Projo Editorial on Boston Transit Plans

[pdxstreetcar]

Romney the 'new urbanist'

Friday, December 9, 2005

http://www.projo.com/opinion/editorials/co...x.1cbc6b7e.html

[nowyano]

Romney the 'new urbanist'

Friday, December 9, 2005

http://www.projo.com/opinion/editorials/co...x.1cbc6b7e.html

I don't agree with a few things this guy said in his article I have taken various parts (in italics) and wrote why I dislike them (in regular typeface)

The Silver Line has proven unpopular, so spending $1 billion for a tunnel for it seems unrealistic; streetcars are impractical on such crowded routes as Jamaica Plain's Centre Street; and the rationale for the Red Line - Blue Line connector has been obviated by the Silver Line's run from the Red Line to Logan Airport.

The major reason for the blue line connector is not for people traveling to the airport its people who work in the city in areas that the Blue Line doesn't go, and the blue like doesn't go to many places while the Red Line does, this leaves people coming in from Revere and East Boston having to switch once at either Goverment Center or State Street and then switch again at either Downtown Crossing or Park Street to the Red Line.

Also as far as the Silver Line being unpopular it was - during its first few weeks. Now it is always absolutley packed during its major four stops (South Station, World Trade Center, Couthouse, Logan Airport). Connecting the tunnel can afford to be pulled off the table while a better idea would be seperating the bus lanes from Dudley Square to Downtown Crossing from the regular traffic and then trying to conect the two phases of the Silver Line (which I understand may be a little more expensive then planned)

If the Green Line is to be extended, there should also be a branch linking the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, and Harvard's future Brighton campus (using the little-used Grand Junction freight crossing over the Charles River).

Great idea but right now Somerville is the most dense ctiy in Massachusetts, the fifth most dense in the USA at close to 25,000/square mile. It is also the hardest hit by big dig construction and traffic (higher cancer rates) most of the people who live in Somerville work in Boston, and Somerville has one of the highest rates of people who take the T to work everyday, yet there is only one stop in Davis Square so before we extend the Green Line to a spur along Storrow Drive it needs to make its way up into Somerville up to at least Tufts.

The Fairmount commuter-rail line, which serves poor neighborhoods, should be upgraded to true rapid transit.

Once again great in theory but true rapid transit would be more expensive seeing as they would have to lay tracks and build stations whereas updating the commuter-rail line would only require adding stops to already existing tracks through neighborhoods that would the transit where the rail currently does not stop.