Everyone deserves clean air, and the MBTA can help

Two other disgruntled commuters and I quickly convene, and eventually we use a ride app to limp downtown, late, frustrated and cold, knowing we are lucky enough to afford to pivot to a rideshare.

For me, being able to depend on the MBTA would mean more sanity for my commute. But for others, it means job or no job, getting kids to day care, being on time for doctor’s appointments, or young professionals’ ability to create community and enjoy a night life. But a world-class transit system is also key to unlocking better and more equitable public health and solutions to climate change.

The stakes are high. Millions rely on public transit each week, and the consequences of inaction are stark: increased pollution, exacerbated pollution-driven health disparities, and heightened climate risks.

Everyone deserves clean air. In December 2019, the MBTA reported about 1.1 million rides each weekday; today, following the COVID-19 pandemic, the average weekday ridership in December 2023 was 696,744. If even a portion of the people who used to ride the T, commuter rail, or take a bus are now in single-occupancy vehicles, that would mean significantly more pollution in our region — and more hospital visits, more asthma attacks, more climate change impacts. And those impacts would not be distributed evenly — they would be felt more in communities of color and low-income communities. That is what’s shown by research that tracks who gets hit worst by pollution and suffers most from environmentally related illnesses.

In neighborhoods like Allston and Brighton, which are along the Pike, and Dorchester and Roxbury, which are along the Southeast Expressway, asthma rates and heart and lung disease, and cancers, which are associated with pollution from vehicles, are higher than elsewhere in the state.

But perhaps we are at an inflection point of real change as actions from the federal to local levels are aligning and responding to decades of underfunding.

Across New England, voices are rising in support of transformative change. Governor Maura Healey’s pledge to double support for the MBTA signals a step in the right direction. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s advocacy for free transit reflects a commitment to equitable access for all, and the MBTA Board’s recent vote to reduce fares for low income riders moves in that direction. In the Boston suburbs, zoning laws are evolving (albeit two steps forward, one step back) to promote multifamily housing near transit. The Rhode Island Transit Authority and the Connecticut Department of Transportation are converting to electric transit buses.

On a national scale, the US Environmental Protection Agency is committed to finalizing clean air regulations that will drive low emissions and technology innovation in cars, SUVs, and trucks, and require states to clean up the air. And the Biden-Harris administration’s infrastructure investments are revitalizing transit systems, putting clean electric buses on the streets, ramping up charging infrastructure, and growing the clean energy transportation manufacturing sector. These investments create jobs and will begin mitigating the long-standing environmental injustices that plague our most vulnerable communities, reducing emissions, and safeguarding the public health of neighborhoods that have been historically left behind.

A 21st-century transit system means choices and freedom and a better quality of life. It means justice for those who most depend on public transportation and for those who live in the most polluted areas. It means better housing choices and options. It means that businesses large and small can attract workers who know they can get to and from work easily. It means parents spending more time with their kids because they don’t have to add buffer time to their commute because it’s so unreliable. It means fewer people trapped in congested traffic wasting gas, time, and money.

Good public transit means another step away from the climate crisis and toward climate justice.

And for us at the EPA, real change will mean cleaner air, fewer kids going to an emergency department with asthma attacks, less heart disease, and better health in those communities that have long suffered under a history of environmental injustices.

I am ready for my bus to pick me up, and I am ready for the just clean energy future to arrive.

David W. Cash is the regional administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency, New England.