At Boston Forum, Federal And Local Officials Discuss Region’s Transportation Future

[unhappycamper]

http://www.wbur.org/2015/10/14/federal-transportation-future



An MBTA Green Line train enters Lechmere Station in Cambridge.

At Boston Forum, Federal And Local Officials Discuss Region’s Transportation Future
By Zeninjor Enwemeka
10.14.2015

Income inequality, population growth and infrastructure funding are some of the major issues Boston and cities across the country must tackle in order to have a more robust and modern transportation system, according to transit officials.

~snip~

One particular area of concern discussed at the forum was income inequality. DOT Under Secretary Peter Rogoff said low income communities are getting priced out of areas with access to public transit.

“The growing gap between the have and the have nots is very, very real,” Rogoff told the audience. “Now increasingly people of means are moving into the city, meanwhile the folks that are most transit-dependent are getting pushed out to communities where transit is not as robust.”

While low income individuals are increasingly leaving cities, an urban population boom is still expected over the next 30 years, according to DOT. The U.S. population is predicted to increase by 70 million by 2045 — and 18.4 million of that growth will be in the mid-Atlantic and New England areas, Rogoff said. This means cities will have to have transit systems that can move more people in the future, especially by increasing capacity on public transit. That’s likely to be a big challenge in Boston, where the beleaguered MBTA is dealing with nearly stagnant revenues and a $7.3 billion and growing “state of good repair” backlog.