Walking is always good, and even a short, “mindful” walk can be calming by refocusing your thoughts on the simple act of taking one step followed by another.

What to Do Today: A Walking Meditation, and Distractions

A smiling black woman with long braided hair wearing a black-and-yellow plaid patterned sweater

Meghan Volcy

A crowd of people are seated at desks arranged in a semicircle facing a speaker in a red jacket standing at a dias in the front of a large, ornate room.

Elections and Politics

Healey’s ‘State of the Commonwealth’ Boasts About MBTA Turnaround, Promises to Fill Budget Shortfall

<p>Got tips? Send them to me via Signal, the encrypted messaging app, at 207-310-0728. You can also follow me on <a href="https://better.boston/@cmilneil" rel="me">Mastodon.</a></p>


Christian MilNeil

A bar chart showing three pairs of bars (with a red bar for "expenses" next to a stacked pair of bars of an equal combined hight, with a green bar for "revenues" and a black bar on top of the green for "budget gap". The x axis shows three budget years: FY2026, FY2027, and FY2028. The y axis runs from 0 to 4K and is labelled "Millions of dollars". The bars get progressively taller over the three years, but the red and black bars (expenses and deficits) grow more than the green bars (revenue). The left set of bars shows $3,103 million in expenses, $2,864 in revenues, and $239 in deficit. The right set of bars (FY2028) shows $3,640 in expenses, $2,802 in revenue, and $837 in deficit.

Another Year, Another Budget Gap: Gov. Healey Still Needs A Long-Term Solution for Funding the T

A map of MBTA communities, with dark blue indicating compliant municipalities, blue striped ones indicating those that are conditionally compliant, light blue indicating zoning plans that have been adopted and/or submitted for review, red indicating noncompliant municipalities, grey indicating adjacent small towns whose zoning plans that were due as of December 31st of 2025, and white indicating inapplicable areas.

Housing

MBTA Communities Act Holdouts Are Losing State Funding

Front view of the Massachusetts State House with sunlight glinting off the gold dome at the top and a Massachusetts state flag at right.

‘Fair Share’ Millionaire Tax Continues to Exceed Expectations

A blue event slide titled “State Legislators Update,” with the Massachusetts State House in the background. The date, November 20, 2025, and time, 2:45 PM–4:30 PM, are on the right. At the bottom are photos of Senator Brendan P. Crighton, Representative James Arciero, and Carolyn Ryan, with their roles listed, along with the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and State Street logos.

Legislation

Lawmakers Say Infrastructure Needs More Funding, and Congestion Pricing Should Be On the Table

A Black woman gestures while talking with a white woman seated next to her on a city bus.

Rep. Pressley Lobbies for Stronger Transit Funding, Fare-Free Programs In Next Federal Transportation Bill

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Streetsblog Network

Connecting people to information about how to improve walking, biking, and transit

Streetsblog Massachusetts

A chart titled Massachusetts Average Weekly Retail Gas Prices Per Gallon with dates from Jan. 18 to March 1 on the x axis and prices from 0 to $4 on the y axis. A blue line indicates weekly average prices, which hover just above $3 per gallon for much of the winter until the end of February. The right-most data point is at $3.47 per gallon. An annotation near the March 1 data point indicates the start of the US-Israel attacks on Iran.

Car culture

Trump’s Oil Crisis Is Already Costing Massachusetts Drivers Over $2.4 Million A Day In Higher Gas Prices

Daily headlines

Friday’s Headlines Change How We Keep Score

A person rides their bike along a straight, flat, paved trail lined with trees to the left and a power line at right. The rider is approaching a small traffic circle junction with a street sign at left that reads "Speen St". In the middle of the junction is a stone column with the words "Natick Cochituate Rail Trail"

Trails

Natick’s Rail Trail Now Connects to Its Downtown MBTA Station

<p>Brian Kane is Executive Director of the <a href="https://mbtaadvisoryboard.org/">MBTA Advisory Board</a>, a quasi-state body providing budget oversight of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority on behalf of 178 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. He is also the volunteer Chair of the Brookline, Massachusetts Transportation Board. Established in 1974, by statute this board manages parking, traffic, and multi-modal transportation in New England’s largest town by population. Previously, Kane worked in both operations and budget management at the MBTA.</p>


A middle-aged man in a suit stands in the operator cab of a light rail train.

Brian Kane

A crowded train hall filled with people, many of whom are carrying luggage. A large electronic sign hanging from the high ceiling displays upcoming train departures.

Guest Column: South Station Is Not An Adequate Emergency Shelter

Transit

Trump’s Funding Freeze Derails Transit, Undermining Growth and Economic Opportunity For All Americans: Report

A man in a grey shirt bikes down a bike lane between a sidewalk and a row of parked cars on a street lined with 4-5 story buildings and trees.

Street Design

City of Cambridge Reports Better Bike Lanes Led to Surge In Bike Traffic

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An extra-long articulated bus in the white, yellow, and black MBTA color scheme waits in traffic on a wide multi-lane street with a red light in the distance. An electronic sign in a side window of the bus says "28 MATTAPAN." A street sign on the left says "Rexford Street".

MBTA

Paying With Their Time: Increasing Traffic Congestion Erodes Benefits of Boston’s Fare-Free Buses

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