While the Globe’s Spotlight Team is doing a great job this week documenting our region’s dire transportation crisis, Boston Magazine has published a list of 40 Ambitious Ideas to Save Transportation with a sidebar asking some local leaders for their big ideas.
What’s your “big idea” for addressing our transportation crisis?
Stay home. Travel is overrated.
@Jim – wish my employer agreed with you :)
Expand NewMo to cover all ages. Shared rides in buses, vans, and/or cars, on demand, without fixed route is the future of last mile public transportation in semi-urban areas like Newton.
We should be a leader here in Newton and make it easier for people to get from their homes to public transportation, village centers, and medical appointments.
Last-mile connectivity sucks and it’s one of the biggest obstacles to more widespread adoption of public transit. I often end up at the Newton Highlands T stop after the last 59 bus has departed (7:16pm) and at that point the last-mile options are:
1) Call my wife or parents and have them drive 6 miles roundtrip to pick me up
2) Try to find a Lime Bike, and risk my life riding down Needham Street and across the 128 interchange with no helmet on a poorly-illuminated bike
3) Order an Uber/Lyft and condone their exploitation and deception of drivers who are mostly struggling to make ends meet
4) Call the taxi company (at $12+tip for 3 miles, surprisingly competitive with the rideshare apps) but usually be told that they can’t dispatch a cab in any decent amount of time
5) Walk 3 miles home
Granted I live in Needham now, but we used to live near Memorial-Spaulding School, and the proposition was the same whenever I missed the last 52 bus in Newton Centre.
So, I wholeheartedly agree with Bryan that last-mile connectivity is a huge challenge that needs to be addressed.
But I’m not sure if the private-contractor model of NewMo is a sustainable solution. The reviews of Via Transportation imply that the company is even sleazier than Uber. Is the city comfortable contracting with a company that apparently ends up paying its drivers peanuts?
First, toll major roads in newton with a focus on congestion pricing. Then put in traffic calming on side streets to discourage driving there. Road diets and dedicated bus lanes come in along with the tolls. This will discourage driving and offer an alternative.
Then we build buildings that need elevators within the transportation zones. Height and density makes public transportation more efficient.
Finally, we require companies to reduce the surface area of parking lots by 75%, requiring them to build up or down AND charge for parking. If they don’t, we take lots my eminent domain and build on them (affordable housing, schools, etc).
All other parking is either permitted or changed. No free on street parking.
Assuming Riverside and Northland (assuming the do shuttle people to Newton Highlands) both come to fruition, something needs to be done to address the anticipated overcrowding on the D Line. During the morning rush I think the MBTA should run some trains local between Riverside and Newton Highlands and the express them to Kenmore from there. Alternately some trains should originate at Newton Centre. This would really help load balance
@Michael – fair point, We obviously want to make sure the company we work with if we don’t do it in-house is treating their workers well, but the general premise I think is right.
If money is no object (and we can use the Boring company to drive down costs) my “big idea” would be to underground the Green line D branch from Riverside to Kenmore and place a bike path where the current rails are. Use this as pilot for other branches and other lines. Pipe dream or “big idea” at just over 10 miles, I am sure it would be a challenge but we are choking on traffic in the region.
My transit pitch for Newton is collector/distributor buses serving the areas around village centers — running back & forth over the major roads serving the village centers, out to a radius of 2-3 miles (or whatever it takes to reach the catchment zone for the next village center). Couple these with shuttles between the village centers.
For those village centers with mass transit, synchronize the schedules to the MBTA, whether that be green line, commuter rail, or express bus. Synchronize service around school start times so students can use this system rather than be driven in (or drive) private vehicles.
This system could charge a nominal fee on an RFID card like the MBTA’s Charlie card, with free or discounted service for seniors, students, and low-income individuals, and a monthly pass available for frequent riders.
Such a system would increase foot traffic and business viability in village centers, and so could be subsidized by chamber of commerce and other local businesses.
If it works for every ski area and tourist destination in the US, it could work here.
Similar to Tim’s multi-purposing of linear infrastructure, I would also propose that rapid transit be installed down the median strip of every interstate highway. The Turks did this quite quickly and efficiently by constructing the Metrobus in the median of one of the most congested highways in Europe, the E-5.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrobus_(Istanbul)
A few thoughts:
1. I like Michael’s idea – when driving down the Pike, I wonder why not have
rail running down the center of the highway.
2. Seriously look at making Riverside a real regional transit hub – providing not only electrified MBTA D Line Service – but also finding connectivity and (parking for Commuter Rail users) to the Commuter Rail – before it’s too late!) and to points West (let’s not just concentrate on getting folks into Boston, but let’s also look at other Gateway cities and help with Economic Development throughout the region- where many workers have been forced to move out of the Greater Boston area because they’ve been displaced by gentrification – so let’s create jobs where they live!)
3. Make the needed investments in our rail system to gets folks from the ‘burbs to Cambridge;
4. Create bike paths – along the Commuter Rail line (surprisingly, there is a lot of room in many sections!);
5. Make all public school buses free and for those unfortunate kids who were redistricted many miles away to get to school – make bus schedules to accommodate those kids so they can participate in after school activities
6. In Newton, bring back the trolley (old rail line that came to Norumbega and ran down Comm Ave) – it doesn’t have to be rail – but could be electric shuttles.
I wish I could take the T to work, but the nearest D line station to my office is too far for me to be able to walk it most days, and if I take a ride-share for the last mile the cost is enough that I might as well pay to park in the garage at work.
@Michael – I’ve found I save a fair amount when I choose the ride-sharing option on Lyft. There’s usually at least 1 other passenger, meaning I’m carpooling but with the flexibility of not having to follow someone else’s schedule. Side benefit has been some very interesting conversations with drivers or fellow passengers.
My second transit pitch for Newton: we all know we’re now responsible for shoveling the sidewalks in front of our homes. The huge flaw in this arrangement is when the city plows shove an entire intersection’s worth of snow back onto the sidewalk and/or block the crosswalks.
How about: I’m OK being responsible for the walk in front of my home But the city should responsible for the intersections, including the sidewalks.
Pod-bikes. The complaints about biking often comes down to it’s too cold and or too hot out so how about developing bikes enclosed in detachable clear pods that have heating and a/c. Sure, we still need the infrastructure, but let’s think of bikes differently.
Pod-bikes aside, we need a safe way for bicyclists to traverse the city from south to north, where they have easy access to Boston and Cambridge via the Charles River path. Centre, Walnut and Chestnut Streets need fully protected bike lanes.
The Commonwealth should commit to significant, specific, and timely transportation service improvements in exchange for binding municipal housing commitments.
We need to break the chicken-and-egg problem of housing and transportation. The state is uniquely able to address the regional transportation issues that are intertwined with the regional housing crisis.
At the same time, the state will first need to address inadequate service to traditionally underserved areas that currently have dense housing.
My pipe dreams:
– “Last mile” solutions, such as Bryan’s idea of a NewMo-like service for all.
– Protected bike lanes.
– A bus that runs up and down Washington Street, perhaps starting and finishing at a green line station like either Newton Centre or Riverside, connecting the North-of-the-Pike neighborhoods with a green line station.
– Express buses to Cambridge. Getting to Cambridge without a car is ridiculously time consuming and I’ve known people who lived in Newton and left because their commute from Newton to Cambridge was such a hassle, in spite of it not being far from a mileage perspective.
– Change the commuter rail to a regional rail system so people can use it for leisure (dinner out in Boston, perhaps) or reverse commutes. They’d need to deal with the platform issue.
– Make the commuter rail stations accessible.
– Free school buses for kids who live .5 miles or more away from school.
– Semi-related: get rid of the damn “winter” parking ban, for crying out loud.
In addition to everything Chuck said, including strategically placed tolls in front of schools, I’d add using VMT to drive insurance rates, and even though it won’t help over the long run with EV, raise the gas tax. Basically, follow the money. Stop subsidizing driving, and direct some of those subsidies to public transit. I’d like to think the rest will sort itself.
A little idea – tow the cars parked on Beacon St in the no parking between 4 pm and 6 pm area when they are there between 4 pm and 6 pm.
Today, 4 cars were parked there at 4:20 pm, causing a back up leading to cars blocking the intersection, so cars on Langley couldn’t get out. Same situation, with more parked cars and a longer back-up, last Friday at 5:30 pm.
The Commonwealth should give employers an incentive to permit employees to work remotely, either from home or from shared work spaces close to home. Insofar as technology today allows us to be “present” through video conferencing, file sharing, cloud storage, email, etc., the concept of “face time” in many sectors seems a bit archaic to me. Of course, this would not apply to ALL industries, and there are those which are “hands on” e.g. health care, hospitality, restaurants, arts and entertainment, etc., which do require the physical presence of their employees. But for employers whose product is primarily ideas and advice, this might help some of the congestion issues.
@Lisap: That’s an excellent idea.
Somebody proposed that the Commonwealth ought to pass a law requiring employers to pay missed wages to any employee who could prove that they were late to work as a result of an MBTA delay.
If that were the case, you can bet that Abigail Johnson, David Torchiana, John Fish, Jim Davis, and the other so-called geniuses of the Boston business community would make sure that Baker, DeLeo, and Spilka got the MBTA properly funded and cleaned up in a big hurry.
Stop encouraging so much building in downtown Boston. Build a good reliable train along 495 beltway and encourage companies to build out there, along with housing. Boston downtown is a fashion and fashions come and go. Not to mention the flooding that will become common over the next 20 years.
I missed Chuck’s comment and I have to say, most his suggestions will all serve to screw over lower income people in a really big way. It will affect shift workers, people who can’t afford homes with driveways, etc.
Electric mobility like this : https://electrek.co/2019/12/01/prices-revealed-niu-seated-electric-scooters/amp/
And, to David Kalis’ point, like this:
https://twitter.com/jimharris/status/1083782994999930880?s=21
We just need the safe mobility lane infrastructure.
@Mary, that’s why all the reduction in auto use (which mostly favors those with financial means) is coupled with an expanded public transportation system. Prioritizing public transportation and de-prioritizing private transportation (cars) makes for a system that favors those with lower incomes.
Yet none of your ideas had anything to do with public transit; they all had to do with development and making the community inhospitable to people who need cars. Improved public transit should be paramount. The rest can follow.
@nathan that scooter is not for me, especially in tonite’s snow storm. This is not Southern California.
@mary. I’m sorry if this part wasn’t explicit enough, but I was looking at dedicated bus lanes and increases density along those key corridors.
“Road diets and dedicated bus lanes come in along with the tolls. This will discourage driving and offer an alternative.
Then we build buildings that need elevators within the transportation zones. Height and density makes public transportation more efficient.”
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@Rick Frank … then give it to me ;-). I’d love one of those, especially in tonight’s snow
The “big idea” is not one many of you would want to here.
The traffic is what it is…because Boston is a small city with a booming economy, and because of our colleges, rich in young talent. Adidas/Reebok moved from Canton to Boston exactly for that reason. Whether it’s a car, bus, T, bike or scooter, anytime you have millions of workers converge in a city with the relative size of a postage stamp, there will be traffic!
This is New England, where scooters and bike lanes are only effective for the weather-friendly part of a year. Rail? While you raise some great idea, land acquisition would be expensive if not difficult (e.g. Webster Woods), not to mention the time required to build it all. We‘ll all be too old to roll our motorized scooters onto the T.
Short of Mr. Scott building a working transporter a la “Star Trek”, the solution is to distribute business. Worcester and Providence would LOVE to have some of our traffic woes.