Summer travels have taken me up and down the East Coast, and I continue to marvel at other states’ ability to implement open-road tolling, while Massachusetts continues to hem, haw, and plan pilot programs. I’ve seen the results of open road tolling in New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Delaware, and they are impressive. Drivers used to congestion and bottlenecks now proceed at regular speed. If congestion was an important measure of performance for MassDOT (and I respectfully suggest its not, as they don’t measure it in their performance reports), open road tolling would be a priority project. As transponders drop in price, they will become more pervasive (despite some objections) and the utility of open-road tolling will only increase. Also, […]

As the summer slumber descends on Beacon Hill, where sub-10 minute legislative sessions with just a handful of attendees is currently the norm, a September wake-up call awaits. Former Speaker Sal DiMasi, who was reelected to that post with 135 votes out of a possible 160 despite ongoing ethics violations, is due to be sentenced on September 8th. The prosecution is currently seeking 12.5 to 15.5 years for DiMasi’s sentence, a pretty serious number when you consider that he’s 65 years old. In the background of this case lurk the sentences given to Diane Wilkerson and Chuck Turner, who got 3.5 years and 3 years respectively for lesser offenses than DiMasi. Many observers will be watching to see if DiMasi’s […]

One of the great mysteries of urban life is the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s penchant for blocking a lane on Storrow Drive for events. For events ranging from charity walks to radio station concerts to the Fourth of July celebration, DCR blocks a lane of traffic stretching from the esplanade to at least the first ‘rest pull-off’ on the westbound side of the Storrow. The impact of the lane closure typically backs up traffic onto the Leverett Connector and back into the tunnel , creating delays of a half hour or more in some instances. The stated rationale for the practice is visitor safety, with the row of parked cars serving as a barrier between vehicles and participants. In […]

The Lowell Sun’s Peter Lucas weighs in on the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative scandal (see my previous comments here and here) and performs a bit of (unknowing?) jiu-jitsu. The piece is driven by an internal leak from the State Auditor’s office where a DeNucci loyalist lets slip that the report leaked by Bump was actually conducted under the former Auditor: Although an investigation of the program covering 2008 to 2010 had been conducted by former state Auditor Joseph DeNucci, and a draft report written up, you would never know it. That audit, conducted before Bump took office in January, apparently sat on a shelf until Inspector General Gregory Sullivan, who had conducted a parallel investigation with DeNucci, released his explosive […]

Unions have plenty of rights. They have the right to strike, and to picket the employer with whom they are aggrieved. They have a right, as striking Verizon workers did in Massachusetts this past week, to have a giant, inflated rat at their pickets, if they are dumb enough to think that is going to bring them some public support. They have a right to shout insults and obscenities at those who cross the picket line to go to work, although it has always mystified me why they think acting like elementary school bullies earns them any respect. But they do not have a right to commit crimes – to sabotage equipment, to threaten those who don’t agree with them, […]