dig cost overruns, just fuel carping over how to spread a wider revenue net over the state to fund transit service that’s concentrated on the easternmost part. But in concentrating on the costs, the public is bound to forget or overlook the hidden benefits of being able to access high-paying jobs in the Metro area, while living in less-expensive regions to the west.
The private sector benefits from the T’s public service – except when things go so wrong that the head of the system feels the need to dissuade people from using it.
