DERRICK Z. Jackson’s Sept. 21 op-ed column “Start the conversation on gas tax’’ misses an important point about raising money for improving mass transit, which is that mass transit is an option that many Massachusetts residents cannot take advantage of.
Jackson uses European countries as examples of beneficiaries of mass transit, often after having raised the countries’ gas taxes to fund these programs, and he strongly encourages the same here.
However, European populations are more concentrated around urban areas than they are in the United States, so a strong emphasis on mass transit for those countries’ densely populated areas makes more sense.
In Massachusetts, many residents do not live or work near urban areas, and mass transit is simply not a viable option for them. Why should those citizens pay higher taxes for services that they are rarely, if ever, able to use?
David Mack
Groton
