The FAA bill President Joe Biden just signed might help Boston solve a big traffic problem. Here’s how
See if this sounds familiar.
You’re driving down the narrow streets of Boston or some other big city when you suddenly find yourself forced to carefully navigate around someone who’s thrown on the hazards and double-parked in a travel lane, snarling traffic just when you need it the least.
Some relief — from the unlikeliest of places — might eventually be in sight.
Bipartisan legislation that President Joe Biden signed into law earlier this week reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, includes language sponsored by a Massachusetts lawmaker intended to address parking nightmares outside the arrivals and departure gates at Boston Logan International Airport and other airports nationwide.
The language “empowers airports’ land operations to use cameras and other technologies to better manage their curbs,” the language’s sponsor, U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-4th District, said in a post to X earlier this week. “That means that when you’re doing drop-off or pick-up, those double-park and triple-park situations that can make pedestrians and drivers feel unsafe, can be better managed.”
Auchincloss called the language “an important win” for his office, and travelers across the country.
In his post to X this week, Auchincloss said the language inserted into the FAA bill eventually could be “applied by downtowns in cities across the United States.”
Those jurisdictions have to “manage across a host of modalities ? public transit, walking, cycling, scooters, outdoor recreation, and of course, parking,” the Newton Democrat said.
“Giving cities the tools and technology they need to deconflict those different uses, and to maximize their curbs’ potential for public value will create more walkable and enjoyable downtowns,” he said.
City officials in Boston took a crack at the problem last year, by trying to reduce the ranks of food delivery drivers who routinely double- and triple-park on Boylston Street and other crowded thoroughfares in the city, NBC-10 in Boston reported.
“In some of the most congested areas, it has had a tremendous impact on the street,” the city’s streets chief told the station at the time. “What we see is rampant double or triple parking. We see vehicles, delivery drivers squeezing their car in ways that end up being terribly unsafe.”
The FAA bill that Biden signed into law renews the agency’s authority for the next five years, CNN reported. It authorizes more than $105 billion in funding for the FAA, as well as $738 million for the National Transportation Safety Board for fiscal years 2024 through 2028, CNN reported.
In a statement after the signing, Biden praised the bill, and touted a new U.S. Department of Transportation rule requiring automatic cash refunds instead of vouchers, CNN reported.
“The bipartisan Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization is a big win for travelers, the aviation workforce, and our economy. It will expand critical protections for air travelers, strengthen safety standards, and support pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers,” Biden said, according to the statement released by the White House.
By: John L. Micek
Source: MassLive