The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • B3

APRIL 23, 2017 Boston Sunday Globe Metro B3 Starts Stops BY NICOLE DUNGCA TRAFFIC UPDATES ONLINEATWWW.BOSTON.COMSTARTS Chao calls governor's Green Line advocacy 'persuasive' CAMBRIDGE US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Friday that while some questions still remain about the federal government's $1 billion grant for the Green Line extension, Governor Charlie Baker's advocacy for the project has been "noteworthy and persuasive." Chao, during a tour of the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, said she and Baker have been in regular communication about the project, and chatted on the phone about it within the past week. But with the federal budget still in flux, Chao said she doesn't know "what the answer will be yet" on the extension. Earlier this month, the federal government approved the MBTA's new estimates for the long-awaited project, a major milestone. But the 4.7-mile light rail extension into Somerville and Medford still needs additional approvals for its schedule and financial plan.

The Trump administration has been criticized for several of its Cabinet appointments, but Chao has extensive government experience. As labor secretary under President George W. Bush, Chao, a Republican, was the first Asian-American woman to be ap- visit to the Volpe Center in 1990, when the federal government renamed the transportation research center after former Massachusetts governor John Volpe. Back then, as a deputy secretary, she did not receive a personal tour, she noted. "I was a peon then!" she said, standing behind a driving simulator that an employee had demonstrated.

A Kentucky resident who married Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCon-nell in 1993, Chao peppered employees with questions as they presented research from seemingly every mode of transportation. She watched an employee operate a simulated locomotive, yelping as the train blew its loud whistle as it barreled down the track. An IT specialist simulated a flight taking off from Boston to Washington D.C. getting dizzy," she laughed, before the pilot was told to 'level it and employees showed her "sensitive but unclassified" map software that tracks vessels around the world in real time. After the tour, she delivered remarks to a packed auditorium, where she referred to the center as a "crown jewel" of the federal transportation department.

Chao praised the center's safety research, citing statistics that documented a recent increase in traffic fatalities. Chao also mentioned the infrastructure plan that Trump repeatedly promised on the campaign trail, one that has drawn skepticism for its potential reliance on tax credits to private businesses. In a brief interview, she said she expected the $1 trillion plan to debut this summer after the administration tackles tax reform. "We're on track," Chao said of the infrastructure bill. "There's a great deal of discussion over the most difficult part of the initiative, which is funding it." The administration's plans for transportation funding have worried many advocates.

A recent budget blueprint eliminated future grants through the New Starts program, which has funded many public transit projects across the country. Asked about those concerns, Chao said states "need to plan for the future." Ultimately, she said, Congress will act of its own accord. "Let's see what the budget process will yield," she said. Nicole Dungca can be reached at nicole.dungcaglobe.com. Follow her on Twitter ndungca.

SUZANNE KREITER GLOBE STAFF Donald Fisher showed a simulator to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center last week. pointed to a presidential Cabinet. Before that, she had served as deputy transportation secretary and director of the Peace Corps under President George H. W. Bush.

Chao emigrated from Taiwan and grew up in New York, but also has some Boston connections. She gradu ated from Harvard Business School, which is now home to the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center, named after her late mother. She visited the school Thursday to see the center, which was financed by a $40 million gift from her family. On Friday, Chao recalled her last 'My guests are always complaining about how expensive the taxis are, how fast their drivers are EMMA ROSE TRIPLER, a lifelong resident who manages two inns Block Island's taxi fleet seeks to block Uber, Lyft invasion By Matt O'Brien ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW SHORE HAM, R.I. Twelve miles and a ferry ride from the New England shore, Block Island is one of the last major tourist destinations in the United States without Uber or Lyft and islanders want it to stay that way.

Come summer, the sleepy island welcomes thousands of vacationers, many of whom depend on taxis to get to its bluffs, lighthouses, beaches, and weathered-gray shingle homes. Now, as at least one ride-hailing company proposes to deregulate the community's strict 88-year-old taxi code, longtime drivers are fighting to protect a way of life that helps them make ends meet in a place where the median home costs $1.2 million. "This is our livelihood," said taxi driver Champlin Starr, a retired oil tanker captain whose family first landed here in the 1660s. "People come to Block Island because they want an experience. They're not going to get it with someone who doesn't know where the landmarks are.

This is our home." With 32 licensed taxis, each with up to four drivers, Starr said, nearly 10 percent of the island's roughly 1,000 year-round residents spend part of the summer driving fares around. The school's principal is a taxi proprietor. So is the retired police chief. But some residents say they could use some competition, especially to attract younger tourists accustomed to the convenience of using apps. "My guests are always complaining about how expensive the taxis are, how fast their drivers are driving," said Emma Rose Tripler, a lifelong resident who manages two inns.

"They're cranky, on top of it. And some of them are pretty aggressive." The town of New Shoreham, which encompasses the island, has been setting its own taxi rates since 1929. Its rules include a surcharge for dirt roads and a requirement that someone vouch for a driver's moral character. The average wait to get a taxi license is 15 years. "I'm a retiree and a widow," said Fran Migliaccio, owner of Mig's Rig Taxi.

"It's my sole source of income." Migliaccio said that she's not proposing to ban Uber and Lyft, but that their drivers should be "subject to the same level of scrutiny" as everyone else on the taxi waitlist. Rhode Island enacted a statewide law last year to formally legalize and regulate Uber and Lyft, but Block Island residents are now pushing for an exemption. "What Uber and Lyft are going to do is come out for two months, skim all the cream off the top, and leave," said state Represeentative Blake Filip-pi, a Block Island Republican who proposed the exemption, to which both San Francisco companies object. So far, the debate is just theoretical. Uber and Lyft don't appear to be operating there yet.

On a recent April weekday only two taxis operate in the off-season before Memorial Day Vin McAloon, PHOTOS BY MATT O'BRIENASSOCIATED PRESS The taxi industry on Block Island, opposed to incursions from Lyft and Uber, includes Fran Migliaccio (above), owner of Mig's Rig Taxi; Vin McAloon (lower left), waiting to pick up an airline passenger; Leslie Slate (far right) and Champlin Starr. The island has had its own taxi rules since 1929. Jg the 77-year-old retired police chief, was unusually busy as the weather began to warm. At the ferry station, he picked up house painters and a sales team visiting the town hospital. At the tiny airport, he picked up a resident returning from a dentist appointment on the mainland.

When fares called for a ride, McAloon usually knew them by name. Ride-hailing apps are now allowed in tourist destinations throughout the country, most recently Wyoming, where they were legalized in March, and upstate New York, where they'll be available after July Fourth to riders in Niagara Falls and other popular spots. The exceptions are Alaska, where legislation is pending, and Austin, Texas, after a dispute last year. When they're not available elsewhere, it's usually because of a lack of drivers or customer demand. The ferry ride across Block Island Sound has been the island's strongest defense against an Uber onslaught.

Ferry distance hasn't stopped oth er island resorts, such as Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusetts, from grudgingly accepting Uber and Lyft. But remote Block Island, once known as a pirate hideout, has always had an independent streak. The town's taxi drivers made an ex-pedition to Rhode Island's State House this month to testify in favor of the exemption, leaving a day before the hearing because of wind that could have shut down the ferry. The exemption's sole voice of opposition was Sami Nairn, a public policy manager for Lyft, who said it was "an opportunity for us to work together to help deregulate" the island's onerous taxi regulations. In a sign that the state is likely to side with Block Island taxi operators, lawmakers scoffed at his comments.

"They're saying, 'Leave us but you're being very persistent," state Representative Anastasia Williams, a Providence Democrat, told Nairn. "Sometimes you have to know when to fold it and run away.".