[CANCELED] Summer St. Gondola

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bakgwailo said:
Use the 100 Million to continue the Silver Line Tunnel ~500ft more to remove the grade crossing at D St, and then paint bus lanes/soft bollards for a loop around to Summer St/back on D. Maybe incorporate the Haul Road, too.
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+1
 
Urban gondolas have full level boarding, and the cabin can stop in the station if necessary (normally it rolls through at a slow speed).
 
The Mexican gondola looks great. I think the general plan for Boston was to have room for up to 40 passengers. Fewer trips, more people, I guess. I like the design of Mexico's better.
 
atlantaden said:
Nice! But would this system pass ADA standards?
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I think so. Mexico obviously has different standards, but theyre not bad.

The gondola is continuously moving, but can be stopped to let wheelchairs load.

Does it slow the entire system down for the 3 minutes?

Yup. But no worse than loading a wheelchair onto a bus, which requires the operator to lower the bus, flip the ramp, raise seats, load the wheelchair, and then tie the restrains.

Pain in the ass for everyone else, but not a frequent occurrence.
 
Doesn't slow the entire system down, just maybe some of the cabins in the terminal (they're driven around a track by a series of tires). And wheelchairs and strollers can roll directly on, like the Red Line, so they only have to stop momentarily if at all.

I'm not actually arguing in support of this plan, because I have my doubts about it, but we may as well have accurate information here. There's a ton of information about what's called cable-propelled transit at http://gondolaproject.com/.
 
I don't see how any kind of elevated structure is ever going to pass NIMBY muster in Boston.
 
Charlie_mta said:
I don't see how any kind of elevated structure is ever going to pass NIMBY muster in Boston.
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Who are the NIMBYs in the Seaport?

Gondolas seem to be needed most where you want to defy some barrier that has thwarted buses, like:
1) Water (London)
2) Irregular street grid / Barrios
3) Elevation change (Portland)

But Summer (or Congress) is an obvious place for plain old HOV/Bus lanes.
 
There are no NIMBYs in Seaport, but the way it seems to work in Boston is that anywhere in the city is subject to NIMBY scrutiny. The old elevated Central Artery and the extinct Orange Line els so traumatized these people that anything, anywhere that looks like an elevated structure won't happen.

The one exception is the short stretch of GLX elevated about to be built at Lechmere, but that is basically just shifting an existing structure a block north.
 
There absolutely are NIMBYs in the Seaport. They're in Fort Point. "The Fort Pointer" (@FortPointer) on Twitter is the biggest NIMBY of them all and gets the rest of them riled up with nonstories.
 
Here's some more detail I hadn't seen before, page 3 of this newsletter: http://files.constantcontact.com/c5...-42c7-a014-d54d24a30f94.pdf?ver=1481757906000
That's why they're talking $100 million, with five stations over a 1.4-mile route; remember that stations are the expensive part. You can get rid of the "A St" station really easily; it's a 5-minute walk from South Station anyway.
And if they're talking 40-person cabins, which I think is ludicrous overkill for this route, that makes it a 3S, with 2 track ropes and a haul rope, which is *much* more expensive.
 
datadyne007 said:
There absolutely are NIMBYs in the Seaport. They're in Fort Point. "The Fort Pointer" (@FortPointer) on Twitter is the biggest NIMBY of them all and gets the rest of them riled up with nonstories.
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He used to post on archboston under "Sicilian", oddly enough.
 
FitchburgLine said:
He used to post on archboston under "Sicilian", oddly enough.
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I had no idea that was him.

I should really add that he does have legitimately good criticism of the architecture, urban planning & public process of the Seaport. It can just come off a bit strong at times and rile up others.
 
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I consider him a (online) friend even though I only agree w/ him 70% of the time. You have to give respect to someone who has spent the past 20 years sitting through hundreds of neighborhood meetings trying to build a neighborhood out of nothing.

And, he seems fairly happy with the revised plans for Seaport Square, now that theaters have been added back into the mix.

datadyne007 said:
I had no idea that was him.

I should really add that he does have legitimately good criticism of the architecture, urban planning & public process of the Seaport. It can just come off a bit strong at times and rile up others.
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In all honestly, as a resident of the seaport/fort point, I don't think these theaters will be successful. I have seen very little to no traffic at the Art Society in Pier 4, which was built as a requirement but rarely seems open. They talked about these outdoor events they would be holding, but I've yet to see one. Do people even know that its there?

Of course there is a need for cultural/civic areas, but for a developer to get bullied into building these on PRIVATELY owned land, does not sit well with me. Why do they have to lop off thousands of SF (mainly retail) on the war memorial building?
 
falcon42 said:
In all honestly, as a resident of the seaport/fort point, I don't think these theaters will be successful. I have seen very little to no traffic at the Art Society in Pier 4, which was built as a requirement but rarely seems open. They talked about these outdoor events they would be holding, but I've yet to see one. Do people even know that its there?
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I imagine that part of the idea is foot traffic will continue to increase as the neighborhood fills out. There will be a lot more residents in the area in the not too distant future, beyond the additional hotel rooms, offices, etc.
 
falcon42 said:
In all honestly, as a resident of the seaport/fort point, I don't think these theaters will be successful. I have seen very little to no traffic at the Art Society in Pier 4, which was built as a requirement but rarely seems open. They talked about these outdoor events they would be holding, but I've yet to see one. Do people even know that its there?

Of course there is a need for cultural/civic areas, but for a developer to get bullied into building these on PRIVATELY owned land, does not sit well with me. Why do they have to lop off thousands of SF (mainly retail) on the war memorial building?
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Coyote137 said:
I imagine that part of the idea is foot traffic will continue to increase as the neighborhood fills out. There will be a lot more residents in the area in the not too distant future, beyond the additional hotel rooms, offices, etc.
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I think these are meant for the Seaport Square thread.
 
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