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I think a good idea would be for the state to discourage Boston (and other cities, but Boston is the 800 lbs gorilla) from incentivizing companies to drag workers back into the office. If I were being more assertive, I’d suggest the state incentivize remote work (IE: locate your office in MA...

That really isn’t much of a pitch for an infrastructure project. “Build here, there’s lots of homeless people.”

Hence my closing sentence.

Would the cost of the bridge opening pay for itself? If the marginal cost of opening the the bridge X more times is less than the profit gained from running X more trains, it seems a no-brainer. Even if its just comparable, the benefit of declogging those bridges is pretty handy, too.

The sound would seem to be easily mitigated by keeping curved sections away from people. As for aesthetics, I had some fun playing with an AI art generator and plugging in variations of <insert architectural style> viaduct in <insert environment>.

Another question that I can’t really decide where it fits, but since it could be relevant to the megalopolis discussion, I’ll stick it here: Are there any studies (or information in general) about how important aesthetics are when considering elevated rail lines? For example, consider the...

Someone call up Mohammad Bin Salman

One less concrete idea I have for the megalopolis transit system: Since this is effectively one giant city, an argument could be made for free regional trains, similar to how some metro systems are free (or have a nominal ticket cost). I would imagine the higher speed lines would still charge...

I really appreciate all the thought you've put into this, and that you were able to share your previous efforts. I definitely agree that a multi-track spine running down the corridor (with radial lines) is the best solution. Especially if you have 3 or more tiers of speed for the spine. What...

Thanks for that question! This creative writing experiment overall actually is primarily driven by demographic considerations (and my inspiration for the megalopolis is 'Megacity One but not dystopian'). I didn't want to go into that level of detail here, since, obviously, this is a transit...

Lets dig into this one. What does that look like? Do we get something like - regional rail linking smaller cities to the network - high speed rail connecting medium cities to the network - maglev vacuum trains for the largest cities (remember, this is AD 2124) @bigeman312 sorta hit the nail on...

I figure the sandbox thread is the best place for this, but I’d be happy to move it elsewhere. I’m doing a bit of creative writing, just for my own edification. Its the year AD 2124 (yes, just doing the lazy futurism thing of projecting out 100 years). The Boston-Washington Megalopolis (present...

Had another simple “quick fix” idea: require developers to include in-law suites in X% of houses in their single-family developments. The urbanists would get higher density and families that want to have their relatives move in have that option.

1) Developers tend to build what is profitable for them to build, and that is correlated to what people want. 2) And yet, prior to 2020, there was loads of urban development. There’s loads of research into how very strongly correlated family formation and low density is.

So, in that specific case, there’s no logistical reason it couldn’t work, but what is ultimately a political one. Are there any places (either in the US or worldwide) where such a system is implemented? It seems pretty straightforward to me, I figure I must be missing some obvious flaw. Either...

I'm curious about the logistical feasibility of the following idea: Utilizing existing commuter rail lines for smaller commuter rail lines based on outlying metros. Simple example: a mini Providence commuter rail that is just Providence and the outlying stations (say, going out to Mansfield on...

The trend of density correlating to low fertility is a global one.

Just gonna point out that people *like* bland and boring SFHs. There is a *very* strong negative correlation between population density and family size. Which is the cause and which is the effect is less obvious (most likely a feedback loop), but it is there.

None (or near enough to none) of them want to be going into the office. But the entire concept of white collar workers all migrating into an office for 8-9 hrs/day is largely a sunk cost financially and culturally. The fact that so many business execs are wedded to it shows that they're not...

Seems too high to me. Though, utilization should be high - the number of offices should decrease.