Trio Presents Rival Mass-Transit Plan

Three transportation experts, two of them from Harvard, yesterday proposed the replacement of Governor Peabody's $200 million mass transit plan with a program of their own costing less than $80 million.

In contrast to Peabody's proposal, which recommends the extention of MTA rapid transit to 614 outlying communities, they suggested "making the existing system as efficient as possible." They said that the MTA's costs per "car-mile" were more than twice those of comparable systems in other large American cities.

To serve the needs of the suburbs, the group called for varied solutions, including the building of routes exclusively for rapid bus transportation, limited expansion of present MTA facilities, and continued use of the Boston and Maine railroad service.

The three experts--John R. Meyer '51, professor of Economics, Martin J. Wohl '53, lecturer on Public Administration, and Gerald Kraft, a transportation consultant--explained that their approach was more "rational and economical" than Peabody's. "It uses technologies best suited to performing specific urban transport tasks, rather than blindly extending into low density suburbs existing rail operational patterns geared to the needs of high density central cities," they explained.

May Eliminate Deficit

In a 13-page statement and at a news conference, they emphasized that by promoting efficient operation, their plan was aimed at eliminating the MTA's deficit--$22 million last year. They attributed Boston's high costs to "extremely high" administration expenses, and some poor management decisions.

More study is needed to shed light on this problem, as well as many other transportation difficulties that face the city, Wohl said, and he urged that such inquiries be undertaken.

As steps toward better MTA service, the plan proposes "rationalizing" the present system by integrating the different transit lines. Under the program, for example, it would be possible to go from Harvard. Square directly to Logan International Airport without making two transfers.

The plan envisions spending 75 per cent of the $80 million to improve the existing MTA lines, while only 35 per cent-- "possibly even less"--of the governor's program would go towards this goal.

Propose 'Transit-Mile' Financing

In case the proposal is not adopted and the MTA's deficit persists, they recommended that the deficit be financed according to the number of "transit-miles" used by each community, not on a basis of its population or merely the number of its inhabitants using rapid transit. Transit-miles would depend on the number of people using MTA and the town's distance from the city.

A major difference between Peabody's proposal and the plan unveiled yesterday is the different emphasis each puts on the downtown Boston area.

The Meyer-Wohl-Kraft program claims that the best way to help transportation in the greater metropolitan area is to alleviate the congestion in the core of the city. To this end, they proposed improving the circulation patterns on city streets, enforcing and modifying traffic laws, controlling or monitoring entry ramps on vital expressways, installing a modern-day signal control system, and providing more off-street parking in the city.

Explaining that 50 per cent of the city's traffic is merely passing through, they said that the Inner Belt, a super highway, that will connect Boston and most of its suburbs, will improve matters considerably.

Both Wohl and Meyer served on an advisory committee to Gov. Peabody on transportation matters. They said that the governor had heard most of their recommendations, but had not seen the package as a whole. In a letter to the Boston Herald last week, they severely criticized the governor's plan.

Their current recommendations have evolved from an intensive study conducted by Meyer and Wohl under the auspices of the Rand Corporation. These two will shortly publish a book. The Urban Transportation Problem, setting forth their major conclusions.