Pike chief absent for key announcement
As Governor Deval Patrick announced what he hopes will be his final and most sweeping transportation plan to a packed room on Friday, he publicly thanked Massachusetts Turnpike Authority director Alan LeBovidge for being there.
But LeBovidge wasn't in the room. He wasn't even in the hemisphere. Try Antarctica, where he has been for most of February with his wife.
LeBovidge is considered a crucial figure in the plan's wind-up and delivery. He's been a favorite adviser in the Patrick administration. And his agency, under imminent threat of insolvency, is being eliminated under Patrick's plan.
"My understanding is that he's had this trip planned for two years," said Jennifer Flagg, a top deputy who has filled in for LeBovidge in his absence.
Well, Hummer seems to have had enough. Last week, just as news of the brand's sale or demise was emerging in Washington, Patrick floated a new fee on gas guzzlers, mentioning the Hummer by name. In a news story the next day, I dubbed it a Hummer Tax, which you might say is a cheap shot coming from a self-righteous Prius-owner.
"Calling it a Hummer tax is a major misnomer," Nick Richards of HUMMER Communications wrote me in an e-mail (yes, even internally, they spell the name of their product in manly capital letters!). "The fact is that the majority of the population affected by such a proposal would in fact own another make of vehicle."
Richards pointed out that several SUVs and trucks from
Richards attributes the Hummer's reputation to its distinct design, which he calls a pro and a con.
"It makes it a lightning rod," he said. "It's a vehicle that people can pick out in a crowd."
Of course getting 13 to 14 miles per gallon and 16-to-19 miles per gallon on the highway might have something to do with it.
Fifteen transit and environmental groups were on a conference call Thursday night that highlighted the Hummer tax proposal, a new airport parking fee that would be used to pay some MBTA expenses, and other ideas tailored to the liberal Green community. James A. Aloisi Jr., the transportation secretary, and Ian A. Bowles, the energy and environment secretary, delivered the talking points.
Some details, including financial specifics, were lacking.
"Everyone appreciated getting a heads up," said Eric Bourassa, a transit analyst with the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, and a major MBTA supporter. "Obviously, the proof will be in the pudding on what the final bill is and what the amount of energy that the governor and the administration puts into this is . . . but we're encouraged."
The strategy did not work as well with a top legislator who was briefed separately. Representative Joseph F. Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat who heads up transportation issues in the House, immediately counted himself a skeptic of Patrick's plan, suggesting that it sounded desperate on the eve of a toll vote increase scheduled for February.
The numbers from December - 3.8 billion fewer miles, or a 1.6 percent decline over the same month in 2007 - represented the 14th consecutive monthly drop in national driving.
Despite the national decline, Massachusetts was among 17 states that recorded an increase in driving in December for the first time in more than a year. Estimates show we drove an additional 4 million miles, or 1.9 percent more, than we did in December 2007.
Still, Massachusetts residents are feeling the economic pinch along with the rest of the country. And we clearly cannot afford as many toll roads as we used to. Driving on the Massachusetts Turnpike dropped by more than 7 percent in January.
For most of last year, analysts said high gas prices were probably responsible for the overall decline in driving. But gas is relatively cheap now, so the onus is being put on the recession.
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