I went to the Museum of Science last Friday evening for a forum sponsored by LivableStreets on “rethinking urban transportation,” which is a topic that should be close to the heart of every urban dweller.

I did not stay for the forum part of the evening, but definitely benefited from the interesting, if too-short, presentations by the charming zipcar enthusiat Holly Parker, who heads Harvard’s CommuterChoice Program, and the talented Bhupesh Patel, of Design Tank.

The problem with Boston, I gathered from these presentations, is, first, the way the T is funded–the fact that it is tied to sales tax revenue, and sales tax receipts are subject to cyclical ups and downs. Which means shortfalls during down cycles. A lack of fiscal discipline, and inflated salaries and bennies complicate the issue.

The second problem for Boston, and many of the nation’s public transportation programs, is lack of vision, which is related to fucked-up spending priorities. Vital improvements are overlooked for questionable and superficial ones. The MBTA invests in BS campaigns istead of tackling the real nuts and bolts issues that affect commuters. Forget about “smart trains” or real-time monitors at bus stops that tell you where your bus is at any given moment. I mean, that might as well be scifi. Those technologies are here, but the cost of upgrading the whole system is so prohibitive they might as well be in a galaxy far, far away. But we can dream, right?

Another problem that was briefly touched on was the greed of private developers who are out for short-term gain on MBTA projects like the one at Ashmont Station on the red line, about which many forum participants seemed more than slightly cynical.