One powerful tool for offering commuters better options are Transportation Management Associations. My organization, the Longwood Collective TMA, is one of 15 statewide associations that collectively offer a wide range of services to more than 400,000 residents in 48 communities.
The work TMAs do includes promoting carpooling, cycling, and walking, and TMAs serve as a clearinghouse for information about the MBTA and other transit options. In our case, we run fleets of shuttle buses to provide last-mile solutions to and from major transit hubs, and identify congestion hot spots and work with the city and state to fix them. Additionally, TMAs like ours push for policies that support better commuter benefits, including a tax-relief law that provides better parity between commuters driving single-occupancy vehicles and those who opt for alternatives like regional bus service, ferries, the MBTA, and bicycling.
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