“We don’t need everyone to back to the office to have the worst congestion in the country, and we’re there,” Thompson said. “Even if we are in a future where more folks are moving to rural parts of the state ... I think that there’s a misperception that that will take the strain off of our transit systems and our roads and bridges, and if anything, we need all of that plus great broadband.”

Jim Aloisi and Stacy Thompson discussed the current state of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill and the return to pre-pandemic levels of traffic and congestion. Aloisi is the former Massachusetts transportation secretary, a member of the TransitMatters board and contributor to Commonwealth Magazine. Thompson is the executive director of LivableStreets.

“Giving primarily white and wealthy transit riders a free trip, while forcing primarily Black and low income riders to jump through hoops to access similar fare-free service, is exactly what structural racism looks like,” says Stacy Thompson, executive director of the LivableStreets Alliance

Stacy Thompson, executive director of LivableStreets Alliance, said the group had not heard from the DCR in at least three years. Thompson said she hopes the plan will focus on making parkways multi-use and de-emphasize motor vehicles. “It’s just about a lot more than just managing their parkways and roadways. This is about recognizing that centering and prioritizing walking, biking, and climate resilience is how we will conserve our natural resources for future generations,” Thompson said.

Stacy Thompson, the executive director of the LivableStreets Alliance, said the designation of funds in the House bill means “we are one step closer to implementing desperately needed transportation projects in Boston and Somerville.” “These projects aren’t about paving roads — they are about the freedom to move,” Thompson said.

“I think that Mayor Janey made it very clear from day one that equity and justice would be central to her work as acting mayor,” Thompson said about the transition process. “The goal truly was to bring a lot of community leaders together in very short order to get down to brass tacks about what this city really needs to get up and running over the summer. It was very focused and very centered on what she could do in this unique moment as acting mayor.”

“If you read the whole bill, there is not attention or care to the potential for racial profiling,” said Stacy Thompson, executive director of the Livable Streets Alliance that is part of the coalition. “In other states, we know that Black folks are more likely to be pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt. It’s like another law on the books that doesn’t protect the most vulnerable and has been proven to cause more harm to Black and brown people.”

“We are a week out from the Chauvin conviction, and it’s been less than two weeks since police shot and killed Daunte Wright during a routine traffic stop. And the data that’s been collected out of the hands-free bill shows that racial profiling is happening in Massachusetts,” said Stacy Thompson, Executive Director of LivableStreets.

Stacy Thompson, director of the Livable Streets Alliance, a Boston nonprofit, said the provision would lead to more policing on the roadways, increasing the risk of racial profiling or other discrimination against people of color. She noted that “the national conversation around law enforcement” has often focused on high-profile traffic stops that have resulted in police killings of Black motorists.

“I believe Secretary Walsh really wants the best,” said Stacy Thompson, the executive director of LivableStreets, a transportation advocacy organization based in Cambridge, Mass. “I believe Pete Buttigieg really wants the best. It doesn’t mean they always got it right. In some cases they got it really wrong. And I hope they learned from it. We really need them to learn from it.”