Editor’s note: Wellesley Middle School Social Studies students as part of a Civics Action Projects has this week taken over The Swellesley Report‘s letters-to-the-editor page. The students are well-versed in their topics, have carefully researched all angles, and are ready to present their opinions to the community. Thank you to the WMS Social Studies teachers for organizing this community-based project.
To the editor:
When we think about how we get around town or travel in general, there’s always one thing that comes up again and again. No, it isn’t that there’s always traffic or that the GPS is wrong about the route. It’s the fact that we almost always travel with a group of people that we know in a car. Whether it’s your family or your friends, public transportation isn’t often considered.
Right now in the greater Boston area, public transportation is rarely used, despite the environmental and financial benefits it provides to people. Even if people wanted to, it isn’t very accessible, especially when you aren’t in a major city. However, we have found an organization that is pushing for a change in the Boston area. The MWRTA (MetroWest Regional Transit Authority) is an organization that runs buses all around the MetroWest area including routes in Wellesley. However, none runs on the weekends.
One of the routes in Wellesley runs from the easternmost point of Wellesley and goes all the way to the other side of Wellesley, then to the Natick Mall. A recent experience I had was one weekend when two of my friends and I wanted to go to the mall but we had no ride. Since the MWRTA only runs on the weekdays we had no way to get there, and ended up not going. If the MWRTA was running on the weekends, we could’ve used that as our way to get there and back. This isn’t just a problem for me, in a survey we conducted for Wellesley residents, 64% of people said that they went to the Natick Mall on the weekends while only 15% said that they went on weekdays. This means that for the majority of people, weekday runs aren’t very useful and that weekend runs would provide much more value.
Next, the MWRTA should run on weekends for those who can’t or aren’t old enough to drive (often students) so that they too can get around on weekends. In this day and age, cars are most people’s main form of transportation, but not everyone has one. This is yet another demographic that would benefit from weekend runs.
By running Wellesley routes on the weekend, many more people will have the option of taking MWRTA buses. With these new riders, it would bring in needed income that could be used for service improvements, advertisements, extended routes, new routes, and more. Other benefits of increased riders are reduced traffic, lower carbon emissions, and much money saved.
Also, if you would like to help improve the MWRTA, something you can do to help is to simply use their services and spread the word. The MWRTA services are also FREE THROUGH JUNE so it won’t cost you anything to try them out.
Luca Bernhardt and Nathaniel Cody
Wellesley Middle School students
