Getting to transit

I live in a small city (Cambridge, MA) right next to a medium-sized one (Boston). Cities that are fun to live in and cities that are easy to drive in are pretty much mutually exclusive categories. Since Cambridge is fun, it is a nightmare to drive through. So I don’t. I don’t even own a car.

I would like it if fewer people drove here, and more people lived here. It would be a healthier, quieter, and safer place, with even more things to do, and more people to run into while doing them.

I live up near the circled T called Alewife, in the upper left of this map

One thing essential to moving in that direction is a fast, safe, and convenient public transportation system. That, unfortunately, is not something Boston’s public transportation system, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), seems able, or, it seems, even willing, to provide. So most people really have to drive to get where they want to go, even if that is expensive, inconvenient, and frustrating.

While the MBTA seems to have been getting steadily worse over the past decade or so, this has stimulated a lot of attention. Trains are delayed, buses skipped, and conditions often unpleasant. The Boston Globe’s reporting on public transportation issues has been great. This has partly been stimulated by organizations like Transit Matters, which has been providing a lot of data on how the system has been operating, and thus compelling the MBTA to open up its opaque system.

This is a moment for me. I have realized that I, an educated citizen of mature years, have no idea of how to figure out what the problems are, how to decide what to do about them, and how to act in a way that helps provide solutions. Local politics are really the only way any of us has a chance to influence anything.

I’ve joined Transit Matters, as well as a local housing advocacy organization, A Better Cambridge. But it is still difficult for me to make a meaningful effort in making the city I live in an even better place. I’m going to try to discuss this, and the issues I have been dealing with, because I’m sure I’m not alone in my mix of ambition and flailing.