TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

The government needs to live within its means. I fully support increasing the quality and capacity of mass transit as an MBTA user for almost 50 years. We already have excise tax and annual emissions inspections in Massachusetts as well as robust gas taxes. The Commonwealth needs to end waste and funding bloated programs of dubious benefit.

I will not support this because of the gas tax. No way should the regular people of the state fund this project. This should be a federal program! We already pay some of the highest taxes in the country and I did not for Baker to create a gas tax! I agree that we need to more on global warming but not this way.

You will be taking money Out of the pockets of tens of thousands of commuters and travelers who prefer to drive or have no choice but to drive a car. In addition, as trucks bring the goods we all buy to the stores we frequent or to our homes, you will be raising the prices for everyone. The people who can least afford this will bear the brunt. If your solution is to move people to public transportation, I ask you: at what point in our history has this been a preferable option for anyone? Do I need to detail public transportation's myriad problems?And how do truckers use public transportation. Put me down as a solid "No" for this. I'll be heading to New Hampshire to do as much of my business as possible.

I think the TCI is a great idea. I hope the most ambitious emission reduction targets are used.

I could not be further in support of action like this for the state of Massachusetts. In fact, it should have been done years ago.

I have lived in Massachusetts since 2003, moving here for college. I have since moved further out of town, to Medford, Malden, and now North Andover. As I've moved outward I realized how woefully behind and miserable out transportation system is. As a medical resident at Tufts medical center I would leave 16 hour days in the hospital to get on the orange line back to Malden to end up finding needed that my commute would take an extra hour to be bussed from Wellington or sometimes from downtown. I rode the commuter rail from Lawrence while living in North Andover (not actually a bad experience, other than the uncomfortable chairs) to North Station and then would rather walk 25 minutes in the cold than be crushed onto overcrowded trains at North Station, where people would be waiting three to four people deep on the platforms for trains coming in to town. I've also driven in to Boston for my commute many times, and have witnessed people losing their minds with rage in the unbelievable traffic.

My sister is a nurse at MGH and would rather commute by driving from Nashua than take trains (even though its a few minute walk from North Station!) because the commuter rail schedule is so poor that doing so would add 90 minutes to her already 14-15 hour day away from home.

The prices of real estate in Boston and gentrification of downtown neighborhoods are forcing out lower-income residents where they are forced to endure the horrible MBTA for commutes, taking more of their time away from their families, while tax breaks are offered to corporations to come to Boston and real estate is developed downtown to provide upper-class housing for their employees. There is also ample data that emissions and pollution disproportionately affect lower-income neighborhoods and minority individuals. These are nauseating inequalities that needs to be addressed.

The Big Dig was poorly designed and is now woefully inadequate to support traffic around Boston. As the city has grown during the time I have lived here, the overpriced and miserable commuter rail and the third-world level MBTA subway system have become overloaded while still being bad enough to force most people to drive commute.

Please raise a gas tax and use the funds for improvements in public transportation. Please ALSO tax the real-estate developers (how many hundred million dollar apartment buildings have gone up in the last ten years?) and large corporations in the city driving gentrification to support improvements in public transportation infrastructure. Please ALSO provide tax benefits or other financial incentives for purchasing electric cars, as this may disappear at the federal level.

I think it's ridiculous to put the challenges of climate change on the backs of those who consume gasoline. New Hampshire has refused to go with this initiative. It can't work without all states in the region. And the US has done a lot already about climate change. Russia, India and China are the real problem countries. It is a worldwide problem - not a local one.