By Brooke Thomson
President & CEO

Everyone agrees that Massachusetts has a transportation problem. Not everyone agrees on how to fix it.

I’m getting a first-hand look at that conundrum as a member of the state’s Transportation Funding Task Force.

AIM represents 3,400 Massachusetts businesses with an immediate interest in the commonwealth’s transportation system – businesses need good roads, bridges and public transit to succeed. The state economy depends upon the ability of employees to get to work and companies to transport goods to global markets.

AIM’s approach to transportation mirrors the deliberate, fact-based approach that any of our member companies would use to solve any business problem. Amid the predictable proposals being tossed about to fund the transformation of transportation, AIM believes we all need to step back and ask:

• What is the problem we are trying to solve?
• What information do we need?
• How do changing patterns of work and travel shape potential solutions to the problem?
• What resources are available to pay for changes and improvements?

Defining the problem with transportation is far more nuanced than it sounds. AIM is a statewide association and our members in different regions face starkly different challenges with transportation.

Members in metro Boston wonder whether employees can get to work on the MBTA; manufacturers in the Berkshires struggle to get trucks from their plants to the Turnpike; several bridges throughout the state are structurally deficient; regional transit busses in Springfield and Worcester don’t always stop near business parks; and hotel owners on the Cape wonder how long customers will put up with delays across the Sagamore Bridge.

Everyone’s voice matters in the transportation debate, and AIM wants to hear yours. Which transportation issues does your company face? How do these challenges affect your business? Which transportation systems should the state prioritize for improvement? And how should the commonwealth pay for these changes?

We have already convened small meetings of AIM members with the Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation and the General Manager of the MBTA. We expect to hold additional meetings in the coming months and hope you will join us to share your ideas with top policymakers from the Healy Administration.

AIM generally supports plans that do not penalize individuals who must use cars or trucks to conduct their business or get to work.

AIM members who wish to provide input may contact Stephanie Swanson, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs, sswanson@aimnet.org.

The last time that Massachusetts approached transportation reform was just prior to the COVID pandemic, a crisis that pushed the debate to the back burner. We now find ourselves at a moment when the way we work and live has changed. The approach to solving the transportation dilemma must change with it.