Highway to Hell: Teams Trans previews coming attractions
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Genuine public interest in real, comprehensive solutions to the Bay State's transportation troubles is low. Commuters worry about their own pocketbooks and no one else's. The prospect of a higher gas tax has plenty of drivers in a snit. If you rely on public transportation, you are likely to be worried about MBTA fare increases and service cuts.
The abysmal state of our transportation infrastructure is no secret. But there's more interest in new lineups to shake off the Red Sox's worst start in 13 years than in deteriorating roads, bridges, and mass transit after decades of delayed maintenance. Or in the sorry finances of state transportation agencies that brought Massachusetts to this point.
Lawmakers and state transportation managers drone on about reform before revenue. But what they really needed was a graphic, real-time example of what life will be like when the cuts hit the street.
Suddenly Mass. drivers and lawmakers were shocked to find out that a cash-strapped agency's decision to forgo paying holiday overtime to toll takers when others call in sick can muck up the works pretty badly on a day when a fair number of people are driving on the state's major east-west artery.
The knives are out for Massachusetts Turnpike Authority executive director Alan LeBovidge, who devised, deliberately or not, a sure-fire attention-getter. LeBovidge blamed the gridlock on spotty Fast Lane transponder usage and said that if authority officials found a pattern of sick-leave abuse, workers could face penalties. Will heads roll? We'll find out, since Gov. Deval Patrick, who also felt the pain on his way back from Richmond, wants a "full accounting." So far, we know that 17 out the 167 toll takers on Sunday shifts failed to show up for work. Last Easter, nine people called in sick out of 213. And LeBovidge didn't go up the food chain to alert anyone that he made an (gasp!) executive decision not to pay overtime.
Who knew that reform before revenue meant backups from Boston to Sturbridge?
It’s a no-win situation for the much reviled agency, and LeBovidge isn't backing down. In a questionable moment of candor, he told reporters, "Sometimes you have to grin and bear it. You know, if you don't have money, you can't buy food, and you have to go hungry sometimes."
No one should go hungry. Or sit in a miles-long traffic jam because some toll takers called in sick (as if the two are comparable). But as anyone in working in human services will tell you, we live in a society where many people who don't have money to pay for food go hungry. Now residents want all the services they've been accustomed to. Just don't ask us, people say, to pay anymore than we already are.