Recent content by EastCambridgeDreamer

This would be amazing! Doubt we would see it done this way, but I like the way you're thinking. I do like that there's enough room for the current design to have a fully-protected intersection at least, but that's more of a silver lining imo.

Um, is this an April Fool's joke or something? Worcester has always been on the Lake Shore Limited line...

Got it! That's very cool. So using that Z routing, you give up the fairly marginal market of trips between Greenfield and Fitchburg and gain many more riders in Northampton, Holyoke, and Springfield. The Hoosac Tunnel remains a big challenge still, but for higher ridership the work on the tunnel...

I grew up in Weymouth, which is nice I guess, has great schools, lots of trees, etc. But it's dull af and I was happy to escape as an adult. And, of course, Weymouth doesn't really have a street grid at all. While it is very difficult to reconstitute or develop a street grid in a place like...

I agree that there are so many benefits of street grids, that it was a giant mistake for us to stop building them. I also want to +1 the principle that open space is crucial for human flourishing - which can take many forms, like 1) a street with a wide sidewalk, some shade and a few benches, 2)...

The Z-shaped option? Could you say more about what that routing would look like?

Idea: Leverage East-West Rail to enable same-day trips from Boston to Toronto, Montreal, and Burlington VT with a transfer at Albany Boston's options for direct or at least same-day trips to destinations to the W and N are limited. The Downeaster is a great service for reaching Portland, ME but...

The segment of McGrath that runs from Twin Cities Plaza to Lechmere Square (specifically, where it intersects with North First Street) feels way overbuilt. I never see it busy, and I feel like the space can be used much better. Has anyone thought about converting half of the road into a park...

I also think Cape Cod presents a lot of challenges for transit, and sadly it doesn't seem feasible to provide the kind of local service that's frequent enough, fast enough, and wide-spread enough to allow people to visit most parts of the cape without a car. So I would challenge folks here to...

As others have pointed out, the vast majority of people either drive to the cape, drive/get a ride once they arrive, or both. But as a crazy urbanist/transit person, I have to ask...what reasonable car-free trips between Boston and Cape Cod are possible today? I have a few ideas... Fast Ferry...

Should we classify the recent Grand Junction study as a crazy transit pitch? I'm very dubious of its implication that Cantabrigians would accept gates coming down across Main St, Mass Ave, Broadway, and Cambridge St, 3-4 trains per hour, all day. Instead...assuming 1) West Station is already...

Makes sense. Worcester would also be an unusual city if there were good transit to its airport, as the likelihood of a quick way to drive to that airport feels much more remote than a good transit connection!

Thank you, I do believe this is where I got my (admittedly rounded) 0.9M pop figure for the Worcester metro and the 1.6M for Providence. I take the point that looking at the urban population is more useful, but my point was that the Providence is about twice as large as Worcester. and this is...

But whenever talking about Worcester transit, it must be repeated that Providence should get it first. Not only does Providence have a metro population nearby twice that of Worcester, but it also has 20 NE Corridor trains. Even if we assume Providence would not get any more trains than Worcester...

Yeah unfortunately I would have to agree that "there is no there there" right now, on creating a metro system for Worcester. Technically, yes, Worcester is the second-largest city in New England. However, what's more important is that the population of the Worcester metro area is around 0.9M...