A big part of the debate in Newton has been around housing density. We don’t talk about it that way, but that’s what it comes down to: how many units fit on an acre of land. A group of researchers mapped the MBTA stations around the MBTA and said that if we just increase density from 6.4 units per acre to 10 units, we can create 253,000 more units.
Researchers at the organization studied and mapped development patterns around 284 stations on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s rapid transit and commuter rail lines and found that more than 517,000 houses and apartments are within a half-mile of a station. About 253,000 more could be added if land around all of the transit system’s stations averaged 10 housing units per acre, instead of the current 6.4.
The map is worth checking out.
Riverside comes in, currently, at 2.3 units per acre. I’m not sure what the current proposal comes to. Newton Highlands comes in at 4, West Newton at 3.6, Newtonville at 5, Newton Centre at 3.2, Chestnut Hill at 1.9. All are well below average for the region. In fact, if you head over to the graphing data it shows how the density on the D Line drops as you leave Boston. The most fascinating station, to me, is actually Longwood, which accounts for just 764 units. I recently saw a map by a company that combines data in Boston from different sources and one map showed where housing is built well under FAR. Longwood showed up bright red on the map as a place that, according to the existing zoning, is vastly under-built.
As someone who take that D line into Boston, boarding at Newton Centre, my biggest concern is how the D line could possibly handle all the new riders who will get on at Riverside and Newton Highlands. It is going to be a mess!
It’s fine to examine the density potential of various T transit stops in Newton and beyond , but let’s look specifically at the D Line. I’m most familiar with this as a longtime Newton Highlands resident. We need to know:
(1) How many new units and residents are likely to be added along the D Line.
(2) How many new commuters will be likely to crowd onto the D Line, particularly during rush hour periods.
(3) Are the MBTA’s ambitious plans to expand and improve D Line service realistic and will the completed system be able to comfortably accommodate the anticipated influx of new passengers onto an already overly stressed transit system.
The most significant of these is number 3. I’ve read the three most important MBTA planning documents that pertain to the Green lane. There’s a true passion and commitment that I don’t often see in other planning documents. I’m simply concerned that there are inherent or endemic challenges, and a range of emerging and often unanticipated problems and breakdowns within much of the T’s system that could easily overwhelm the optimistic timetables the T has set for itself.
The inherent or endemic challenges essentially derive from the fact that most of the current T subway and trolley lines were essentially constructed well before World War II and haven’t changed much since that time. Emerging and unanticipated problems are highlighted by costly problems with new equipment and infrastructure on both the Orange and Red Lines that are certain to involve a lot of time and money to resolve. It’s still not clear if these dislocations will affect funding for the D line, but they very well could. And we also know that even relatively small projects like the handicapped accessible ramps and platforms at the Newton Highlands T stop, or replacement of the rickety stairways at the Newtonville T Commuter Rail stop seem to take an extraordinarily long time to finish.
Bob B.,
That’s part of the reason the shuttle buses are so damn foolish. Sit on a shuttle bus creeping along Needham Street to arrive at the Newton Highlands T to board the standing room only multi stop antiquated trolly system into Boston. Now HOW MANY people, affluent enough to afford Northland, are going to put up with that every day??? There are so many new apartment buildings going up in and close to Boston, exactly who would elect to move to Northland to commute into Boston???
Again I say, ditch the developer required shuttles (along with the developer required splash park — maintained at Newton’s cost) and gear those developer savings to offset the revenue and profit lost by reducing the project size to accommodate Right Size to withdraw the referendum.
Mission accomplished. But, noooooo, Northland instead must die on shuttle bus hill (resulting, post referendum, in no Northland and no shuttle anyway).
ZZZZZzzzzzzzz. Is Jim Epstein still talking about wanting to eliminate Northland’s free to all electric shuttles?
Is he still ignoring how critical transportation experts across the globe say providing last mile transportation connections are to getting people out of their cars and combating congestion green house gas?
Is he still overlooking how much those shuttles will mean to employers on Needham Street who are desperate to hire workers, including those who don’t own cars?
Is he still ignoring how the major renovation of Needham Street that begins next year will include an upgrade to smart traffic lights that could actually allow us to give buses priority moving up and down the street?
Someone wake me if he ever finishes.
As for the Green Line, yes this is an overtaxed system. And that’s why the business community, environmentalists, housing advocates and many other groups are putting pressure on the Baker Administration and the Legislature to accelerate modernizing our transpiration system. Our region’s and our planet’s future depends on it.
Also, I can tell you the cliche “the grass is greener on the other side” applies here. You can bet that folks in virtually every municipality north and south of us along I-95 wishes they had less than ideal Green Line and commuter rail running through their community. It’s not ideal but it’s still a very substantial advantage for Newton.
@Chuck – a problem with this map is it doesn’t include businesses around the stops that are destinations and workplaces, so it’s only showing half the picture.
Longwood is a prime example of this. It is a heavily used stop because it serves all the Longwood Medical Area hospitals and several schools. These are huge destinations for patients and employees. Of course the residential density near it is low – there isn’t room for much more residential near it.
@meredith yes, I agree with you on this being just half the picture. It does not show commercial use and the income there. Government Center is another prime example of that.
As for Longwood, I disagree on there not being room. A company called Tolemi works with the City of Boston on data analysis in bringing silos of data and information together for a single view. When they looked at zoning vs. what’s currently built, they found that residential housing in that neighborhood is built below its allotted FAR, thereby suggesting that even under current zoning regulations there is room for more housing. That doesn’t mean it’ll reach 10 per acre, but it does suggest additional room.
All that said, even if you were to create a value that brought in commercial development and commercial value, with the goal of moving jobs closer to increase taxable revenue while reducing strain on the roadways, much of the Newton stops would still fall short.
Greg, I am going to assume that you don’t commute daily on the Green Line. But no one for a minute thinks that the state and the MBTA will adequately be able to addresses what will be an overtaxed line.
As for “Also, I can tell you the cliche “the grass is greener on the other side” applies here. You can bet that folks in virtually every municipality north and south of us along I-95 wishes they had less than ideal Green Line and commuter rail running through their community”
With all due respect, you don’t have a clue what you are taking about. I work in the Longwood/Fenway area and have many co-workers who live out towards Worcester, Metro West and Northshore who could take the commuter rail but chose to drive. Hell I have co-workers who live in Newton and chose to drive even though my employer subsidized monthly MBTA passes. They value convenience.
And I can promise you, that when the D train gets filled up by Newton Highlands, many who currently take the D line will opt out. And I don’t have a good sense of whether the MBTA will have the same # of parking spaces available at Riverside, but if not, it will most certainly negatively impact commuters who current live in Metro West and park at Riverside.
I am generally supportive of development at Riverside but I think there is a lot of naiveté about the potentially disasterous effect it combined with Northlands could have on the D-Line
Greg,
Well apparently the ZZZZZzzzzz doesn’t apply to your reaction.
And, wow, in addition to the shuttle buses themselves further clogging traffic on the one lane of Needham Sreet, now you remind us that “smart traffic lights” will give the “buses priority moving up and down the street” meaning the yielding private cars will be even further delayed waiting and waiting in traffic!
But hey, Greg says there will be many more people getting out of their cars to hop on the shuttle buses for the pleasure of securing standing room only on the Riverside T, despite the fact that daily downtown commuters electing to go that route and mode from Northland will be few. If anything, Northland is suited for 128 travel. And the many newly constructed and to be constructed apartments in/nearer Boston will more attract those downtown commuters.
But, hey, the “critical transportation experts across the globe” say this congestion actually “combats congestion” with more opting to move to Northland precisely so they can endure the daily inconvenience to ride the shuttles because they’ll be fulfilling their obligation to (whether or not it even significantly does) combat global warming.
Greg, at least you admit that the Green Line is already an “overtaxed system” — even before all the new development! Unfortunately, with limitation to its existing two tracks, that line will precisely not be the focus of future statewide “modernization of our transportation system” on which you speculate, which would be directed elsewhere or to other alternatives.
Greg,
…but as I say, you’re among those who insist that Northland must die on shuttle bus hill!
Thanks for sharing @Chuck.
It would be interesting if they could create a version that also accounted for the level of transit service. Areas like Waban (2.1 units per acre) and Newton Centre (3.2) have 100+ inbound and outbound Green Line trains each weekday. West Newton (3.6) and Newtonville (5.0) served by the Worcester/Framingham commuter line currently have 12 trains each way.
The map for Newton Centre at the top of the post is interesting. It underscores the opportunity to increase our housing supply by adding a 2nd & 3rd stories above single story commercial retail property in the village center.
@Greg. I’m grateful for the T, warts and all, particularly during non rush hour periods when this retiree can walk the short distance from his front door to the Eliot Station, grab the trolley and be in downtown Boston in less than half an hour. All for less than a buck 50. I’m also certain many in outlying areas wish they had what we have here.
And I’m also aware that a good share of our current our transit and travel woes trace back to a range of tragic public and private decisions after World War 2 that systematically dismembered end even eliminated many great public transportation systems, while giving every priority to automobiles and untrammeled sprawl.
The MBTA, other public institutions, planners, area businesses, public transit users etc. are all victims of this unfortunate legacy. It’s made the challenge of correcting these challenges more difficult and more frustrating. I’m only asking for reasonable assessments that take into account the legacy of these distorted and shortsighted priorities and what we can reasonably expect a growing but flawed public transportation system to deliver in the time frames we would all like.
I would add that when you combine this concept with Amy Dain’s piece on ADUs, you have an opportunity to increase density without making massive changes to the landscape. You simply allow more housing units on a single piece of property.
We could look at the .5 miles around MBTA stations as overlay zones and find ways to encourage people to add more units in a way that they want. This allows for aging in place, additional income, etc. It could mean changing the FAR in these areas, offering tax incentives or other such concepts.
I took the T into and out of Boston every day for three years. It’s a tough way to travel with few seats, many stops, frequent issues with delays and shoulder to shoulder experiences. Google lists 45 min and 15 stops to go from Newton Highlands to Gov Center. Add in the walk or shuttle to the station plus walk to your office and you are well over an hour. That’s a long commute for anyone. Equivalent to 20 days of commuting a year.
https://boston.curbed.com/2019/4/25/18515568/boston-commute-times-to-from
I came for Jim and Greg, and I am not disappointed. 🙂
First, Chuck, thanks. Great post.
Second, Jim, you do realize that the NND site is squarely beyond the 1/2 mile radius, right? (And its the Eliot stop it’s closest to, not Highlands. Come to think of it, why would the proposed shuttle inch its way down congested Needham St. when it could scoot out the back way onto Oak, and from there to Eliot?)
So, I think that’s one of the unanswered NND questions – Solving the last mile is critical, but it’s never literally a mile. So does adding a shuttle as a stand-in for walkability suffice? A real-world success story would really help make the case.
Another unanswered question is that wingey backbone the shuttle shuttles to. Skepticism about the D line’s robustness and scalability is warranted, and we deserve firm answers, not merely enthusiastic optimism
DW,
While you are correct to conclude that “we deserve firm answers”, there aren’t any (it’s pure — IMHO misplaced — speculation) and as you imply there is “merely enthusiastic optimism” — evidenced by the Greg-type proponents of the bus shuttles. Regarding the Eliot T Stop and Oak Street route for the bus shuttles, the shuttles have already been authorized solely for Needham Street and the Highlands T Stop. No discussion on Eliot T and Oak St.
Newtonville CR – 5.0
Waban T – 2.1
Newton centre T – 3.2
Its criminal that Waban is allowed the luxury of a T station with such a low population.
Waban and Newton centre should be priority in fixing this social injustice. Their councilors should be screaming and shouting to double their numbers… i don’t see anything on their websites for increased density near their stations.
Its nice to know they support the increased density in someone elses backyard which fair exceeds their own shameful numbers
Waban is its own little world. No parking meters, no development, it’s like worlds away from my humble ‘hood in West Newton.
I’m going to put this up front and at the end of the post because it’s important: This is my own, personal, opinion and I do not speak for the MBTA in any way.
That said, can anyone here tell me why service was terminated on the A line in 1969 and replaced with the 57 bus?
…. because there weren’t enough streetcars (trolleys) to service the newly built D-Line.
When GLX is goes in service will be extended through Somerville and Medford – both very dense. If we end up in a situation with the lines competing for trolleys, do you think that the future operations department will prioritize Waban over Tufts?
Again, This is my personal opinion. I don’t speak for the MBTA in this. If you want more information about GLX, existing service, new car procurement, or a formal statement: head to mbta.com
This may be my most favorite post in a while!
1. Jim, you crack me up, dude
2. Bob B, your wisdom is always appreciated.
3. Chuck, thanks for sharing. Your heart is in the right place.
I take the T every (work) day. And every day, I want to throw up my hands, take advantage of discounted parking near Govt Center, and call it a day. But I don’t…because we should be using the T, even though it sucks.
Ultimately it comes down to the chicken vs egg. Some (like Greg and our Governor) feels that density will drive the need upgrades and improvements.
Respectfully, I disagree. Offer a better product (upgrade now) and people will come. Find the T with tax dollars (state and Fed) and that alone will make ridership soar.
Fix the problem…not add to it, cross your fingers and hope for the best.
First, thank you Matt, I appreciate that. I really do.
At the same time, I want to agree with Anne as it’s something I’ve heard from others who work for the T today and have worked for the T in the past. No, the MBTA is not perfect. Neither is the New York City Subway, I hear people complain about it all the time. But our competition is the other cities and towns that are along the various systems that make up the MBTA. If we sit around and wait for them to fix it before we build, they’re going to focus on the areas that have most need, and we won’t be that community. One former MBTA employee said to me that he doesn’t see why the T needs to keep 3 commuter rail stations if we’re not going to use them, and another person who is associated with the T commented on another occasion that 3 stops in a single city actually goes against best-practices.
But the MBTA’s issues are why we need alternatives like protected bike lanes and bus-only lanes so that we can move more people faster using multiple methods. Redundancy is important. We can’t rely just on two sets of tracks and the auto infrastructure. It’s not enough to sustain us.
@Chuck: who exactly is/are the housing group you quoted? Do they have ‘skin in the game’? (#follow the money)
This is the Center for Housing Data through the Mass Housing Partnership. This is from MHP’s “About Us” page:
The Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) works with communities to create innovative policy and financing solutions that provide affordable homes and better lives for the people of Massachusetts.
A statewide public non-profit affordable housing organization, MHP works in concert with the Governor, the Department of Housing and Community Development and the state’s other quasi-public housing organizations. MHP was established in 1985 to increase the state’s overall rate of housing production and work with cities and towns to demonstrate new and better ways of meeting our need for affordable housing. In 1990, the state legislature took that premise to heart, becoming the first and only state in the nation to pass an interstate banking act that requires companies that acquire Massachusetts banks to make funds available to MHP for affordable housing.
I’m not quite sure what “modernizations” to the green line can be made. I took the green line to school every day when in college. This was over 30 years ago. Let’s see. They’ve added air conditioning. That’s good. They’ve removed seats ( there were always 2 on each side) so now there’s more room to stand.
At rush hour commute times it was standing room only 30 years ago, and at rush hour now it’s the same as far as I can tell.
The other times of day the green line is a pleasure.
I would suggest to the chamber of commerce that they encourage more non 9-5 office hours to spread out the demand. You see it on the pike too. Rush hour into Boston is a mess and so is the return.
There are in fact limits to growth.
Which is why we need a good commuter rail along the 495 corridor and encourage the office and housing along that train. You can only squeeze so many people into one place with any reasonable comfort level.
Anne, I don’t really see why anyone would expect the GLX opening to lead to the closing or truncating of the D branch. The MBTA has already ordered 24 new Green Line trains (9 of which are already in service), and these “Type 9” trolleys were specifically purchased to maintain current service levels. In other words, the “Type 9” trolleys do not replace the current “Type 7” and “Type 8”, but supplement them until the entire fleet is later replaced.
(Also, The A branch did close due to lack of trolleys, but that’s not the whole story. The branch also was street-running– lacking a dedicated right-of-way– and had a dangerous counterflow lane in the then-newly-constructed Exit 17 circle. So I think it’s more fair to say that the car culture killed the A Branch, not a specific lack of trolleys.)
And if one if the modernizations is to make the trains faster, when it’s standing room only their going to have to hand out helmets.
Longwood might be underbuilt insofar as housing goes, but it is certainly not underbuilt in terms of the number of jobs within a short distance of the Green Line stop. Some transit stops are more important as destinations; some are more important as originations.
Other things discussed by the T include cashless payment systems, all-door boarding, and platforms that are level with the cars (eliminating the need to pause trains for those needing ramps). All of which can make for a faster experience without speeding up the cars.
As for the 9-5 concept, that’s something T4MA has been pushing with congestion pricing, which moves people off of roadways during peak times. I just started at a firm which asks people to be available from 10 to 4, but allows for flexibility around that (so I come in at 7:30). This works well for people like me who are salaried and work in an office, but not so for those in jobs that require certain hours, like shift workers or others who work hourly.
Is Jim right that there are no answers on either induced demand for the D line or the MBTA’s ability to meet that demand? I’ll take a look for the MBTA plan Bob made mention of, but I’d like to think that an NND plan that included a 500+ page appendix of traffic data might at least have one PowerPoint on current and projected T ridership.
With about zero expertise, I think Chuck and Anne have a good argument about demand driving transit development. NND, however, seems rather unique in that the 1/2 mile stretch of road with no real intersections limits how much redundancy can be built in.
I’d love to respond in more depth, but the job came with a strict social media policy and I’ve been using my real name and face here for too long to plausibly slip into a nom-de-plume.
Yes, the type 9’s are intended to add to the fleet. Yes, Automatic Fare Control 2.0 will speed up boarding. Yes, signals, switches, grade crossings, and track are being repaired, replaced, and modernized. All of this will improve headway and travel speed.
I’m sure there are other projects that should be included above; the primary focus of the FY2020 capital improvement plan is to restore the system to a state of good repair (SGR). The FY2020 CIP is available online, and a great way loose enough hours you’ll wonder why is it dark now?
But when there are
bumps in the roadkinks in the track, and plans change/deadlines aren’t going to be met, it is my opinion that Newton would compete against all of the other municipalities served by rail and rapid transit for limited trolleys/cars/coaches, bus service, or capital project funding.Also, by not permitting transit oriented development (TOD), downsizing the TOD we do permit, and maintaining the existing zoning near rail and transit in our zoning update (not allowing more density by right) Newton is in my opinion signaling that the MBTA just isn’t all that important too us.
… Compare Riverside to Alewife. Or imagine if Amazon HQ2 had been a thing – the number of SF of commercial going up on the Blue Line would have been staggering. Cambridge, Boston, and Lynn are and have been intensely developing near transit.
Again, as always, what I post here is my opinion/point of view. I do not speak for the MBTA in any official capacity. Please see MBTA.com for all official planning and project/area prioritization information.
If you look on this map there are two Longwood t stops. One is the Longwood stop on the D line that Chuck seems to be referring to which is 762 units with a density if 8.0 units per acre. The other is the Longwood Medical area at 722 units and 9.0 units per acre. The former has the large Longwood Towers and then has a fair amount of single and two family homes. Chuck you mention Longwood as being underdeveloped based on another source. Could you clarify a bit more on what that was based. You mention FAR is it the FAR of the individual properties or it is calculating a FAR type of calculation over a particular geographic area? For many of those streets (Francis, Kent) there is not a lot of land with individual properties with the exception of the area that borders the Longwood Mall area of land where there are some large homes on larger plots.
@newton highlands mom that reference came from a company called Tolemi that presented to a group I run that focuses on property technology. Tolemi does what a lot of “Big Data” companies do in that they take data and information that exists in silos and allows them to be interpreted in new ways. For example, there is nothing that easily allows you to look at a map of Newton and compare what the current zoning allows and measure that against the current built environment. The building information exists in places like building permits and assessment value, while the zoning information exists in an entire other datatbase. It’s also difficult to map sales against building permits, so you can see an overview of where houses are torn down vs. where they are simply renovated vs. where they’re sold and barely touched.
Tolemi mapped the zoning data against the built environment and looked at Floor Area Ratio vs. what currently stands on the property. Certain areas showed to be under-built against that measure. It also only looked at Boston, not at Brookline (it’s working with Boston but not with Brookline).
Also, to @Anne’s point above, when I was tasked with promoting the N-Squared area I feared Amazon coming to the Boston area just for the reasons stated. I knew that if Amazon showed up, a lot of resources would have been pointed to Wonderland (or to the Cambridge/ Somerville area) to meet the demands. It’s just logical for a cash-strapped group like the MBTA to put its resources where they’re needed most. Why put them in Newton with just the promise from the city that we’ll build when they fix it, especially when Newton already has such a horrible reputation when it comes to development? Developers already call us “the city of “no”.
While there’s been a lot of discussion about the Green Line D-Branch on this thread, we haven’t really discussed the elephant in the room as to what makes the D-Branch so different from not just the other Green Line branches but also other T lines: lack of transit connections. On the D-Branch in Newton, only one station has connections to more than one bus route (Woodland with MWRTA routes 1 and 8). At Riverside, Eliot, Newton Highlands, and Newton Centre, only one bus route connects with each stop (route 558 at Riverside, route 59 at Newton Highlands, and route 52 at Newton Centre, all MBTA routes) while neither Waban or Chestnut Hill have buses serving their stations. I know people have compared Newton T stations to T stations on other lines and the big problem with this is that most T stations have at least 1 or 2 bus routes serving the stops (which allows for alternative routes to get from place to place, especially if connections can be used as a shortcut). Worse, out of all the bus routes listed above, only the 59 operates 7 days a week and it’s weekend service is abysmal: https://www.mbta.com/schedules/59/schedule As a result, the D-Branch -which is already slow to begin with- doesn’t offer much flexibility for commuters who either don’t work in Boston or would have to go a long way around the T to get to work. Frankly, the best solution to this would be to actually build more bus hubs in Newton, allowing residents more flexibility to get to various places and making sure that we have enough service on our bus routes. Once we do that, I think more density would follow since people will be confident enough to ditch their cars for public transportation.
@Terry Altherr, you raise a good point, but even with enhanced bus service, I doubt you will get people who live in Waban, Newton Highland, Newton Centre and Chestnut Hill to ditch their cars because what else is lacking are grocery stores or even small markets. Sometimes on my way home, I will take the C line to shop at Trader Joe’s in Coolidge Corner, then ride it up to Dean Road or Cleveland Circle to switch over to the D line, or I can get off at Chestnut Hill and walk to the Star Market but franky either is a real hassle.