While Governor Baker has made a decision to withdraw from the regional Transportation and Climate Initiative, the goals of TCI remain as important as ever. 

For the sake of the entire Commonwealth -- but particularly our environmental justice populations that have been most adversely impacted by transportation pollution and by the COVID-19 pandemic -- reducing carbon emissions and tailpipe pollution must remain a high priority, and the Commonwealth’s laudable climate goals must be backed up by decisive action. 

Incoming federal infrastructure dollars are a welcome down payment as we confront decades of underinvestment in our transportation system which have led to soul-sucking congestion, multiple train derailments, over 400 structurally deficient bridges, and a $10 billion maintenance backlog at the MBTA.

But this influx of federal funding should also raise expectations for timely and decisive leadership by the Governor and the State Legislature. In the absence of TCI, we call on the Governor and lawmakers to double down on transportation investments that are clean, equitable, healthy, and safe, and to take bold steps to move Massachusetts away from our congested, unhealthy and unreliable transportation status quo.