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The Pioneer Institute is absolutely arguing in bad faith, but there are legitimate points made. And while too much focus on cost control will lead to neglecting service quality, too little means that far less service is provided than could be with those funds. In particular, the increases in bus...

Just a guess, but I assume almost all forum members understand this dynamic. Even most of the general public, if you're patient with them, can come around to the idea that IDP requirements increase new housing costs. The bigger issue, IMO, is that nobody trusts local/state governments to build...

Separately, the city is planning a full redesign/rebuild of Comm Ave from Packard's Corner to the Newton border that I don't believe has been mentioned elsewhere. There were three rough ideas they were getting feedback on: 2 through lanes in both directions on the center of the street, with the...

For anyone interested in how the meeting went, here's what I took away: (Note: this was an Open House to get community feedback, not a presentation of what the Planning Department has decided) The majority of attendees appeared fairly young and sign-ins seemed to indicated the 25-35 age group...

IMO, The biggest problem is that MassDOT has portrayed the 8-lane Pike as absolutely non-negotiable, and as far as I'm aware, has not shown any projections for what would happen if the auxiliary lanes are shortened/removed. This makes it impossible to have a good-faith discussion about...

This seems more like like wishcasting from Harvard/Utile than any concrete progress on breaking up the Beacon Park Yard street grid. Unfortunately, the best way to get the most up-to-date information on the project is probably MassDOT FOIA requests.

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/transportation/federal-funding-for-i-90-allston-project-in-jeopardy/ While there will surely be years of lawsuits and wrangling over this, it seems like the odds of getting that federal funding are near zero at this point. As others have mentioned, there's likely...

While this is exciting, some caution is warranted. The T has mentioned this plan at presentations about other projects, but there is no public facing material about it outside of a single item in the CIP Book (P1257). It seems likely that 30-minute frequencies are on the horizon, but I have very...

You're correct in pointing out how ridiculous the current zoning is. However, at least in AB, it seems likely that much of it will get fixed with the Allston-Brighton Community Plan (next meeting on July 14th for anyone interested). The expectation is for zoning for basically the entire...

The developers have requested to "pause any further review of the project until City staff finalize and publish the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) safety regulations." Those regulations will hopefully be finalized in a matter of months, not years, but that's far from certain. More...

Do you know what the extent of the work was? Anything significant seems like a missed opportunity to narrow the roadway and put in bike lanes at curb level (which would then take up less room and allow for parking).

Is there a reason why 10' lanes aren't considered here? That should be wide enough to have 4.5' bike lanes, 2' buffers with protection, and a 7' parking lane. While I'm sure some residents will never be happy with any "loss" of parking, it would be a pretty reasonable compromise.

Apologies, I was not clear at all about what I meant. First, I was referring specifically to DEMUs where all power generation occurs on specialized cars, like the Stadler FLIRTs used for TEXRail. I'm sure this has been discussed before on the forum before, but this could expedite Regional...

Another note here: burning HVO appears to significantly reduce NOx and particulate matter emissions, which is almost certainly worth some premium for the community health benefits. I also wonder if the emissions here are "low enough" for the T to seriously consider using some DMUs. While it...

Listening to the meeting, it sounds like "standing in a bus lane" will be defined as broadly as legally possible. This was discussed in response to a question from the board at around 1:14:50 in the video.

For better or worse, the decision to keep Leo Birmingham but shrink it down to two lanes has been finalized. You can see the meeting info here, and construction is already under way on those plans. I do have to agree that the proposed plans are better than the current configuration, but not by...

Looking over this, the T does not seem convinced that boarding will become significantly faster if routes are made fare-free. Based on the data from the current pilot and the move to all door boarding systemwide, that seems reasonable at face value. The only cost savings come from less Fare...

I certainly agree that the MassDOT plans for Rutherford Ave and McGrath are better than what DCR has put forward here. However, MassDOT expects the Rutherford Ave redesign to save drivers time, and has admitted that McGrath is overbuilt for the traffic it serves. When MassDOT is worried about...

I would definitely rather see roads like this in DCR's hands than MassDOT's, and while the City of Boston would certainly do a better job with this redesign, there's only a handful of municipalities I can confidently say that about. DCR, at the very least, is willing to reduce roadway capacity...

I'd agree that operational impacts should be the first consideration when looking at fare collection, but there's nothing wrong with doing an equity analysis. If all of those routes ended up fare-free, you might as well remove fares for all local busses. Otherwise, there are effectively two...