Let’s Get Serious about Solutions
Serious solutions Massport and the city of Boston should take to protect residents from pollution and traffic
Stop Logan Airport Expansion: Part Three
by Chris Marchi, AIR, Inc.
Airport Impact Relief, Incorporated (AIR, Inc.) is an East Boston volunteer airport watchdog group founded by Mary Ellen Welch and Anna DeFronzo. Four generations of East Boston residents at AIR, Inc. have monitored Logan’s impacts and studied Federal Aviation Administration policy since the 1960’s, advocating for impact reduction to improve our quality of life. This is the last of a three-part series written by East Bostonians, FOR EAST BOSTONIANS, on how the East Boston Haul Road is a sneaky, terrible idea.
Chris Marchi is a lifelong East Boston resident who volunteers for AIR, Inc., leading the group’s environmental documentation review and technical analysis efforts.
If reducing traffic is the goal, and a haul road won’t help, what should we do? This final part in our series on airport expansion looks at policies that can reverse our traffic problems. The first article in this series explained that the proposed ‘East Boston Haul Road’ is an airport expansion project which will bring more trucking and pollution to East Boston. The second article explained what is worse than traffic and air pollution.
Let’s Get Serious
This year, Boston was ranked the fourth most congested city in the world, (…IN …THE …WORLD) with the average Bostonian losing 134 hours per year stuck in traffic …almost 4 weeks of full time employment… Yet, no matter how bad traffic is, when people weigh commute time, comfort, convenience and cost, they don’t choose less convenient, more expensive public transportation options. They keep choosing to drive. With our roads already well over their capacity, traffic just keeps growing.
Nowhere is this problem worse than on Boston’s north shore, on East Boston and Revere’s section of Route 1A, which connects 425,000 north shore residents to downtown and Logan Airport.so Route 1A then, is one of the world’s fourth most congested city’s worst hotspots, and has been designated by the state as a ‘corridor of critical concern’ for 50 years. The state’s transportation department (MassDOT) has ignored the Route 1A Corridor for half a century, but that didn’t stop them from trying to sell the MBTA railroad right of way along route 1A to Cargo Ventures for the haul road in a midnight-hour maneuver in 2019. AIR, Inc. and community members opposed and blocked them. But now, with Logan’s terminals bursting at the seams, Massport is desperate to push airport operations out of their way (and down our throats) for their next expansion.
To pave the way for the haul road and airport expansion which will further choke children in environmental justice communities who already bear a disproportionate asthma burden compared to areas which are not exposed to airport air pollution, MassDOT has launched a narrowly focused Route 1A Corridor Study to explore among other things how to ‘facilitate freight movements’. Not to be left out of the action, the Massachusetts Area Planning Council (MAPC), and the Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS) have just launched a ‘Freight Electrification Work Program’ to assess the carbon and climate benefits of a future-vision all electric freight handling system in a narrow area which not coincidentally includes Route 1A.
This is not what serious action to combat traffic looks like. It is cronyism and inside procedural and political warfare. Logan Airport’s traffic is the single largest contributor to congestion on 1A. According to Massport, by 2019, already 143,000 passenger cars entered Logan every weekday. With the stress of flying, and Covid-related hesitancy, eight out of ten air travelers chose the comfort of driving to Logan in a passenger car, in 2021. We can’t make serious progress in reducing traffic, unless we get serious, that starts with being serious and realistic about reducing Logan’s traffic.
First, Let’s Cut Regional Traffic by 30%…
Terrible traffic and pollution are not unique to Boston. Most cities struggle with these issues. But, as daunting as these problems can be, when cities take serious action, they can make progress. In 2003, London took such action, and imposed a £15 charge on motorists entering the central portion of the city during rush hours. This is known as congestion pricing. Then, in 2019, London introduced a pollution-fighting program known as the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) which charges an additional fee for vehicles operating within inner and central London which do not meet emissions standards.
London’s traffic and pollution policies work hand in hand with an equally aggressive approach to improving transit. And so, on the day the congestion charge was introduced in London, 300 extra buses were added to the Central London bus network to give people alternatives to driving.
While programs like this are not always popular at the outset, London’s policies have reduced passenger car trips by 48%, traffic by 25%, nitrogen oxides by 26%, and fine particulate matter by 19%, while boosting bus travel by 33% over the past 20 years, and the city has embraced them as estimates suggest that London’s bold action has helped avoid 3 million trips into London’s center per year. And by the way, congestion pricing didn’t destroy London’s economy: metro London’s gross domestic product has grown by over 52% since the program was launched. New York has finally had enough and decided to fight traffic congestion with congestion pricing. They’re counting on a 20% drop in traffic, and 11% less pollution as they look forward to a healthier future.
This is how cities are truly reducing traffic, not by increasing trucking and airport passenger volumes. Massport and the city of Boston need to get serious about protecting residents from pollution and traffic. If London can cut traffic by 30%, so can we.
Then, Divert 50% of Logan’s Traffic…
48% of trips to Logan initiate from outside of Route 128. In fact, people come from all over New England, often driving right past their local airports, to get to Logan. What would our traffic problems look like if more people flew out of Manchester / Boston, TF Green, or Worcester? Like New York, Washington, Chicago, and of course London (which has 5 major airports), Boston needs a system of regional airports to share the growing demand for air travel. Once again, Boston is behind. Massport and MassDOT, who are leading our region into a Logan traffic fueled nightmare, actually studied this possibility 30+ years ago and concluded that these airports could be part of our solution. For a while, the Dukakis-era Massport supported this goal, and these other regional airports began to make inroads into Logan’s grip on market share.
Logan’s share of New England passengers dropped from 73% to 55% over 17 years. This represents a 25% decrease in passenger volume. Such a decrease today would take 8.5 million travelers off our roads annually, about 24,000 motorists per day. Unfortunately, in the 1990’s, the Weld administration’s Massport executives stopped supporting regionalization, and this helpful trend ended.
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Shifting the 48% of Logan’s passengers originating outside of Route 128 to other nearby regional airports should be Massport’s goal, and past successes suggest it’s possible. As travelers shift away from Logan, in addition to cutting traffic, negative airport noise and air pollution impacts on the Boston region will be reduced as well. That’s a policy which MassDOT should support.
Next, Cut Current Logan Traffic by 30%…
Shifting flights to other airports is the right policy, but it will take years. But Massport can level the playing field for high occupancy modes of travel to Logan tomorrow.
Massport’s pricing strategies make Logan Express among the most expensive modes of travel to Logan. At the $11 per rider regular fare, a family of four would spend $44 to take Logan Express to and from the airport ($88 round trip). Add the $7 per day parking charge at Logan Express lots, and getting to the airport would cost this family $137 for a week’s vacation. The same family might spend $60 on two Uber rides, or $40 on MBTA bus and train fare. But dropping off your family and friends at Logan in a private passenger car is free. You can’t beat free.
With only 20% of Logan travelers currently arriving by HOV modes, Massport should do all it can to get people out of their cars, and into high occupancy vehicles (HOV) such as buses and trains. They could increase Logan Express bus frequencies, and improve parking facilities at their remote lots. They should slash fares to improve the service’s cost positioning relative to other modes, and give all Logan Express riders security line priority immediately. The Port Authority should begin planning dedicated bus lanes to give this service a speed advantage, and they should plan to add more service locations to make getting to the airport on Logan Express far more convenient. Massport should scrap their 40% HOV mode goal and set a truly bold 70% HOV goal, then make it happen. But improving Logan Express’ positioning by making it cheaper, faster, and more convenient, is just the first step. The second step is eliminating the ‘free ride’ option.
In 2021, four of London’s five major airports installed plate reading cameras and began charging fees for motorists who wish to access their terminal curbs. The cameras record the time at which vehicles enter airport drop-off and pick-up zones and apply a £5 charge for 10 minutes. For each additional minute spent, a £1 fee is added, up to a maximum of £25. The curbside access fees must be paid online the same day or before midnight the following day or else the charge increases to £100 (£60, if paid within 14 days). London’s airports offer no-charge remote drop off and pick up areas a short free shuttle ride away.
That is what ‘serious about reducing traffic’ looks like.
If they want to get serious too, Massport must stop kissing up to air travelers, and end its ‘free ride’ and ‘free curb parking’ policy by instituting an access fee for travelers choosing to be dropped off and picked up at Logan’s congested terminal curbs. Otherwise, they’re only encouraging travelers to take passenger cars to Logan, while our city and local families choke on traffic and pollution. If London can cut traffic by 30%, so can Boston, …and so can Logan. No more free rides.
Serious Action = Serious Results
If you want to reduce traffic on Route 1A, don’t open the door for Massport to expand Logan and dump more traffic, noise and pollution on our heads. Support serious action, and you’ll get serious improvements. Add it all up and we could cut regional traffic by 30%, divert 50% of trips to other airports, and dissuade another 30% of travelers by promoting HOV and disincentivizing use of the airport curbs. But the city, MassDOT, and Massport need to get serious, and we all need to stop kidding ourselves that Logan can keep expanding forever, or that adding truck roads will reduce trucking.
The economic impacts of traffic, congestion, and air pollution have taken a serious toll on Boston’s economy, on our national reputation, and on our communities’ public health. Development in the north shore, growing air travel demand, and the addition of another 10,000 units of housing at Suffolk Downs will turn up the pressure. We need serious action now. Join the Logan Community Clean Air Coalition in urging our elected representatives and transportation officials to oppose the East Boston Haul Road and make a serious commitment to equity and regional ground transportation planning now!
Join the growing opposition to the haul road and airport expansion. Sign the letter to oppose the haul road.
How to help
- Sign the letter today to oppose the haul road
- Amplify this article on social media
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- Join the Logan Community Clean Air Coalition group
- Follow the Logan Community Clean Air Coalition page
- Like the No Haul Road: Stop Airport Expansion page
