T’s more active approach to being greener is paying quick dividends
Last year, the MBTA marked the 40th anniversary of Earth Day with a ceremony, wheeling out the first of 25 gleaming, gas-electric hybrid buses purchased with federal stimulus money. Earth Day 41 passed in quieter fashion last week, but the lack of fanfare belied the work behind the scenes over the past year to make the T more environmentally friendly.
For starters, energy-efficient lighting installed last summer at a couple of MBTA bus garages, Transit Police headquarters, and T offices has already saved 1.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity — worth $200,000 and equal to the annual energy consumption of about 150 households.
The T has already made back the $175,000 it invested in the improvements, which represented a 30 percent payment on work otherwise covered by
That made it easier for the cash-strapped transportation authority, which has $3 billion in transportation-related maintenance needs and $5.5 billion in debt (plus interest), to plan more lighting upgrades this year at additional bus garages and some subway stations.
The T also plans to do an assessment of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems to determine what upgrades are needed and how long the payback period would be.
The investments are part of a larger environmental management system the T introduced last year, following about three years of internal scrutiny.
Although mass transit is inherently green — the T provides nearly 400 million annual trips, a good share of which might otherwise have been via single-passenger automobile — many of the MBTA’s systems and practices were environmentally dated, and earlier improvements were isolated or incremental. The T would look for efficient vehicles at purchase time, or upgrade infrastructure and practices — be it faulty storage tanks or excessive idling — to comply with state and federal law when problems arose.
But with the new environmental management system, the T has gone from reactive to proactive and is considering sustainability, efficiency, and environmental impact across the organization, Brennan said.
“We looked at everything from how we store and dispose of hazardous waste to how we wash buses and trains, how we run power stations and maintain underground tanks,’’ Brennan said.
Last July, the T began paying to recycle electronic waste — not just obsolete computers, batteries, and other “e-waste’’ from its own offices, but also hundreds of old TVs and other electronic junk dumped along the MBTA’s tracks by litterers determined to skirt disposal fees. Over the past nine months, the T has recycled 185,000 pounds of electronics, Brennan said.
The T’s newspaper-recycling program predates its comprehensive environmental approach but was abruptly halted after Sept. 11, 2001, when the T yanked its trash and recycling barrels until bomb-proof versions could be developed.
The new recycling receptacles arrived in 2004, with narrow slots at the top giving way to transparent, plastic-bag receptacles. Since then, the MBTA has recycled about 7 million pounds of newspaper, in turn saving about 270,000 cubic feet of landfill space — and saving the T roughly $300,000. The MBTA pays $85 per ton to have waste hauled off but is paid a modest amount for its recycled paper, Brennan said.
And the recycling of that paper had broader environmental benefits, saving about 16 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, 24 million gallons of water, and 1,400 tons of emitted greenhouses gases, Brennan said.
A bit of misdirection on Route 2 is corrected
Reader Laura Carroll of Charlestown thought something was funny when she was driving on Commonwealth Avenue inbound recently and saw a sign near the Boston University Bridge that read, “2 EAST CAMBRIDGE ARLINGTON,’’ with an arrow pointing right toward Mountford Street, which loops around to cross the bridge.Cambridge and Arlington, of course, are west on Route 2, and northwest as the crow flies. East would be Kenmore Square.
Last week, Carroll passed by the sign again and stopped to take a picture with her cellphone, to make sure she wasn’t imagining it. I forwarded it to Department of Transportation spokesman Adam Hurtubise, wondering if it was a genuine mistake or a local quirk with a historical explanation, like driving south when going north on Interstate 95.
“You and your reader are correct,’’ Hurtubise replied. “The sign designation at this location should read Rte 2 WEST. We are making a temporary overlay today at our Medford sign shop and will have it installed Monday morning. A permanent replacement sign will be installed later. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.’’
Hurtubise did not know how long the sign had been there. Whenever it was installed, it was after Google’s roaming cameras photographed the location; the
“Nice to know I wasn’t imagining things!’’ Carroll said by e-mail.
He died at 77 in 2008, three years after a stroke forced his retirement. In 2005, Mac Daniel described him in this column like this:
“When we’ve asked the MBTA or MassHighway a historical question, we’d typically get the reply, ‘Call Sanborn.’ We would, and George would answer our question, giving us way more information than we could use. The answer would typically include one of Sanborn’s famous tangents, which could take in anything from the philosophy of transportation and the solar system to his roots in Sanford, Maine, and Danville, Va. And even though we couldn’t use much of it, it was always interesting, spoken in a uniquely Virginian drawl by a beautifully unique man.’’
■ Vertia Givins of Worcester signed up last week for the one-millionth Fast Lane account in the decade-long history of the state’s automatic highway toll-payment system. Confetti didn’t descend from the sky, but a surprised Givins did get gift cards donated by merchants at Massachusetts Turnpike rest stops — Dunkin’ Donuts, McCafe beverages, and Gulf Oil — plus $100 in toll credits from Citizens Bank.
■ Secretary of Transportation Jeffrey B. Mullan quietly tried his hand last week as a toll collector, slipping into a booth at Exit 11A (Interstate 495) off the Mass. Pike for 90 minutes. He came away with a greater appreciation for the work.
“It’s hard because when they’re coming, you’ve got to know the type of vehicle and the number of axles, but it’s hard to count the axles because they’re coming right at you,’’ said Mullan, who found it faster-paced and more harrowing than he imagined. “I’m not saying it’s not a safe environment, but it’s not being in an office. And you’ve got to stay on it. . . . You’ve got to make the change right, you’ve got to keep the traffic moving, you’ve got to make sure the ticket is correct. It’s a very complicated thing.’’
Eric Moskowitz can be reached at emoskowitz@globe.com 
