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People are confused. Chapter 7 would involve literally selling the MBTA's assets to the highest bidder and ceasing all operations entirely. Not "privatizing". Chapter 11 would allow the MBTA to continue as a going concern while discharging debts. But I doubt a bankruptcy court would look...

Bankruptcy is a terrible idea. First off, the City of Boston is doing fine. And the MBTA declaring bankruptcy would just increase costs in the long term as borrowing costs would go up. All that's needed is more state funding, and it really wouldn't take that much. I like the idea of increasing...

A few things I didn't mention before: - The Pike isn't under capacity, it's over capacity, it's just less over capacity than most other Boston roads. - The Pike inside 128 uses a barrier toll system. It only works because there aren't nearby exits available to game the system and get off...

Re: T construction news Another question - why the hell are there mini-high platforms here? Isn't the whole reason we're switching out the old Green Line cars for low floors to avoid this?

Re: T construction news The point is, an agency that has so little money should be focusing on function and much less on form.

If I thought a subway was a good idea I'd say go for both. But on one side you'd have the Charles and on the other you'd have the Green Line less than 1/2 mile away, running parallel. The Pike's an interstate with few exits while Storrow is a major limited access arterial. They serve different...

But you need some kind of grade separation for there to be a functioning transportation system. Surely no one here advocates for the Red, Blue, Green, and Orange lines as well as all commuter rail to be at-grade. Remember, tunnels are grade separated. So if it's recognized that major regional...

I'd bet no mass transit option along that corridor would get 25% of the daily trips Storrow does. I like ant's idea, depress the highway and maybe build over it. I don't know why people oppose grade separation so much; it's by far the safest option and the best way to let cars do their thing...

It was a big enough project on its own. Plus if you do that you're getting the FTA involved in addition to the FHWA and it would complicate things. Tip O'Neill already had to get an override of Reagan's veto to do the Big Dig as it was.

Re: T construction news Why isn't this done more? In general I think all a Green Line stop should be, on a branch, is asphalt and a fence, maybe a bus style shelter. The only way to justify a $20m station is if it was a pre-paid station with fare gates. The T has no money but it doesn't act...

I didn't say to interstate standards, that's impossible (sight lines, exit geometry, etc). Just to modern roadway standards. Prevailing travel speeds are based on a wide variety of factors, not just lane width. Sight lines, the presence of sidewalks and pedestrians, geometry, trees. There's...

To clarify, I meant international arrivals, departures are different

It's my understanding that Terminal E was designed from the ground up to be the only Logan terminal with the facilities to handle any international flights and that MassPort wanted it that way. Since it was rebuilt at a cost of ~400m less than 15 years ago, my bet is no international flights...

Re: T construction news There's never been a comparable project to the Big Dig. Replacing an elevated highway with an underground one while it's actively being used, a massive cable-stayed bridge, the Storrow Connector, the City Square tunnel and CANA, the Ted Williams Tunnel under the harbor...

As far as making Storrow a boulevard let's agree to disagree. But to be clear, the tradeoff of removing grade separation would make it more dangerous for pedestrians, motorists, and cyclists and worse for the environment. Also, you shouldn't just make a road narrower, nor is it desirable to do...

A spade is a spade and a road is what it is, not what it is arbitrarily declared to be. The numbers on the signs say 40; that limit achieves zero to nine percent compliance rate depending on the area and has no empirical basis. The 85th percentile is around 60 and the 50th percentile is in the...

Removing Storrow is a separate issue on which we're probably not going to agree. But I will say that Storrow Drive takes you to a totally different area of the city than the Pike. Also, it is physically impossible to use Storrow to avoid paying any tolls. Ostensibly the way you'd use Storrow...

Storrow Drive is a limited access freeway. We know that because the legislature directed the MDC to build a limited access freeway in 1949. A parks agency has no business running a limited access freeway. If MassDOT owned it you could still advocate for aesthetics, but at least you'd have an...

Re: T construction news The Big Dig was an incredibly complex tunnel system, I can understand why that's so expensive just like I can understand why T tunnels cost so much. But there seems to be an unexplained and broad divergence between the (high) cost of surface highway construction and the...

Re: T construction news It's mind-boggling that public transit construction costs are so expensive. This is the type of stuff that makes people anti-transit. This is a station that serves about 1,000 people a day and this station's $20m price is just a small portion of capital costs (think...