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Generally, democracies fall not because of the majority voting itself the minority's stuff, but because ambitious people decide the democratic process gets in their way and they have enough influence to push it aside, often piecewise. For example, a good first step might be to deny wide...

Tocqueville also believed that the medieval French aristocracy was a model government, so I honestly don't care for applying his political opinions to the modern world. Of course, it helps my point that it's aristocratic thinking- and if there is any form of government that has proven itself to...

I don't understand all these weird "people who don't pay one particular tax shouldn't have the right to vote" proposals come from- disenfranchising classes of people for political reasons sounds like opening to door to all sorts of abuses and to the end of any semblance of democratic governance...

It seems like if parking is such a necessity, then people will want parking when looking for housing, and developers will be incentivized (I don't think that's a word but eh) to build accordingly. If there is a decent population for whom driving is unnecessary (and in Boston this does seem to...

I imagine the usual response would be to deny federal highway funding, which would eliminate the benefit from the tolls.

It reminds me of Commonwealth Avenue in Allston, with the Green Line replaced by the pedestrian trail.

I'm curious why you wouldn't have the commuter rail systems standardize on one voltage and frequency. I mean, since we're starting from scratch electrification-wise (with the exception of the NEC), why add complication? I'm not referring to the LRT/streetcar systems here, since those being...

I don't agree with this analysis- do we see this kind of development you're talking about alongside the Southeast Expressway? As far as I can tell, you do not. For the most part people just use it to get into the desirable office complexes downtown. Above-ground highways are noisy and often...

You know, I'd honestly like to see something like the bus rollsigns on the Green Line- they could go back to showing "via Beacon St." or whatever. (I suppose "Lechmere / via Subway" is probably unnecessary) Or at the very least not have to abbreviate everything.

Arguably, not building the southwest expressway kept the El around longer- if it had been built, I think what the plan was to have the Orange Line routed down alongside the new highway and going off somewhere on the Needham line. (Not sure what the plan was for other commuter rail/Amtrak- I want...

Interesting... if I was going to do this sort of thing today, I think I'd eschew a connection to Boylston Station altogether and just connect to Chinatown; I'm not sure how you could retrofit Boylston to be both a transfer station and have the ADA-required elevators... Arlington and Chinatown...

That's really interesting to see... though I don't understand how they'd connect to the existing Boylston Street Subway, especially since back then the Boylston Street Portal was still in use.

There's no way you can send commuter or Amtrak trains through the Washington Street Tunnel the Orange Line uses... the clearance isn't even there for Red Line cars.

I say we just get rid of the city; that would solve all the transit problems.

Interesting- where is Mission Park-Riverway? Looks like it would have to be pretty much where Riverway is now (and also on the Huntington side) for that service pattern to work.

Oh cool, I'm glad people found my previous map interesting... For the Gold Line, I was thinking something like this... heavy-rail Orange Line-type subway from JFK/UMass (not sure how necessary a new stop there is to replace the shuttle bus, but this is the crazy thread) to BU (to link up with...

Could the Silver Line look like this one day? Probably not. (Also, Mass Ave station probably needs a better name, or like half the stations on the Gold Line will be named "Mass. Ave" :p )

I think the idea that the helmet "no excuses" signs are victim blaming comes from comparative situations- I mean, I'm a pedestrian (I rode a bike often when I lived in the suburbs, but stopped when I moved into the city), and if I get hit by a car in a crosswalk or even if I'm walking in the...

I wonder, though, would there be very much advantage to take the Red Line from Route 128 via Mattapan and Ashmont then for someone to just stay on the highway and drive to Quincy Adams?

Amtrak operates Shore Line East under contract to CDOT.