“Not everyone is feeling the impact but where they are felt it is catastrophic for the people who depend on public transit,” Thompson said. “We’ve cut entire bus lines and reduced service on other bus lines. These are buses that go to health centers. That help seniors get to grocery stores.”

Kristiana Lachiusa, Director of Transit and Outreach for the LivableStreets Alliance, endorsed the Syracuse approach in subsequent testimony.

“Boston (calls itself) an age-friendly community,” Lachiusa reminded the Council. “We have a requirement – we made an agreement – that we were going to do this, so we need to keep up our end of the bargain.”

“I am honored to serve as the co-chair of the Transportation and Climate Justice Sub-Committee, and to be able to contribute in a small way to the just and equitable recovery process Boston must advance in the coming months,” said Stacy Thompson, executive director of the Livable Streets Alliance.

“We are grateful for Senator Markey and Congressman Cohen’s continued leadership on the issue of Complete Streets,” said Stacy Thompson, executive director of the LivableStreets Alliance. “The ongoing COVID 19 crisis has demonstrated the need to fundamentally rethink our streets."

Chief Osgood has been one of the city’s most well-liked and effective cabinet members, and I can’t think of a better person to shift into an incredibly challenging role, during a pandemic and with the uncertainty about what comes next with the new (mayoral) administration. - Stacy Thompson, Executive Director

You may not recognize it, but leaders across the state and across the country are looking to Worcester as a model for more equitable and efficient transit,” Lachiusa said. “I encourage you to keep going. This is serving as important proof of concept effort that is a critical step towards making the case for sustaining funding for this type of program to be put into place more permanently in Worcester and more broadly for other transit systems across the state.

LiveableStreets Alliance community engagement manager Kristiana Lachiusa also spoke, telling the WRTA board there's a state-level bill in the works that would allow regional transit agencies to fund fare-free pilot programs. State Sen. Hariette Chandler is expected to cosponsor that measure, Lachiusa said.

“When you have to spend a lot of time educating and working with a politician to get them [to understand], you lose time,” said Stacy Thompson, director of the Livable Streets Alliance, a Boston-area advocacy group. “A mayor who has been taking the bus to work every day is starting in a different place than one who was driving every day.”

The state has yet to lay out its plans for spending the roughly $160 million that will be raised annually through the program. A minimum of 35% of the proceeds will be reinvested in communities most affected by air pollution, but Stacy Thompson of the Liveable Streets Alliance said it isn’t enough.

“Even the best case scenario for TCI is just not enough to meet the full scope of the transportation challenges we’re facing,” Thompson said.

Stacy Thompson, executive director of the transit advocacy group LivableStreets Alliance, called the overtime tab "a byproduct of a philosophy that is penny wise and pound foolish," explaining the agency needs to hire more workers.

"The overtime numbers are really a canary in the coal mine, pointing to a long-term under-investment in personnel of the T," she said.