Combine the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and 3,000 ideas crop up for improving Eastern Massachusetts’ transit network over the next 25 years.
Or that is the thinking behind an MIT-sponsored “Ideas for March” forum scheduled Wednesday at someplace called MIT Media Lab. It’s hard not to imagine the average Blue Line subway riders or person waiting on the Central Square commuter rail platform saying, “Hey, I got only one idea for the T: Make the trains and buses run on time.”
There are three intertwined reasons why people ride an MBTA train or bus. Some riders are environmentalists and global thinkers who are happy to get out from behind the steering wheel and help save the planet.
Then there are train and bus riders who find it more convenient and affordable to take the MBTA than sit in traffic. The third category encompasses riders who don’t have a choice except to take public transportation or walk.
All of these people have one objective when they exchange money for a Charlie Card or a commuter rail ticket: They want to get where they are going on time with minimal inconvenience.
The MBTA keeps that promise on a daily basis for thousands of people. When the agency fails to hold up its end of the bargain, the media and politicians latch onto the agency’s failings as examples of government incompetence and wasted money.
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The height of ridicule endured by the MBTA came in the brutal winter of 2015 when the former director stomped her foot and canceled service. Even in the face of a howling winter storm, the notion that public transportation could grind to a halt and strand riders infuriated people and prompted elected officials from Gov. Charlie Baker down to call for an overhaul of the MBTA.
The outcry triggered action with increased accountability as the end result. At the center of the uproar, state Sen. Thomas M. McGee reminded people that the MBTA’s debt load had to be considered in any plan to improve the agency. He also underscored the need to think of subways, commuter rail and buses in the broader context of Massachusetts’ transportation network and the state’s economy.
McGee’s broad-minded transportation thinking lends itself well to the Focus 40 Team’s effort to think big about the MBTA. Their ability to think up 3,000 ideas for improving the MBTA is a testament to the people involved in the long term examination of how the agency can better serve Greater Boston over the next quarter century.
But those broad minds should take a hint from McGee and think really big by asking how Massachusetts’ economy should grow into the mid-21st century and how transportation should be reshaped to keep pace with and support that growth.