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By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

May 13 through 20 was Infrastructure Week. “Infrastructure” includes a wide range of systems that help us get where we need to go and deliver crucial services like water and electricity. Maintaining our infrastructure, especially aging systems, is a challenge both locally and nationally. Infrastructure Week was a good time to remember how central our infrastructure is to our day-to-day lives and think about how we will tackle the challenges of maintaining and updating it.

37% increase in ridership: Nationally, public transportation ridership has increased by 37% over the past 20 years. We know the benefits when people rely on cars less – it’s better for the environment and, according to AAA, can save you nearly $10,000 a year. But people won’t use public transportation if it doesn’t go where they need it to and if it isn’t reliable, so if we want to help more people make a mobility shift, we have to have good public transportation infrastructure in place. Locally, that’s meant a partnership between the MBTA and Federal Realty Investment Trust to fund and open the first new T station in almost 30 years at Assembly Square and a $50 million investment by the City to ensure the Green Line Extension that so many have fought so long for would finally be built. There are also smaller investments we can make to improve public transportation. Buses in Somerville are on time only about 60% of the time, but we can help them cut through traffic faster by installing dedicated bus lanes. Right now we have one on Prospect St. and will be painting another on Broadway soon. And we’ll be keeping an eye out for more locations where a dedicated bus lane makes sense.

75 to 100 years old: Most of the water systems across America have been operating for between 75 and 100 years. And Somerville can top even that: some of our oldest pipes were put in before the Civil War. Older systems are more likely to break, and if you’ve ever experienced an emergency water shutdown it was likely because an old pipe broke and needed repair. Prior to 2006 no proactive water or sewer upgrades were being undertaken at all in Somerville, rather the City was only responding to emergency breaks.  Since then, we have steadily increased preventive investments. But to really fix the problem we need to fully upgrade our water and sewer system. That work has started with projects like the water and sewer separation on Cedar St. and the current work in Union Square, but it’s going to be a long process. Based on the rate we’re currently able to invest, it will take about 340 years to fully upgrade Somerville’s water and sewer system. The City is working to increase our investment to a rate that would get that number down to 102 years—still too long, but better. It’s time to knuckle down and step up to this responsibility.

167 hours stuck in traffic:  Here’s another good reason to invest in our public transportation infrastructure: nationally, the average driver spends 97 hours stuck in traffic per year. And it’s even worse locally. A recent report by the research firm INRIX found that Boston area commuters spent an average of 167 hours in rush hours traffic. That puts Boston in the #1 spot for most congested city in the nation for 2018—right ahead of D.C. and Chicago. Some drivers won’t be able to switch from a car commute, but if we can get others off the road and onto public transportation, bikes, or walking, it will lessen congestion and make everyone’s commute a little better. For one, the new Green Line Extension is projected to increase T ridership by approximately 50,000 trips per day.

$3.70 in economic growth: Infrastructure projects, especially major ones, are expensive, but they’re also good for the economy. For every dollar invested in infrastructure projects $3.70 is generated in economic growth. Infrastructure projects can also help you save money when shopping. Right now traffic congestion adds about $75 billion to freight transportation costs each year. Building and maintaining our infrastructure also creates job. In the U.S. about 12% of the workforce, or 17 million people, have jobs related to infrastructure.

70% of voters: In 2016, more than 70% of voters voted for a debt exclusion that has allowed us to build a new Somerville High School. Though buildings are not considered infrastructure, the vote is in line with how voters view infrastructure projects around the country. Since 2000, voters across the U.S. have approved 71% of transportation ballot initiatives and in 2018 77% of local and state infrastructure projects that were on the ballot were approved.

Data-based decision making is at the core of how the City of Somerville develops policy and sets priorities. Every day we check the latest 311 stats, and throughout the week we meet for in-depth review of departmental data and city trends. The Data Download column shares some of the data we’ve been reviewing recently, as well as interesting updates. To see more Somerville Data, visit the online Somerville Data Farm at www.somervillema.gov/datafarm.