In many urban areas, a thriving economic and social life depends on reliable, accessible, and affordable public transportation. Boston’s Red Line, Green Line and Orange line are historic examples of public investment in public transit. In fact the scarcity of public transit in other parts of the state retards their economic and social development.

On December 10 from 10:00am-1:00pm, Radius, along with Mass Peace Action and Cambridge Residence Alliance, will sponsor a substantive event discussing the pressing issue of federal investment in public transportation.   In the US, in prior decades, and with most nations of the world, the capital investments needed to build and run trains came from the federal government. Keynote speakers and panelists will explore the challenge of solving area pubic transit problems which require increased federal funding. One source of such funding could come by shifting funding from the Pentagon budget which currently takes up more than half of the entire Congressional budget.

Former Governor Dukakis, former State Transportation Secretary Fred Salvucci, and other transit advocates will describe how decades of serious underfunding of public transit has resulted in loss of reliability, increase in serious accidents, and failure to accommodate the growing transit needs of the area. Please join us.