This MBTA prediction came true 👀🚇
🚇 It was the year of the shutdown. LiveableStreets Alliance executive director Stacy Thompson expected more MBTA shutdowns in 2023, and between the CVS-receipt length list of mini diversions, the Ashmont/Mattapan branch closure, and the start of 20-plus planned shutdowns through 2024, she nailed it. But she noticed a marked difference between the partial Red Line closure in October and last year’s Orange Line closure: it actually ended in better service. “The tools are going to be the same, but under new leadership, we got better results,” she said, shouting out new MBTA general manager Phillip Eng.
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Our national addiction to super-sized SUVs is killing us
“It’s why implementing protected bike lanes is so good for traffic safety, even if you never bike,” Thompson says. “If you have a road where people speed, putting in a bike lane — and, by default, narrowing the travel lane — makes cars move more slowly.”
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Advocates say Green Line closure is a sign MBTA is "getting better"
"I would say that Phil Eng is using a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer," Thompson explained.
"So, under his leadership, they are doing small sections of track at a time. Maybe it's a 3 day or 5 day or 10 day shutdown, really focusing, making sure the work is done well, and then you see immediate improvements."
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Vigils Across Massachusetts This Weekend Will Memorialize Victims of Traffic Violence
"We have straightforward ways to make our roads safer," said Catherine Gleason of LivableStreets Alliance in a press statement. "Focusing on improving road conditions and infrastructure will have a marked improvement on everyone’s experience and safety, including drivers’.”
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MBTA says it needs $24.5 billion to repair transit system
"Really for the first time in a decade, we have a sense of where we are at with the state of good repair, what needs to be fixed and how much it will cost," said Thompson. "It's a lot of work but we finally have a starting point."
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The MBTA Faces a $24.5 Billion Repair Crisis Due to Decades of Underinvestment in Boston's Transit System
Thompson underlines the significance of transparent reporting on repair needs, emphasizing that such transparency is key to the future sustainability and reliability of the public transit system.
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Monica Tibbits-Nutt permanently appointed MassDOT secretary 14:02
Thompson said Tibbits-Nutt "has a lot of respect from the environmental justice communities, frontline communities and the business community, and that is, really tough to balance."
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MBTA makes safety upgrades at Commuter Rail crossings after ongoing incidents
"These are the kinds of things we like to see the T doing," she said.
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MBTA unveils plan to eliminate all T slow zones
Stacy Thompson of the advocacy group Livable Streets and Brian Kane of the MBTA Advisory Board join Radio Boston to discuss the new plan.
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MBTA plans to eliminate slow zones by incrementally shutting down stretches of subway for repairs
“This is exactly what the riding public has been calling for for years now,” said Stacy Thompson, executive director of LivableStreets Alliance. “It’s not a sexy plan, but it’s a very practical, reasonable way to go about repairing tracks.”
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MBTA web update means riders can no longer add value to cards online
"I think a lot of people mid-November are going to be shocked that they can't do this online. And I really wish that there had been a stronger effort to get the word out."
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Pilot eyed to introduce traffic enforcement by camera in Massachusetts
"Generally, we feel that the bill that you have before you is designed to ensure that this type of camera enforcement is first and foremost used as a tool to reduce dangerous driving behavior and has several good provisions to reduce any potential harms or abuses that we have seen in other communities that use cameras,"
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Legislature’s Latest Attempt for Automated Traffic Enforcement Is Missing the Bus
"There are cameras that send people bills in the mail for their highway tolls," said Thompson. "We have automated toll enforcement, but this bill does a much better job of protecting privacy."
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Boston pedestrian deaths down, emissions lagging goal, says report
Boston has made “promising, but uneven” progress toward its 2030 mobility goals, according to a report released by nonprofit organization LivableStreets.
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Halfway to 2030, How’s ‘Go Boston’ Going?
A progress report from the LivableStreets Alliance finds that the City of Boston deserves credit for making streets safer, but also warns that there's been essentially no progress in the past two decades in cutting the 1.9 million metric tons of climate pollution that the city's motor vehicles emit on an annual basis.
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The MBTA wrestles with transparency
Stacy Thompson, executive director of advocacy group Livable Streets, discusses the MBTA's transparency issues after the MBTA removed a transparency-oriented MBTA podcast it posted.
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For Boston riders, transit woes continue to pile up
"Charlie Baker was handed a system that he knew was underfunded, and his approach was to starve the system instead of going to the legislature for appropriate resources. I do think he bears responsibility for not even trying,”
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THE MBTA’S REVOLVING DOOR
“If most of the team is from inside [the MBTA], you’re not getting that outside perspective that’s pretty desperately needed right now.”
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MBTA pauses nearly all contractor work on tracks for 48 hours after fed crackdown
“I unfortunately think that the FTA is following an old playbook, where they sort of just stopped work, ask agencies to send them more paperwork and don’t offer meaningful solutions,”
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Eng announces shake-up in MBTA leadership, including new safety chief
“Now there are clear leadership structures internally where we'll know if something goes wrong, who was responsible for those challenges,”
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LivableStreets Hosts ‘Tour de Streets’
“We’re an access and equity organization, and the way we achieve those goals is by focusing on our largest shared public spaces, which are our streets,”
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Here's why the T is so slow, according to a new report
We answer the basic questions about the report with insights shared by Stacy Thompson of the advocacy group LivableStreets and Boston Globe transportation reporter Taylor Dolven during a conversation with WBUR's Radio Boston.
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Healey’s Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca out after less than a year
“In any administration, there’s always the first secretary to go. So this just happens to be Gina Fiandaca,”
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Mass. transportation secretary will step down fewer than eight months after she started. Why?
“This job,” Thompson said, “is less about ribbon cuttings and more about operations.”
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Fiandaca Departing After Short Stint As Transpo Secretary
"But we didn't really see Gina out front a lot," she said. "It's hard to exactly name what she was or was not doing."
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Know anyone who wants to be chief safety officer at the MBTA?
“He walked into the middle of a pandemic which turned into an abject safety crisis under an administration that wasn’t willing to give him the resources he needed,”
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MBTA's chief safety officer resigning this month, GM says in letter
Hear what LivableStreets Alliance Executive Director Stacy Thompson, and others, had to say on the MBTA's chief safety officer resigning.
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Millionaire’s Tax targeted to close loophole, too soon critics say
“Everyone is very well aware of the challenges the MBTA is facing right now and the literal billions of dollars of work they need to do. But we have 15 regional transit authorities across the state. Many do not have money to run evening and weekend service,”
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Can’t find a spot? Parking in Boston neighborhoods leaves many people ‘screwed’
“We need to charge for parking, and we need to limit the number of cars households can have. That’s the way to do it and that doesn’t make people happy. But that’s the most effective way,”
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The T and the tunnel
The Sumner Tunnel is closing for nearly two months, beginning in early July, to allow for repairs. Can the beleaguered T pick up the slack?
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