General Infrastructure

Ive read people complain about the Silver Line here and there, but I used it for the first time in about 10 years from Logan. Back then, you shared a bus with 10 people.

This time, not so great.

20180824_175251 by J Sinclair, on Flickr

Bus arrives loaded to the gills. 2 people get off, and there are 20 people trying to get on. I think 4 made it. Bus sat for about 5 minutes while that whole process happened, which allowed the bus behind it to arrive.

Second but was just as bad, but this time we were more forceful in pushing on. No bag racks. Maybe 10 folks got left behind. Again 5 minutes or so just to let 3 people off and 5 people on.

Leaving Boston, there was no issue boarding the bus at SLW, but the bus quickly filled up at terminals A and B. Getting off at C required a fight to get out.

They should do the following things:

1. Reconfigure the airport bus so there is more standing room and less seats.
2. Operate the bus around the airport twice. First go around discharge only. Second go-around, pickup only. It would be faster than sitting for 5 minutes because people cant get off.
 
jass said:
They should do the following things:

1. Reconfigure the airport bus so there is more standing room and less seats.
2. Operate the bus around the airport twice. First go around discharge only. Second go-around, pickup only. It would be faster than sitting for 5 minutes because people cant get off.
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Yes!

I've also suggested to anyone who'll listen that the T should look at a similar "seat diet" on cars 3 & 4 of each Blue Line train-set (with appropriate signage). This would consolidate travelers and their luggage in parts of the train closest to vertical circulation, and offer better space for commuters from East Boston to get into town with a bicycle.
 
I thought the city had finished the project of reconstructing Roslindale Square, but this week they just installed a bunch of sets of those white posts to prevent cars from taking overly sharp turns at various intersections. It’s a really nice touch and I think will do a lot for traffic calming. Hope to see them more around the city.
 
FK4 said:
I thought the city had finished the project of reconstructing Roslindale Square, but this week they just installed a bunch of sets of those white posts to prevent cars from taking overly sharp turns at various intersections. It’s a really nice touch and I think will do a lot for traffic calming. Hope to see them more around the city.
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They are also going to reposition some, or at least one, of the bus stops. Look for the South St./Taft Hill Court stop to move to the other side of the intersection, in front of the old Petco building. That might be the end of things, though I'd like to see them do some stop consolidation in the square. I see no need for the two inbound Washington/Poplar/Corinth St. stops.
 
HenryAlan said:
They are also going to reposition some, or at least one, of the bus stops. Look for the South St./Taft Hill Court stop to move to the other side of the intersection, in front of the old Petco building. That might be the end of things, though I'd like to see them do some stop consolidation in the square. I see no need for the two inbound Washington/Poplar/Corinth St. stops.
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Yeah, the square could use some bus reconfiguration overall. The current Taft/South stop is bad for cars and bikes as well.
 
Take the Silver Line they say, quick and easy. Thanks, I'm still driving.
 
I take the Silver Line from the airport multiple times per year since it opened and have always gotten on without crowding issues and never waited 5 minutes for people to board. Plus its free going into downtown. Plus there is the Blue Line. Paying to park at the airport is for suckers.
 
Anyone have any idea why Herald St, in particular, is so horribly congested every afternoon rush hour? The opposite direction streets, like Berkeley, are not nearly as bad in the morning.
 
DominusNovus said:
Anyone have any idea why Herald St, in particular, is so horribly congested every afternoon rush hour? The opposite direction streets, like Berkeley, are not nearly as bad in the morning.
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Berkeley traffic is dispersing into the city. Herald traffic is converging onto the single lane ramp for the gridlocked expressway.
 
DominusNovus said:
Anyone have any idea why Herald St, in particular, is so horribly congested every afternoon rush hour? The opposite direction streets, like Berkeley, are not nearly as bad in the morning.
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Because the Southeast Expressway is woefully under-built for the volume of cars it needs to handle. It also doesn't help that the "frontage roads" are also too narrow and poorly laid out.
 
stevebikes said:
Here's a bit of a Twitter thread I did about one problem with it:

https://twitter.com/stevebikes/status/1019998843910414337
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Must be a city hall thing because on the other side there is a weird semi signaled cross walk from City Hall to Faneuil Hall across Congress. There is a light at the stop light in the northbound direction but none in the south bound. When I walk across here I never know how cars are supposed to know to stop.
I suppose on the southbound side the typical unsignaled cross walk rules apply?
 
Not sure if this the right thread, but Im sitting in the cell lot at Logan right now and can’t get over how much of the traffic is made up of busses between the Massport shuttles, Silver Line, private lot shuttles, and private coach busses. This might be overanalyzing the situation, but its really sending home the (correct) message that driving your car through here is a pain and that taking transit is so much more efficient.

My hot take/question is if seperating these services into decicated ROWs or building some of the crazy pitches of looping rail service would end up encouraging more drivers doing pickup/drop off and end up creating more congestion by making it “easier” and less “crowded” on the roads around the airport while keeping the same tiny cell lots and pick up areas.
 
cbrett said:
Not sure if this the right thread, but Im sitting in the cell lot at Logan right now and can’t get over how much of the traffic is made up of busses between the Massport shuttles, Silver Line, private lot shuttles, and private coach busses. This might be overanalyzing the situation, but its really sending home the (correct) message that driving your car through here is a pain and that taking transit is so much more efficient.

My hot take/question is if seperating these services into decicated ROWs or building some of the crazy pitches of looping rail service would end up encouraging more drivers doing pickup/drop off and end up creating more congestion by making it “easier” and less “crowded” on the roads around the airport while keeping the same tiny cell lots and pick up areas.
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The Massport shuttle buses already took all of the rental car buses off the road. They're trying to address the bus issue and have already made tremendous progress!
 
cbrett said:
Not sure if this the right thread, but Im sitting in the cell lot at Logan right now and can’t get over how much of the traffic is made up of busses between the Massport shuttles, Silver Line, private lot shuttles, and private coach busses. This might be overanalyzing the situation, but its really sending home the (correct) message that driving your car through here is a pain and that taking transit is so much more efficient.

My hot take/question is if seperating these services into decicated ROWs or building some of the crazy pitches of looping rail service would end up encouraging more drivers doing pickup/drop off and end up creating more congestion by making it “easier” and less “crowded” on the roads around the airport while keeping the same tiny cell lots and pick up areas.
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Busses are one thing, but actually enforcing no waiting curbside to pickup passengers would really help out. I am not sure if it was just State Police Troop F retaliating to the investigators looking into their books, but a few weeks ago, I had to pick someone up from the airport it was an utter mess.

My wife and I were picking up our niece from the airport at terminal C. The line to get to terminal C was past the entrance to terminal B. Cars and busses could not even exit terminal B because the exit was blocked by two lines of cars trying to enter C. I dropped my wife at the terminal so she could meet our niece at luggage area. There had been thunderstorms earlier in the day, so there were a ton of delays.

At the curbside pickup, the sidewalks were packed with people waiting for cars, that could not get to them because all the spots were taken by people in cars waiting for passengers that had yet to arrive. No one was telling the cars to move and the drivers were just sitting in their cars. I drove to the cell lot and head back once my wife and niece got the luggage. Low and behold, a good 15 minutes later, a number of the same cars were still waiting at the terminal curbside, occupying spots for pickups.

Working on more efficient bus setup would definitely help, but if cars picking up passengers are clogging the roads, the busses are still stuck in traffic.
 
@Boston85, I had a very similar experience on two recent trips to pick up my daughter at Logan. Definitely something is very wrong with how vehicle logistics are being handled at the moment.
 
For one thing, you don't need state police to wave at people to "move along." They should be paying teenagers or 20-somethings $10 per hour and have a whole army of them moving traffic and giving directions to travelers.
 
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