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This would be amazing! Doubt we would see it done this way, but I like the way you're thinking. I do like that there's enough room for the current design to have a fully-protected intersection at least, but that's more of a silver lining imo.

Um, is this an April Fool's joke or something? Worcester has always been on the Lake Shore Limited line...

Got it! That's very cool. So using that Z routing, you give up the fairly marginal market of trips between Greenfield and Fitchburg and gain many more riders in Northampton, Holyoke, and Springfield. The Hoosac Tunnel remains a big challenge still, but for higher ridership the work on the tunnel...

I grew up in Weymouth, which is nice I guess, has great schools, lots of trees, etc. But it's dull af and I was happy to escape as an adult. And, of course, Weymouth doesn't really have a street grid at all. While it is very difficult to reconstitute or develop a street grid in a place like...

I agree that there are so many benefits of street grids, that it was a giant mistake for us to stop building them. I also want to +1 the principle that open space is crucial for human flourishing - which can take many forms, like 1) a street with a wide sidewalk, some shade and a few benches, 2)...

The Z-shaped option? Could you say more about what that routing would look like?

Idea: Leverage East-West Rail to enable same-day trips from Boston to Toronto, Montreal, and Burlington VT with a transfer at Albany Boston's options for direct or at least same-day trips to destinations to the W and N are limited. The Downeaster is a great service for reaching Portland, ME but...

The segment of McGrath that runs from Twin Cities Plaza to Lechmere Square (specifically, where it intersects with North First Street) feels way overbuilt. I never see it busy, and I feel like the space can be used much better. Has anyone thought about converting half of the road into a park...

I also think Cape Cod presents a lot of challenges for transit, and sadly it doesn't seem feasible to provide the kind of local service that's frequent enough, fast enough, and wide-spread enough to allow people to visit most parts of the cape without a car. So I would challenge folks here to...

As others have pointed out, the vast majority of people either drive to the cape, drive/get a ride once they arrive, or both. But as a crazy urbanist/transit person, I have to ask...what reasonable car-free trips between Boston and Cape Cod are possible today? I have a few ideas... Fast Ferry...

Should we classify the recent Grand Junction study as a crazy transit pitch? I'm very dubious of its implication that Cantabrigians would accept gates coming down across Main St, Mass Ave, Broadway, and Cambridge St, 3-4 trains per hour, all day. Instead...assuming 1) West Station is already...

Makes sense. Worcester would also be an unusual city if there were good transit to its airport, as the likelihood of a quick way to drive to that airport feels much more remote than a good transit connection!

Thank you, I do believe this is where I got my (admittedly rounded) 0.9M pop figure for the Worcester metro and the 1.6M for Providence. I take the point that looking at the urban population is more useful, but my point was that the Providence is about twice as large as Worcester. and this is...

But whenever talking about Worcester transit, it must be repeated that Providence should get it first. Not only does Providence have a metro population nearby twice that of Worcester, but it also has 20 NE Corridor trains. Even if we assume Providence would not get any more trains than Worcester...

Yeah unfortunately I would have to agree that "there is no there there" right now, on creating a metro system for Worcester. Technically, yes, Worcester is the second-largest city in New England. However, what's more important is that the population of the Worcester metro area is around 0.9M...

Love the concept of this God Mode sandbox for transportation! I might go into more detail on specific portions of this another time, but for now I’d like to sketch out a vision for completely re-imagining transportation in the Greater Boston area. I’m defining this as everything in the 128 belt...

Are there streets around Boston that are wide enough to support elevated rail, and which have the location and orientation that could help provide urban-ring-esque service? I'm thinking either Miami People Mover style, if it's a short distance. Or Vancouver Skytrain style for medium distance...

Thanks for the good ideas! I updated the route to use the 238 path east of the park, and added the 240 bus to the list of connections. Agreed on Mattapan. It makes the route significantly longer but it's worth it to connect that underserved neighborhood to the Blue Hills. And I actually did...

So my pitch is for a new seasonal transit service that would make it easier for people in the Boston area to swim, hike, and fish without needing a car: the Blue Hills Explorer! It would be a bus or shuttle service that operates half of the year (May-October). You would run a handful of vehicles...