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Greater Boston’s transportation system has become increasingly unreliable, just as our economy has taken off and attracted new workers to our region. The quality of MBTA service has declined, and according to one analysis Boston now has the worst traffic in the United States. As housing costs have skyrocketed in the region’s inner core, more people have been forced to live further away from jobs, making them more dependent than ever on having a reliable transportation system. These trends have led to longer commute times for most workers, jeopardizing our region’s long-term competitiveness.
One way to see the magnitude of these changes is by analyzing the most recent U.S. Census data on local commute times. Over the past decade, the average one-way commute to work in Greater Boston increased from 29 minutes to 31.7 minutes (an increase of 9.5 percent). Taking a closer look, we find that since 2007 the number of Boston-area commuters with shorter commutes (<10 minutes) has decreased as the number with the longest commutes (60+ minutes) has risen sharply (see graph below). This change has likely been driven by two phenomena: 1) long-standing commuters experiencing worse transportation system performance, and 2) the addition of new workers to the region who are now more likely to live further from their work.
Not only have commutes gotten longer for most people regardless of transportation mode, some areas of our region have historically been especially poorly served by their transportation options. One important example is the Fairmount Corridor of Boston, which extends along the Fairmount Commuter Rail line, passing southwest through Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park. These are some of the lowest-income neighborhoods of the city. Despite being located within the heart of Boston, many commuters along the Fairmount Corridor have substantially longer commutes than people elsewhere in the region who may live much further from work. In Mattapan Square, for example, more than 30 percent of commuters travel at least one hour to get to work each day. By contrast, many suburban commuters further from downtown Boston in places like Newton or Needham have shorter commutes than Boston residents in the Corridor (10 to 15 percent of these suburban commuters travel 60+ minutes.