FOR THE PAST several decades, the federal government has chronically underfunded rural transportation. Facing severe budget shortfalls, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 health crisis, rural counties across the country have been forced to remove pavement from their roads because they lack funds to address potholes and cracks.

Similarly, cash-strapped rural transit providers have struggled to get rural residents where they need to go due to inadequate funding, diminished staffing, and aging fleets. While rural buses cut services and existing roads are being turned back into dirt, state and local governments across the country continue to waste tens of billions of dollars on unnecessary highway expansions each year, mostly in urban areas.

While the $1 billion I-90 Allston project advances in Boston, residents in western Massachusetts, such as those living in Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties, cannot get to and from essential services. Despite our regional transit authorities stretching every dollar, we still lack access to public transportation on evenings and weekends. Meanwhile, our cash-strapped towns struggle to maintain our roads.

In fact unpaved roads that constitute over half of the total roadway miles in some of our communities are literally being washed away during more frequent and increasingly intense storm events, which will only get worse as the climate crisis intensifies.

But there is hope that this will soon change. In our nation’s capital, the Senate recently passed the bipartisan $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a major victory for President Biden’s agenda. If this legislation passes the House later this month, the federal government will finally have the necessary investments to transform our transportation system so that it’s healthier, more sustainable, and ready to meet our challenges and aspirations for the 21st century.

While this legislation marks progress, to truly address the long-standing rural-urban imbalance in transportation funding, we need to shift our priorities away from road building by adopting a “fix-it-first approach.” Instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on constructing new urban highways, we should fix the roads we already have. That way we can redirect funding away from polluting and ineffective highway boondoggles, which only lead to more cars clogging our roads, more vehicle deaths, and more asphalt running through the middle of our cities, and instead focus on repairing our existing transportation infrastructure in rural communities.

But we can’t stop there. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) recently released report makes it clear that we need to decarbonize our country’s fossil fuel-based transportation system, now the number one source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, if we are going to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change. In addition to using this massive new infusion of federal funds to begin to address our country’s more than half a trillion dollars in accumulated road and bridge repair backlog, $211 billion of which is specific to our rural transportation network, we also need to ensure that we are creating more sustainable ways for Americans to travel, regardless of where they live.

Here in the Northeast, the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI) would do just this. Set to begin in 2023, TCI is a regional agreement designed to cap pollution from fossil-fuel powered vehicles and provide improved access to sustainable transportation options. In addition to providing much-needed funds to maintain rural roads and bridges, TCI would supply rural communities with the resources to increase the adoption of electric vehicles by installing more chargers, enhancing and electrifying public transit networks, increasing micro-transit options, and building more walking and bike-friendly paths. Not only would improving pedestrian infrastructure provide people with more options to safely get around, it would also improve health outcomes by promoting physical activity and fuel economic development by expanding outdoor recreation opportunities.

Throughout the Northeast, voters across party lines are in support of investing in better rural transportation options. To support these goals we need to ensure that programs like TCI are rolled out quickly and effectively.

As we move to the next stage of the federal infrastructure debate, the outlook for rural transportation is looking brighter. Still, there is more work to be done to build a modern, sustainable transportation network for all Americans, regardless of where they live. To truly make a difference, we need to stop using our transportation budgets to fund urban highway expansion and instead put that money into repairing the roads and bridges we already have as well as creating healthier, more carbon-conscious options for people to travel, especially in rural communities.

State Rep. Natalie M. Blais of Sunderland represents the 1st Franklin District in Northwestern Massachusetts. John Stout is a transportation advocate with MASSPIRG, a Boston-based organization that advocates for the public interest.

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THE AMERICAN JOBS PLAN marks a huge opportunity for our state and country. These funds, in addition to those provided by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), could bring a transformational investment to the Massachusetts transportation system, which for too long has focused on moving cars instead of people.

Like states across the country, Massachusetts is preparing to put these billions of dollars in federal funding toward “shovel ready” infrastructure projects. These investments are designed to lay the groundwork for a strong, long-term economic recovery. But what do shovel-ready projects look like in Massachusetts? Most projects currently on our long-term transportation plan have languished for years. And we learned from former President Obama’s stimulus package that it’s important to fund not just “shovel-ready” projects, but “shovel-worthy” projects.

Shovel-worthy projects would not only help the Commonwealth recover from COVID-19, but position us to meet our climate goals as well. This new round of federal funding gives us an opportunity to reconsider what types of transportation projects we prioritize, and to ensure we make transformative investments that fund under-invested communities while bringing our transportation system into the 21st century.

Before anyone had ever heard of COVID-19, our car-centric transportation system was wreaking havoc on our health and the planet. Our state’s transportation sector is known for record traffic congestion, unreliable transit service, and pollution-causing greenhouse gas emissions. The pandemic has further exacerbated these woes, exposing inequitable access to healthcare, jobs, and basic needs, and unraveling our former travel patterns. Decreased car travel meant cleaner air for a very short time, but plummeting transit ridership also upended short and long-term budgets at the MBTA and other transit agencies.

Electrifying our public transit bus fleets in every corner of Massachusetts, expanding rail service statewide, and making MBTA service more frequent and accessible will only happen if we learn from the past and urge decision-makers to consider projects that go beyond bridge painting and pre-pandemic service. Prioritizing shovel-worthy projects is the only way we will make our transportation system stronger and more climate resilient.

Massachusetts needs a concrete strategy to use the billions of new federal dollars, which in all likelihood will continue to flow into the state over the next decade given President Biden’s continued push to pass a once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure package. We will only be able to take advantage of these new resources and make good on our long-term climate goals to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century if we use them wisely.

Cities and towns in the Commonwealth have long wish-lists of infrastructure projects that they want to pursue. However, many cities and towns lack the funding to do the necessary studies to have them listed on the state’s transportation plans. The Baker administration should set aside money to allow cities and towns to invest in those critical planning and design efforts that unlock more transformative investments now and in the future, with a particular focus on multi-municipal and regional projects.

We stand at a critical juncture, both in our effort to rebound from the pandemic and in our fight to stop the climate crisis. There is renewed momentum behind the push to mitigate climate change and make the Commonwealth’s transportation system cleaner, healthier, and more accessible. But this bold vision will only become a reality if we plan accordingly.

We must seize this opportunity to shift our travel patterns for the better and plan for new ways to get ourselves around.

Lizzi Weyant is director of government affairs at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and John Stout is transportation advocate at the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, or MassPIRG.

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WARM WEATHER, open storefronts, and one of the nation’s highest vaccination rates have given many the feeling that life is returning to normal here in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, going back to business-as-usual also means getting back to the same—or worse —amount of sitting in traffic. Boston has some of the country’s worst traffic levels in the country, and we are already exceeding pre-pandemic levels in some parts of the city. Rather than return to the status quo, we can and must reimagine what a transportation system that protects people and the climate could look like for Massachusetts.

Traffic doesn’t just make us late to work or short of temper—it can also make us short of breath. Too many cars and trucks on the road means dirtier air and more dangerous streets, especially for those without a car. On top of deadly air pollution, hundreds of people die in vehicle crashes in the Commonwealth every year, while thousands more are left severely injured.

Our transportation system causes pain, both personal and planetary. Transportation is now the number one source of greenhouse gas emission in Massachusetts. Unless we change the way Bay Staters get around, we will not be able to begin to tackle the climate crisis nor improve the safety of the roads running through our communities.

The current federal infrastructure discussion has the potential to transform our transportation network both in Massachusetts and across the country. President Biden’s American Jobs Plan presents us with a roadmap to leave our state’s history of car-centric transportation infrastructure investments in the rearview mirror and invest in healthier and more sustainable ways to get around. The reauthorization of the long-term transportation spending plan, which just passed out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee with unanimous bipartisan support, makes some necessary progress on safety, climate emissions, and walking and biking, although it preserves our car-centric status quo in many ways and can be improved.

By tying our transportation goals to our climate goals, we can give people across our state viable, sustainable alternatives to dangerous, carbon-spewing cars. The GREEN Streets Act is one way to do just that—this legislation would require state departments of transportation to set greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled reduction goals, and use federal funding to meet them.

But it’s not enough to simply decrease the amount people drive. We need to pair this with an effort to improve safety and accessibility for all travelers so that alternatives to driving can truly thrive. In our initial consideration of the surface transportation reauthorization bill in the Senate, we were able to pass a bipartisan amendment that would provide $1 billion to connect active transportation routes—trails, walking paths, and more—into a comprehensive system that allows individuals of all ages and abilities to reach their destinations within and between communities. But we must now build on that amendment and keep promoting safer, more equitable, and more climate positive infrastructure as this debate continues.

As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot return to the transportation status quo in Massachusetts, which included rising air pollution, dangerous and pothole-filled roads, and nation-topping traffic congestion—especially as the link between COVID-19 cases and poor air quality shows the dangers of ignoring mobile pollution sources. Instead, we need more decision-makers in Washington to seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to create policies that will transform transportation here in Massachusetts and beyond. By providing clean, healthy and safe alternatives to personal car travel, we can create a new “normal” in which the easiest, cheapest, and most pleasant ways to get around don’t involve being stuck behind the steering wheel.

Ed Markey is a senator from Massachusetts and John Stout is the MassPIRG transportation advocate.

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