Search results

My blog has a page with some of this info: MBTA’s Red Line has maximum grade of 4% (for 1200′). Orange Line has a very short segment with a 5.6% grade (for 60′); otherwise, the maximum grade is 4% (for 750′). (Source: MBTA vehicle procurement technical specifications)

Gotcha. This is roughly in line with what I thought, but I didn't know you did plan a short bored section. Using the (encroached) Watertown Branch and Pleasant St is an interesting idea: Main St (the 70 bus) technically serves more residents, but I imagine you might have been looking at TOD...

Regarding your proposed line, the section between Nubian and Longwood (D) makes perfect sense, and I had implicitly suggested a similar L-hook line in the past. Where it worries me in an ideal world is that sections west of Coolidge Corner becomes a tangential line again, as Brighton Center...

The interesting twist in this whole discussion of "tangential lines to the north" is that, according to the SLX Alternative Analysis, the SL6 route's alternatives from Everett (Glendale) to Kendall outperformed the alternative to Haymarket in both ridership and public support. I wouldn't...

My interpretation of Alon's blogpost goes both ways: there's also "If you're building a radial line, don't make it go round and round avoiding the downtown core for the purpose of getting a circumferential bit in." And yes, I've seen various examples elsewhere where such lines underperform in...

Damn, stop giving me even more stuff to read when I don't have time to do so! /sarcasm

I understand it's tempting to have a "tangential" line that offers circumferential-like service around the core and radial-like service further out (conceptual sketch below). That said, as I elaborated in this comment (motivated by this Alon Levy post), such routes typically underperform in...

There is a recent discussion on Reddit's r/transit sub about why cities stopped building cut-and-cover (C&C) tunnels, motivated by this article. While I haven't read the original article yet, the discussion seems interesting. A lot of common points include C&C's disruption to neighborhoods, with...

I'm having an extremely hard time catching up with the flurry of activity all around (both in this thread and on the rest of this forum), but I'll throw in a very quick and very minor comment: I believe you mean "Audubon Circle" for the C's St Mary's St, not "Adubon Circle", right? (I'll try...

Question: What did you use to generate the 10-min walksheds? They seem a lot more fine-grained than the "circles with 800m radius" approach that I used, and I would love to improve my rapid transit walksheds if the process can be automated.

So yeah, that MBTA map had been on my radar for a few weeks (I think it was you who brought it up, so kudos), and I do plan to try recreating that at some point. Of course, working on that also means a dedicated job density map as a byproduct - I hear the calls from all other comments above you...

That's a very good suggestion! I thought about doing it, but I didn't import OpenStreetMap data at the time. Since I will have to set it up for the next post anyway, I will try to add the water bodies to the density map in the (hopefully near) future. Very true. Some other candidates may have...

To be fair, the main reason why areas around Kendall seem rather pale on the map is that those blocks are used by offices, and I suspect an analogous map showing job density would have the area as extremely dense. Housing does exist around Kendall - they just extend further out. And while we...

I downloaded the data from NHGIS. This tutorial explains it pretty well; the actual data can be downloaded here. One advantage of NHGIS (compared to other channels for accessing US Census data) is that not only does it guide you to the appropriate shapefiles for your selected dataset, but both...

I had always been bothered by how hard it is to find a good population density map of Boston. Even though it has obvious value in understanding our transit system and suggesting our own amateur proposals, most existing tools out there are either not well-suited for high-density areas or...

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/399-to-1400-daily-brightline-commuters-will-have-to-pay-251-more-after-price-increase/amp/

Mass. Senate budget looks to invest $250M into transportation fund, source says: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/mass-senate-budget-looks-to-invest-250m-into-transportation-fund-source-says/ar-BB1lYeaA?ocid=socialshare&pc=SMTS&cvid=6d6aef4b69e1480dad7ec4b2f353df5f&ei=31

To be fair, I think a new extension (even just by 1-2 stops) will need to go through a lot more processes than replacing infrastructure on an existing route.

That's not how it works though. From the OMNY fare capping explanations: So if you visit NYC on Wednesday, May 8 and tap for the first time on that day, the 12-trip fare cap period lasts until Tuesday, May 14. If your next tap after the period is on May 18, it starts a new 7-day period that...

Let's also not forget that allowing riders of the Green Line (at surface stops) and buses to pay from the back of the vehicles is likely to provide a huge boost in revenue.