MBTA Safety Overhaul: Retooling Teams For Trustworthy Transit

This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with transit advocate and expert Chris Dempsey about ways in which structural change in the MBTA's safety oversight can be reformed to improve performance, engender greater trust amongst the region’s riders, and reduce transportation congestion in our growing economy.

Guest:
Christopher Dempsey is a transportation advocate and former co-founder of No Boston Olympics, which formed in opposition to Boston’s 2024 Summer Olympics bid. He was a Democratic candidate for Massachusetts State Auditor for the 2022 election. From 2017 to 2021, Dempsey was the Director of Transportation for Massachusetts, a statewide advocacy coalition fighting for safe, reliable, and sustainable transportation. As Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Governor Deval Patrick, he co-founded MassDOT’s Open Data program, which made the MBTA the first agency on the East Coast to share real-time data with third-party developers that created smartphone apps for bus and train arrivals. He currently serves an elected member of Brookline Town Meeting and chairs the Brookline Transportation Board. In 2014, Dempsey, along with Liam Kerr and Kelley Gossett, co-founded No Boston Olympics, which successfully led opposition to Boston’s 2024 Summer Olympics bid. Influenced by this work and collaboration with organizers in other cities fighting Olympic bids, he co-authored No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch with Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist.