Northeastern University

Transportation

Latest Update on our work in Transportation

Last spring, Stephanie Pollack was asked by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino to serve on the city's Climate Action Leadership Committee. With transportation-related emissions constituting the fastest-growing category of greenhouse gases in Massachusetts, the committee's attention quickly turned to the transportation sector. Throughout the summer Pollack served on a small transportation working group and helped develop a menu of specific recommendations for reducing the carbon footprint of metropolitan Boston's transportation sector. The full Committee is now considering these and other recommendations as part of its mission of creating a blueprint to reduce Boston's greenhouse gas emissions by 20% or more by 2020.

With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Center's transportation research is focusing on the role of transit in the future of metropolitan areas across the US that have, or are building, transit systems. This research effort is designed to better understand the forces that have shaped -- and are transforming -- transit-rich neighborhoods and develop policy recommendations that can help maintain and enhance the economic and racial diversity of transit-rich neighborhoods.

Stephanie Pollack recently presented some of the preliminary results of this research at RailVolution, a major conference that took place in Boston at the end of October. Distinguished Professor Michael Dukakis also participated in RailVolution, at the opening plenary session on October 30th and in a "mobile workshop" that showcased Dukakis' hometown, Brookline, as "the quintessential streetcar suburb."

Background on Transportation Work

Transportation infrastructure serves as the circulatory system for cities, metropolitan areas and regions and, just like the human body's circulatory system, is critical to their long-term health. The Dukakis Center's transportation policy work focuses on the critical inter-relationships between transportation and other urban issues: transportation and land use, housing, economic development, health, environment, climate change and economic and social equity.

One area of focus is on the role of public transit systems, such as the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Well-run, financially stable transit systems are essential to achieving a myriad of important urban policy goals including improving mobility and access to opportunity, combating sprawl, reducing dependence on imported oil, and achieving greenhouse gas reduction goals. Working with the Boston District Council of the Urban Land Institute, in 2005 the Center convened a Transportation Priorities Task Force that brought together a wide range of stakeholders who have not necessarily participated in transportation policy or planning in the past. The resulting report, "On the Right Track", was the first to call for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to relieve the MBTA of responsibility for at least a portion of its crushing debt.

Another example of the Dukakis Center's work linking transportation investment and regional economic development is its 2007 report "Connecting With Our Economic Future: A Transportation Investment Strategy" for the Life Sciences Cluster. Prepared for A Better City, a business and institutional leadership organization, the report articulated the central role of proximity and physical connections in the development of Greater Boston's life sciences "super cluster". The Center also prepared a series of case studies from nine competitor regions that either have or are strategically trying to develop tight-knit life sciences clusters in urban locations, examining how these metropolitan areas have incorporated transportation planning and investment into their economic development strategies.

Building on these efforts, and with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Dukakis Center has recently begun a project focusing more broadly on the role of transit in the future of metropolitan areas across the US that either have, or are building, robust transit systems. This research effort is designed to better understand the forces that have shaped - and are transforming - transit-rich neighborhoods. The Center will then use its research findings to craft policy recommendations that can help metropolitan areas, and particularly transit-rich neighborhoods, maintain their economic and racial diversity.

Transportation Research Team