Transportation Agenda In The News

The T marked Earth Day yesterday by stepping up efforts to increase recycling and reduce exhaust emissions, a longstanding source of complaints in areas that rely on bus service.

In the next few months, 100 newspaper recycling bins will be added to the 300 that already exist at MBTA stations. And by the end of this year, 155 “ultra-low sulfur diesel” buses will join the 740 ultra-low sulfur diesel and natural-gas buses already in circulation, said Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas. Both of those fuels are cleaner than traditional diesel.

Since 2000, the use of those fuels, together with the installation of so-called diesel particulate filters, have reduced T bus emissions of nitrous oxide by 50 percent and bus emissions of soot that can cause respiratory problems and exacerbate asthma by 90 percent, according to T figures. Those emissions pose a particlar risk to children because their lungs are still developing.

“This.. . . represents progress,” said Lee H. Matsueda, program director of the T Riders Union.

“Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen a big difference from the thick, black and blue exhaust coming out of every bus,” said Eric Bourassa of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group. “While there is still more to be done to address emissions, the T has invested millions in funding to reduce air pollution.”

Some of the improvements were required as a result of the state’s commitment to reduce air pollution caused by increased traffic through the Big Dig, Bourassa said. The Clean Buses for Boston coalition also added pressure to reduce emissions.

Today, the T will also begin implementing a program that monitors emissions from all of the buses in its fleet three times a year.

The T will begin posting emissions testing results early this summer on www.mbta.com.