“How much are we actually spending at the end of the day, and what are we getting out of it? This is something the T is continually unable to make clear to the public,” Thompson said. “The finance side is unnecessarily complicated, it’s hard to get answers.”

It’s work has not been without hiccups. Stacy Thompson, the executive director of LivableStreets Alliance, a transit advocacy group, said in an interview that Cubic “has a terrible track record nationally and internationally for delivering projects on time and within budget, and we’re seeing that bear out in Massachusetts and for the MBTA.”

Stacy Thompson with LivableStreets Alliance says the business model for these corporations is part of the problem. “They basically don’t care if these folks have appropriate vehicles, and they have to go fast as they can to earn a buck,” she said.

Stacy Thompson of the advocacy group Livable Streets and Chris Dempsey of the urban design firm Speck Dempsey join Radio Boston to discuss the MBTA's announcement that it will launch a long-delayed tap-to-pay fare system this summer.

“For people who felt really strongly that bike lanes were the end of the world, it doesn’t matter what the data shows,” Thompson said. “At the end of the day, what we have to focus on is if the street is safer, and the answer is yes.”

“There will be spaces like this where people can come and tell us what they want and what they like to see”

Former City of Cambridge employee and LivableStreets co-founder, Jeff Rosenblum, will speak on Cambridge's 2019 Cycling Safety Ordinance.

Stacy Thompson, Executive Director of LivableStreets, joins WBUR's Radio Boston to discuss a budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year released by the Massachusetts House Wednesday which calls for nearly $200 million more in direct assistance to the MBTA than in the proposal put forth by Gov. Maura Healey last year.

“I think this is a really good conversation to be had,” Thompson said. “Having said that, we also know that when you don’t change the roadway design, people will still speed.”