General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

I would say the Silver Line is officially 110% over capacity at this point. Took 5 full buses at rush hour to get picked up from Courthouse yesterday (because of rain). These MBTA inspectors just stand there with clipboards marking down how full the buses are. What do they do with these little data sheets? Just file them away and laugh?

Its faster and pretty much the same price just to Uber. Sorry car haters, the transit system in the Seaport is so terrible I'd rather Uber any day of the week.
 
I'm confused. My hate for cars means I want to make transit better, how does this conflict with your observation?
 
Solution: Congestion charges that both send feedback on the true value of a vehicle-lane-mile (limiting car trips), and whose proceeds are used to increase transit capacity (improving the quality of--and preference for--transit)
 
falcon42 said:
I would say the Silver Line is officially 110% over capacity at this point. Took 5 full buses at rush hour to get picked up from Courthouse yesterday (because of rain). These MBTA inspectors just stand there with clipboards marking down how full the buses are. What do they do with these little data sheets? Just file them away and laugh?

Its faster and pretty much the same price just to Uber. Sorry car haters, the transit system in the Seaport is so terrible I'd rather Uber any day of the week.
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The buses are packed because taking Uber is... faster? cheaper? better? That's a Yogi Berra-ism. Transportation mode-share always finds an equilibrium. If enough people got off the Silver Line and into Ubers, the Uber prices and traffic congestion would both go up and people would migrate back to the bus.

I'm not saying the Silver Line capacity is high enough enough, but don't be so quick to throw it under the bus (har har). It is worth pointing out that your specific complaint is about a rainy day when transit looks more attractive to people who might usually walk. You can't build enough transit capacity for rainy days (or special events or snow emergencies or whatever) without wasting money most other days.

No matter what, there is always going to be a time that the finite capacity of any transit line lets you down. For that matter, there is always a time when the finite capacity of a personal automobile will let you down. You don't commute in a 15 passenger van daily just because twice a year it is your turn to drive the soccer team to an away game.

(Although it seems a lot of people like to buy monstrous pickups and SUVs on the off chance that they might quit their office job and become a construction contractor at a moments notice.)
 
jass said:
The biggest issues with the fares are for families, especially on weekends.

$6.25 *4 * 2 = $50

Parking at Post Office Square on weekends = $9.00

It's a no-brainer.

You have to hate yourself to pay $50 for the luxury of enjoying a 3 hour headway.
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Who owns the Post Office Square Garage, the City? When the Aquarium Garage charges $38 how can the PO Garage charge so little?
 
Randomgear said:
Who owns the Post Office Square Garage, the City?
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The Post Office Square Garage is privately owned.

Randomgear said:
When the Aquarium Garage charges $38 how can the PO Garage charge so little?
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Basic supply and demand. There's very little demand for parking in PO Square on the weekends, but still a bunch of spaces. Thus, price falls. There's much more demand for parking at the Aquarium / Faneuil Hall on the weekends.
 
Randomgear said:
Who owns the Post Office Square Garage, the City? When the Aquarium Garage charges $38 how can the PO Garage charge so little?
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POS Garage is privately owned. The Aquarium Garage has a captive audience. My coworkers talk about their kids all the time, and when they visit the city, they want to have to walk with the kids for as little as possible. It's like herding cats.
 
So when Reebok adds a few thousand employees, then 121 Seaport opens with another 1-2 thousand employees, what is the MBTA's solution. Trust me, it will be a lot worse than a rainy day.

On a sunny day, it barely handles rush hour. And yes, count me as one of the many that sometimes walk out of the SL station and grab an uber after 15-20 mins of watching buses go by. Time has a value to it. If you get to a transit station at 530, you shouldnt have to wait until 6pm to just get picked up.
 
Ridership on the Fairmount Line has tripled since 2012:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...ZidBAtUIl4K/story.html?event=event25#comments

Proponents have long argued that the Fairmount Line needs to run more often, and more reliably, to attract riders. The study, done in conjunction with Nelson/Nygaard, a Boston transportation consulting firm, found that many riders use the line to move among city neighborhoods, in contrast to commuter rail lines that primarily connect the suburbs to downtown Boston.
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Re: Fairmount Line -

Even without NSRL and SS expansion, if the Needham Line were "rapid-transitized" (split and eaten by OL and GL), would you free up enough capacity at SS to run Fairmount on real rapid transit headways?
 
falcon42 said:
So when Reebok adds a few thousand employees, then 121 Seaport opens with another 1-2 thousand employees, what is the MBTA's solution. Trust me, it will be a lot worse than a rainy day.

On a sunny day, it barely handles rush hour. And yes, count me as one of the many that sometimes walk out of the SL station and grab an uber after 15-20 mins of watching buses go by. Time has a value to it. If you get to a transit station at 530, you shouldnt have to wait until 6pm to just get picked up.
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Unlike trains and the 12 year ordering process, you can place your order now and have it delivered by November.
 
falcon42 said:
So when Reebok adds a few thousand employees, then 121 Seaport opens with another 1-2 thousand employees, what is the MBTA's solution. Trust me, it will be a lot worse than a rainy day.

On a sunny day, it barely handles rush hour. And yes, count me as one of the many that sometimes walk out of the SL station and grab an uber after 15-20 mins of watching buses go by. Time has a value to it. If you get to a transit station at 530, you shouldnt have to wait until 6pm to just get picked up.
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Uber now and then is great. As Moms/Teachers ask: what if everyone chose to ride Uber?
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I feel like all of the people that whine about the T haven't actually tried to use other American transit systems that aren't NYC.
 
chmeeee said:
I feel like all of the people that whine about the T haven't actually tried to use other American transit systems that aren't NYC.
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*Bold mine

Every time somebody writes a sentence like this one, they find the need to add the "American". Nobody would do that talking about internet speeds, airports, highways, etc. Does it make it any better that a public transport system as imperfect as Boston is one of the best in the US?Does the best baseball team in France get brownie points, or is it still a really bad team?.

Boston in particular is competing in a global scale. Being one of the best public transportation systems in the US is not going to help if it is still shit.
 
Schorschico said:
*Bold mine

Every time somebody writes a sentence like this one, they find the need to add the "American". Nobody would do that talking about internet speeds, airports, highways, etc. Does it make it any better that a public transport system as imperfect as Boston is one of the best in the US?Does the best baseball team in France get brownie points, or is it still a really bad team?.

Boston in particular is competing in a global scale. Being one of the best public transportation systems in the US is not going to help if it is still shit.
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Eh, I don't know about that list. Internet infrastructure at least is pretty crap in the United States vs our peers.
 
chmeeee said:
I feel like all of the people that whine about the T haven't actually tried to use other American transit systems that aren't NYC.
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What systems? Those like St. Louis where the trains don't have to stop at lights? MetroLink doesn't have great frequencies and may not go where you want, but they have gates and don't put up with this nonsense that cars can have priority over light rail.
 
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