Here’s another reason why we need comprehensive mass transportation reform for the entire Commonwealth.

Chris Lisinski of Statehouse News Service wrote on Aug. 8: The near-omnipresent congestion on Massachusetts roadways has worsened to the point where access to employment is becoming strained and the state may struggle to meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets, according to the results of a long-awaited Baker administration study. Department of Transportation researchers concluded that, following a steady increase in traffic between 2013 and 2018, the state is at a “tipping point” where many travel routes are unreliable and delays extend well beyond the traditional rush hours.

While much of the uptick has been a result of a strengthening economy – more job openings bring more people to the state, who then put more cars on the roads – the conditions are likely to cause negative economic and environmental impacts, the 157-page report concluded.

“People in Massachusetts don’t need this study to confirm what they experience every day: congestion has gone from bad to worse, from occasional inconvenience and frustration to a constant and daily reality,” Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack wrote in a letter introducing the report.

The report, ordered in August 2018 when Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed a bill to implement a congestion-pricing pilot, concluded that a multi-pronged approach is necessary to address growing traffic.

Among the key strategies, researchers said, are to improve capacity and ridership on the MBTA to take cars off the road, boost remote working and telecommuting, cut down on common bottlenecks by expanding roads or improving response to accidents, generating more housing near transit, and more.

Anyone who has to drive to Boston understands what a task that can be and it appears to only becoming worse. I know that a proposed trip to the east generally fills me with dread. I can’t imagine if you live here and work there and how the arrangement would undoubtedly affect your overall health.

The question is whether or not there is the political will to actually do something about it. Citizens and elected officials would have to be behind a plan.

Would genuine high-speed rail be part of that plan so people could easily live in the four western counties but be able to commute to a job in the Boston area? Yes. A train that can reach 150 miles per hour is what would be needed and one could be developed with that goal in mind.

The problem is that train system would undoubtedly cost billions of dollars with a return of investment somewhere in the distant future. There would be many people concerned if the Commonwealth could afford such an investment.

My gut tells me the solutions sought by the Commonwealth to address traffic congestion will be strictly for the eastern part of the state. The concept of a state-funded transportation infrastructure that would allow people to live here but work there is something that may be too large ever to get the political support it needs.

Those kind of large solutions are probably what’s needed, though, to make the impact on issues such as traffic congestion and environmental impact.

What do you think?

Something to think about

To say that I’m angry about the ongoing violence in this country, a nation that is becoming more and more unstable, is an understatement. There were many messages on social media about the two most recent mass murders but the following is one that stood out and made sense to me.

It read, “Please create something today. Create something positive. Create on behalf of all the people killed in the last 24 hours, robbed of their chance to ever create again. Create because you might help someone get through all this destruction with your creation. Just create. Please.”