By Joe Curtatone 

Lots of interesting stuff in this piece. First and foremost is the acknowledgment that we need a much more robust public transit system in order to reduce our statewide carbon footprint. That requires planning now, because it takes years (decades in our case) to get projects approved and completed. And we need to be planning transit in our gateway cities as well as Boston, and then linking those cities together with high-speed trains. Great quote from Secretary Pollack – “We can’t plan for yesterday, which is what we usually do.”
Not terribly surprising to hear 80% of MBTA bus routes run late. Regionally, our roads are so choked with traffic the buses can’t get through, and adding more buses only makes the situation worse. Transit that bypasses our road network, like the GLX, or dedicating specifically to transit, like the Silver Line, are the two ways around that.
Finally, we’re still nearly $500 million short annually in spending what we need to in terms of transportation projects. We’ve gotten better, but the backlog is still increasing. We need to get on top of that because our state economy depends on a quality transportation system. Ultimately that’s going to take revenue.
Read complete article by clicking link below:https://commonwealthmagazine.org/transportation/pollack-faster-pace-needed-on-climate-change/