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Report: Higher Gas Tax, Like Higher Transit Fares, Could Increase Inequality

By Christian MilNeil | Oct 17, 2019 | 1 Comment

While many sustainable transportation advocates champion higher gasoline taxes as a way to pay for transportation improvements, a new report from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) warns that higher gasoline taxes will exacerbate the state’s growing income inequality – unless the state simultaneously passes other tax policies to benefit low-income families. A 10-cent […]

About 40 cars occupy five lanes of highway in crawling traffic that stretches off to the horizon..

Awful Commutes Have Biotech Workers Seeking Greener Pastures

By Christian MilNeil | Sep 25, 2019 | No Comments

Highly-paid life sciences workers have a keen financial interest in not wasting their valuable time stuck in traffic.

Passengers wait to board the 50 bus to Forest Hills Station on Washington Street in Roslindale. Courtesy of LivableStreets.

LivableStreets: Bus Network Perpetuates Racial Inequality

By Christian MilNeil | Sep 23, 2019 | 3 Comments

A new report from the LivableStreets Alliance is drawing renewed attention to inequities in the region’s bus network, which forces riders of color to lose significantly more time getting around the region than their white counterparts. The report, titled “64 Hours: Closing the Bus Equity Gap,” calls on the MBTA to aggressively prioritize equity in […]

Filmmaker Liz Canning, director of the "MOTHERLOAD" documentary, riding with her twin children in 2011. Photo © Miguel Farias, used with permission.

‘MOTHERLOAD’ Documentary Chronicles Parenting on Two Wheels

By Christian MilNeil | Sep 11, 2019 | No Comments

This Sunday at the Brattle Theater, Green Cambridge will host a screening and discussion of “MOTHERLOAD,” a new documentary about bicycling, feminism, and parenting from California filmmaker Liz Canning. As a new mom living in the hills above Fairfax, California, Canning had been feeling stressed out and isolated until she bought a cargo bike that […]

Pavement and motor vehicle waste heat are two of the major components of the "urban heat island" effect.

Exhaust Pipes Are Making Heat Waves Much, Much Worse

By Christian MilNeil | Aug 20, 2019 | 1 Comment

The long-term climate impacts of the climate pollution from cars and trucks are well documented, but the daily short-term effects of the wasted heat energy radiating from engine blocks and exhaust pipes are making this summer’s heat waves much more miserable for city-dwellers. As anyone who’s walked or biked across a busy street knows, car […]

Addressing the Climate Emergency Could Deliver A Big Payday to Transit

By Christian MilNeil | Aug 15, 2019 | 1 Comment

At a public workshop in Chelsea Tuesday evening, Massachusetts officials said that they are committed to improving air quality and funding better transit options, particularly in low-income and racially diverse communities, while they design a new “cap and invest” program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Twelve states and the District of […]

In June, the MBTA issued a solicitation for bids from private developers for the use of this mile-long rail corridor in East Boston. The corridor connects the Logan Airport area to the doorstep of Suffolk Downs, where builders have proposed 10.5 million square feet of new development.

Why Is the T Trying to Sell Off an East Boston Rail Corridor?

By Christian MilNeil | Jul 16, 2019 | 2 Comments

Two former state Secretaries of Transportation are raising serious concerns over the MBTA’s attempts to sell easement rights to private developers for the use of an abandoned mile-long rail corridor along the Chelsea Creek waterfront in East Boston. The former railroad right-of-way, which extends from the Chelsea Street bridge northward into Revere, runs parallel to […]

During the morning rush hour on July 11, 2019, dozens of safety advocates gathered to create a "people-protected" barrier for the painted bike lanes on Park Drive in Boston's Fenway neighborhood.

Photos: ‘People-Protected’ Bike Lane on Fenway

By Christian MilNeil | Jul 11, 2019 | 1 Comment

A crowd of over 100 street safety advocates spent a pleasant morning in one of Boston’s Olmsted parks (albeit one that’s largely been paved over to give drivers more places to get stuck in traffic) as they created a “people-protected bike lane” on Fenway and Brookline Avenue during the morning rush hour. As reported previously, […]

City Councilors Michelle Wu (at podium) and Ed Flynn (behind, to the right) stand with Chinatown social justice advocates at a press conference on the disparate impacts of air pollution from traffic to communities of color on Thursday, June 27, 2019.

Study: People of Color Suffer Higher Health Risks From Highway Pollution

By Christian MilNeil | Jun 28, 2019 | 6 Comments

Thanks to decades of planning decisions that routed highways through Asian, Black and Latinx neighborhoods, and a lack of affordable housing in transit-accessible locations, air pollution from tailpipes is significantly more likely to harm communities of color across Massachusetts, according to a new study from the Union of Concerned Scientists. In the new report, Inequitable […]

A CharlieCard on top of stacked dollar bills

MIT Study: High Fares Limit Low-Income Households’ Mobility

By Christian MilNeil | Jun 10, 2019 | 4 Comments

A team of MIT researchers today announced the results of a study that concluded that a discounted transit fare for low-income households could offer significant benefits to those households without necessarily contributing to peak-hour crowding in the MBTA system. In a new whitepaper, “How Low-income Transit Riders in Boston Respond to Discounted Fares: A Randomized […]

An MBTA bus, heading to bed at a reasonable hour. Photo by Osman Rana.

The City That Goes to Bed Early: T Board Votes to Cut ‘Late Night’ Service

By Christian MilNeil | Jun 4, 2019 | No Comments

A pilot "late night spine" of bus routes running between 2 and 4 a.m. has been cut from the MBTA schedule.