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The area just south of Sullivan and east of 93 isn't exactly urban paradise. I'm not personally familiar with the area, but it seems pretty desolate and full of surface parking. I don't know if yard space is the best use of land that close to rapid transit interchange, but I also doubt anything...

Running along Vassar or Albany St. is barely a detour and would likely add less than 10 seconds to travel time through the area. The additional cost of going around is also likely not huge, given that the tracks would already need to be elevated (or deeply tunneled) over Main St. In general...

These should probably be viewed as an upper bound for costs (assuming competent management/design). Also, a significant amount of value can come from just the West Station to Sullivan/North Station segment, which is already mostly grade-separated, could likely be done with no tunneling, and...

It seems likely that Eversource would be more amenable to elevated rail on this corridor than MIT. Looking at the Siting Board Decision (pages 66 and 71 in particular), MIT was opposed to the construction occurring on Vassar St due to the high density of existing utilities for their microgrid...

Another brief point: Maverick to Aquarium (or State) is a quite poor example of a short trip that is too expensive. The fact that this provides one of only a few direct transportation connections to Eastie from downtown (and the only one accessible without a car), makes it quite valuable...

I don't have strong opinions on distance-based fares, but I did want to push back on the negativity of shorter transit trips becoming cycling trips. While I agree that flat fares make quick cycling trips more attractive relative to transit, having these trips occur on bike is neutral at worst...

Is there any reason for the absolute lack of ambition (at least in terms of service) currently being stated for East-West Rail? The only reason I could think of framing this as one additional round trip to Springfield is to under-promise and over-deliver, but it still seems absurd. Just one...

I'm curious to see how much local push back this gets. Basically everything about this project is great: increases grid reliability, cleans up the industrial lots in poor shape, adds a significant amount of green space and permeable surfaces, fixes narrow sidewalks, and should reduce traffic...

That's completely reasonable. It wouldn't surprise me if enforcing a white roof is either very difficult or impossible for the city, but it would clearly help. However, instead of continue to guess why more open space was desired, I decided to find out if any justification had been given. BPD...

This is one of the best projects I've seen recently in AB. There's tons of new housing, significantly less parking than units, and it's located near 3 decent bus routes as well as Boston Landing. The bike network is dramatically improving in this area (on Leo Birmingham, North Beacon, and...

Radio tower, studios could make way for apartments on Leo Birmingham Parkway in Brighton "A developer has filed plans to replace a building housing radio stations and an antenna tower on Leo Birmingham Parkway across from Lincoln Street in Brighton with an eight-story, 338-unit apartment...

I'd honestly be completely fine with it if the ZBA had clear and consistent open space expectations. This is a completely reasonable ask, but it should have come up much sooner and shouldn't be delaying the project.

I imagine the desire for open space is not for a park space, but to provide greenery that can combat the urban heat island affect in this part of Allston. IMO, this is one of the few things that I think is reasonable to ask of new development. However, this definitely should have been...

Board likes proposed Allston apartment building but tells developer to come back with some more open space on the lot "The Zoning Board of Appeal yesterday rejected plans for a 14-unit apartment building - with three affordable units - at 17 Linden St., saying that while they and the Boston...

You're completely right, and I don't think I articulated my concerns with this correctly in my first post. This is a great way to add some much needed housing to Allston with gentle density. However, it would not be allowed under any S+S zones. It is one floor to tall for S2, and doesn't have...

Another plus that comes from free buses and is not often brought up is increased driver safety, and with it, improved retention and hiring. From the discourse that occurred during the recent re-negotiation of the Carmen's Union contract, it appeared that bus driver safety was the one of the...

Livable Streets Alliance has done some work on calculating how much would be lost in fare revenue if local buses were made free. They came up with $33 million as the cost in early 2020, which is likely lower now without full ridership recovery. This also doesn't appear to factor in any possible...

The only qualms you could really have with this building are a lack of ground-floor retail/dining and it not being taller. However you could probably get both by arguing that is likely to be (and really should be IMO) an S3 Squares and Streets district once the Allston Village S+S rezoning...

This honestly sounds great, and could be extended to Fitchburg if desired. The travel times would likely be equal to or slightly faster than the low investment Northern Tier Alt, and would be a much cheaper proof of concept.

I didn't think so either, but wanted to confirm. I asked because I noticed the expected cost of replacing the Valley Road station is almost $21 million, but was only serving 10 daily riders as of June 2023. It seems like that money could be much better used if that station was just permanently...