Transportation

Unprecedented Needs and Opportunity Families and businesses rely on transportation systems like roads, sidewalks, buses, and trains for almost everything we do. These are the ways we get to work, to school, to the store, and how goods get to market. Transportation systems connect us to opportunity, save time and help Massachusetts achieve our commitment to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges for everyone, especially for people of color and those with lower incomes. While the pandemic has reduced travel for some, traffic has generally returned to unacceptable pre-COVID levels. U.S. News and World ...

Eliminating fares on Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and Regional Transit Authority (RTA) buses makes sense for practical economic reasons as well as for equity and environmental sustainability. The resources spent collecting bus fares don’t serve any transportation function. Selling bus passes and tickets, verifying and collecting them, and enforcing fare payments do not help transport bus riders more quickly or safely to their destinations. On the contrary, bus fares discourage people from using the bus, and fare collection slows down travel while making it more stressful and inconvenient. Everything related to fares diverts resources that could otherwise provide more ...

Transit fares deepen existing income inequalities and racial disparities. Transit riders tend to have lower-than average incomes, especially bus riders. Black and Latinx residents are also more likely to be transit riders than white residents, again especially on buses. Enforcement of fare policies, such as through arrests and citations, also tends to impact people of color disproportionately. Transit fares are regressive, meaning that they claim a larger share of income from people with low- and middle-incomes than from higher-income people. While several other kinds of taxes and public fees fall disproportionately on lower-income households in Massachusetts, perhaps none falls more ...

There are many reasons to eliminate transit fares, especially on buses. In addition to advancing equity and reducing climate change emissions, fare-free service is more efficient, faster, and more convenient. Eliminating fares also increases transit ridership and helps stimulate the local economy. The major rationale for continuing to require fares is that officials have become accustomed to counting on this traditional – although relatively minor – source of revenue. Bus fares are a relatively minor part of transit budgets Public transportation is a public good that is mostly funded by public support. Most funding for transit authorities comes from the ...

In addition to being more efficient and equitable, eliminating bus fares would benefit the climate. The transportation sector is the biggest and fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts, and personal vehicles are responsible for the majority of those emissions. Transportation accounted for 42 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts in 2017, the latest year with official data. The Commonwealth has made specific commitments to reduce emissions from transportation, specifically in its new “Next Generation Climate Roadmap” law and the Governor’s Transportation and Climate Initiative. Eliminating transit fares can be part of achieving those goals. The Commonwealth’s Decarbonization ...