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@millerm277 Here are my thoughts based on what's in the slides alone. First of all, there's a need to distinguish Bus Lanes vs. Transit Signal Priority (TSP) in these data. TSP was only activated in June 2025, so at most two months of TSP data got into "Project Q4" that you see on the slides...

Is this news? I haven't been following closely. AmeriStarRail Launches $2.4B Plan to Redefine U.S. Rail Travel

I haven't dug into the exact definition there, but I suspect that the bus transfers column only counts MBTA services. Transfers from non-MBTA buses (even including EZRide and LMA shuttles) may have been reported under "drop-off" instead. (The source data for 2015-17 surveys had separate columns...

Norwood: Compared to Franklin, and Depot vs. Central @dennismulder - With all due respect, it sounds like an underlying philosophy of yours is that Franklin/Foxboro Line riders primarily drive to the stations. I'd like to push back on that assumption, especially in the context of Norwood...

Not expressing my personal opinions one way or another, just responding to a few points... I've dined out at Steaming Tender before, and they have a pamphlet, together with the menu, that introduces two lovely ladies at the restaurant with a few paragraphs for their self-introductions. One of...

The famous East River bridges in New York, which I imagine would involve more engineering hurdles than Tobin, are very popular with both pedestrians and cyclists -- not just for commutes, but also for recreational and tourism purposes. Obviously the Tobin Bridge won't have nearly as much...

Even the most convenient and enjoyable walk will still take a substantial amount of time and physical effort, though, given the sheer distance. That 15-min walk (just guesstimating optimistically) can be the deal breaker for someone deciding between transit and driving.

https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/09/07/while-seattle-population-spikes-car-population-stalls-out/

Apparently, exit numbers are actually happening! https://www.reddit.com/r/mbta/s/EdMzF0W5WB

I have more thoughts to share in a future blog post, but my belief (at least in principle) is that such a line can and should be turned towards Downtown Boston. Even if it's elevated over the Tobin Bridge.

I think the underlying relevant factor that we actually want to show is that: Copley and Back Bay are close together -- close enough that they can be used as substitutes with a short walk. (As compared to, say, Arlington vs. Tufts Medical Center.) Simply aligning the two stops on a map, to me...

Interestingly, I would have been concerned about GLX Medford branch exceeding capacity on Day 1, given its extremely dense walkshed (80k compared to RL North's 90k). But while anecdotal reports suggest that E trains are packed, its ridership is still much smaller than RL North, and comparable to...

Bay Village (Marginal Rd to Seaport) may have a better transfer to Tufts Medical Center than you think. I mapped out the extents of Orange Line's TMC station based on its fire diagram. While it's not 100% accurate, it's probably 95% so: In particular, the southern end of the platform is...

TIL that SL Phase 3's Boylston station would have destroyed the outer Green Line tracks and used them as transfer walkways (even for the alignment Alternatives that don't destroy the entire southern Tremont St tunnel). This also raises questions about feasibility of a modern east-west Boylston...

Forgive me for randomly dropping a bomb without explanations: Important disclaimers: Line colors are completely arbitrary! They do NOT suggest a preferred service arrangement. This also does NOT suggest that Congress St has to be LRT interlined with the GLR system. This actually triggers...

That's a super interesting point for GLR: If even the system today is struggling to deliver "full-capacity / 32 TPH" service on Park-GC, perhaps our GLR designs should leave some "intentional wiggle room" if possible? In more real-world, present-day terms, I also wonder if extending the C to...

I posted 3 comments in the Green Line Reconfiguration thread, but some of the data analyses are worth cross-posting here: Ridership at each station on each line (with the GL surface stops aggregated) Travel time and speed on each line

Is the Green Line trunk also too slow, not just the branches? Coolidge Corner and Quincy Center having the same travel time really surprised me, so I took a closer look. Within a fixed time (5 min, 10 min, ...), how far can you go on each line? For this analysis, I used the period of January...

Does this necessarily argue against grade-separating the surface branches (such as a Huntington subway or a B branch subway)? I don't think so: Green Line data may be bugged Better speed and reliability will naturally increase ridership in itself Today, Coolidge Corner takes the same time to...

What if the ridership at Green Line surface stops are merged onto a single station? This grew out of an attempt at understanding how dense the B and C branches are, and whether any grade-separation with "metro-level" stop spacing is justified. In this main text, I use Fall 2024 weekday data at...