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Just to add a bit to what @TheRatmeister said, the requirements for traffic lights is going to depend on traffic volumes and space. You'd need many more bikes than cars (by orders of magnitude) in the same amount of space for traffic lights to start making sense. If you turned all of Boston's...

Very broadly, I agree. But a lot of the cost blowouts on the projects you mention still come back to the political problems @StreetsblogMASS is mentioning, especially decades of underinvestment in the T. (I really recommend the Transit Costs Project for detailed analysis.) Underinvestment led to...

That whole summary is pretty spot on. One small thing, all the new licenses in the latest version of the proposed legislation are non-transferable. I think you're right that there were some new transferable licenses proposed this year, but those have fortunately been cut from the latest draft...

This was a neat idea, but it's looking like you might have to start us off. Did you figure out any reasonable (..."reasonable"...) plan? The little bit I was considering it, it kept looking like the result would be bad, or at least wildly wasteful, rapid transit system. Like, I could really...

Wait, what's the deal with Castle Street Junction? What did that used to connect? When was that taken down?

Since the heat waves have passed, I've been out in the Esplanade and on the Charles more lately. Just a thought, but part of the reason a ferry service wouldn't work well on the Charles is that Boston and Cambridge are kind of cut off from the water by Storrow and Memorial Drives. The roads have...

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. Are you thinking of some specific problem spot or incident? Like I said, there is a nearly identical bike/pedestrian underpass on this exact path, on the very next bridge upriver. I bike through fairly regularly. It hasn't become a homeless encampment...

Down by the water? Lovers, muggers, and thieves? Seriously though, it's frustrating how often this comes up for an explanation why why can't have nice things. "Unsavory characters" is why we don't like building public spaces, there are no public restrooms, and benches are uncomfortable...

Agreed. Or get rid of the limits altogether. But this seems to be the limit of what can pass politically, and given what a shitshow the State House is, we might be lucky to get this modest improvement. Oh yeah, good point. That one is really odd. I'm not sure there are any official boundaries...

A town doesn't have to be Toronto or London to justify good public transit. You just need to want people to be able to get around without always having to drive. In Switzerland, they'll have flag stops on the train for a single ski resort. In Japan there is a train stop just for a scenic view...

No, they're each restricted to the zip code they're created for. They are also completely non-transferable, so the can't be sold. When a business quits using one of these new licenses, it goes back to the board, and they can grant it out again in that same zip code.

Well, that's... something. What a BS system. Here's the proposed bill https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/H5039 The 13 zip codes are : 02118, 02119, 02121, 02122, 02124, 02125, 02126, 02128, 02129, 02130, 02131, 02132 and 02136. Those are the green parts of this map

The parks are looking alright (though I still think you should skip them). One thing that has been off, though, is the Emerald Necklace connected to the Esplanade. On your map, it looks like you should be able to walk directly from one to the other, but you can't. The actual Emerald Necklace...

It's sooo nice. I moved back to the Boston area three years ago, and this week is the first time the red line has been running kind of how I remember back in the day. (My regular trips to Quincy continue to suck. But there's an end in sight.) Is there some way to figure out what the deal is...

I also love the look of the old Chicago Els. But I can be pretty sure that a Green Line train passing there is unbearably loud. Like, feel-it-in-your-teeth loud. Interrupt-a-conversation-two-blocks-away kind of loud. I have a nostalgia for those trains, so I'm always surprised going back to...

I totally agree, that looks a failure of planning. Tying this locally, there was a push in the State House to change MassPort's charter to require it consider broader climate objectives in their planning. Basically this is about blocking MassPort in its planned expansion at Hanscom. That...

I wouldn't be surprised if you were correct here, but really, did Northeastern ruin this? The picture you posted is from the arena's heyday in the 20's or 30's. Northeastern didn't buy the arena until 1979. What did it look like then? I'm pretty sure I've read that a lot of the elaborate...

Hey, that article on funding doesn't mention anything about the task force that was set up to work on the problem. I don't think they're supposed to report back until December, but is there anything new there? Is the task force even mentioned when politicians talk about solving funding? Have...

Ok, they've got this boat, here's my pitch. Just run from the Broad Canal, right near Kendall, to Nashua Street Park, right near North Station. I don't know how feasible it is to have another dock in the Broad Canal. It's currently just used for kayak rentals. And there is a dock at Nashua...

Yeah, no way. Just for reference, they say they tried out the route from Watertown to the Hatch Shell, five stops, in 67 minutes. I think that's technically possible, but they're not thinking through realistic (or maybe any) dwell times. But they say they tried it. That'll be close. And that's...