Five more years of the MBTA pretending that the Silver Line is real.
One thing that I particularly appreciated around Amsterdam was the tight coordination of the clock facing schedules of the regional rail. This meant you could connect not only at the Amsterdam Centraal station but also at outlying stations that served multiple lines. Literal precisely timed cross-platform transfers with zero waiting.I've been taking a break from following the news of our dysfunctional transportation system in Boston recently.
In the meantine, I did a analysis of public transit in a relatively large area in Europe, so I could have a frame of reference of what a functional transportation looks like, compared to the map of MBTA services I made a while ago of Boston.
I opted to analyze the public transit system in the area around Amsterdam, in Europe. This city has a size of about 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, compared to about 2.5 million residents who live inside Route 128/I-95 in the Boston area.
The analysis had to cover multiple transit agencies extending out to Rotterdam and Utrecht. This is due to the size of the MBTA service district, which extends out to Bedford, Beverly, Hingham, and Walpole, MA.
Anyhow, here is the map showing side by side comparison. I also have individual frames if that is easier.
I found that within the analyzed area in Europe, public transit agencies have a more standardized span of service, with almost universal use of clockface scheduling. This means that transit routes in the area run every 10, 15, 30, or 60 minutes. Each route has an identical span of service. This is espcially the case in Amsterdam, where every route runs between 7:45 a.m. and midnight Sundays, and longer the other days of the week.
The MBTA makes extensive use of irregular headways, and each bus route has wildly different span of service. The MBTA's 137 runs from 8am to 4pm Sundays, but the 90 bus doesn't even start until 11am, and the 64 bus stops running at 6:30 p.m. The 90 runs every 70 minutes, the 47 every 50, and the 9 bus is every 35 minutes. There is almost no use of clockface schedules at the MBTA, especially for bus routes.
The Boston area contains a large amount of sprawl. You can travel from Kenmore to Waltham, and the urban area just fades into a bunch of sprawl. For comparison, in Europe, one quickly hits rural areas, and independent villages before hitting another small city.
This also means the MBTA is constantly stretched thin with too many areas to serve with too many routes, with not enough vehicles or operators, which means spreading service thin.
One thing that I particularly appreciated around Amsterdam was the tight coordination of the clock facing schedules of the regional rail. This meant you could connect not only at the Amsterdam Centraal station but also at outlying stations that served multiple lines. Literal precisely timed cross-platform transfers with zero waiting.
One thing that I particularly appreciated around Amsterdam was the tight coordination of the clock facing schedules of the regional rail. This meant you could connect not only at the Amsterdam Centraal station but also at outlying stations that served multiple lines. Literal precisely timed cross-platform transfers with zero waiting.
My goal in life is to move to the netherlands. Ive never been there before though so it could just be my brain making it seem like an unrealistic utopia, but thats the way I feel. From an outside perspective they really seem to get the whole biking/public transit thing right and the built environments are just incredible. Plus it seems like it would be pretty chill living in a tiny little country thats not all up in everybodys shit all over the world and are just living the good life. Extra points because they seem to be one of the richer european countries thats not on a rightward shift lately too. One can dream right?
I lived in Germany for eight years, and frequently traveled to Amsterdam for work. The infrastructure is amazing, however I couldn't live in Amsterdam. Rotterdam on the other hand, it is amazing. Amazing architecture, amazing city, no potheads or tourists (for the most part) and one of the things that I love is the fact that the entire country works off the OV-chipkaart which I believe is being phased out for a new system. Oh, and they now have Taco Bell there so I'm all set.My goal in life is to move to the netherlands. Ive never been there before though so it could just be my brain making it seem like an unrealistic utopia, but thats the way I feel. From an outside perspective they really seem to get the whole biking/public transit thing right and the built environments are just incredible. Plus it seems like it would be pretty chill living in a tiny little country thats not all up in everybodys shit all over the world and are just living the good life. Extra points because they seem to be one of the richer european countries thats not on a rightward shift lately too. One can dream right?
Wanted to take public transit from my house in Medford to the Common today. Despite it being only a 20min drive, I decided to give myself 1hr 15min to get there to allow for delays and upsets.
I ended up having to give up and grab a Lyft part way through the trip, because I realized I was going to be late if I didn’t.
Ride ended up being like $20 after tipping. Between that and the train fare, I probably would’ve spent the same amount if I had stayed home for another hour and just taken a Lyft to begin with.
This is awful and unsurprising given that Boston does not have a functional mass transit system.
Were you attempting to take the Orange Line? Green Line? Commuter Raúl? Bus? Where did you bail? I’m always curious about these situations.
Wonder how the new GM's first day on the job went. Anyone know?
Not sure why this was a transfer from the Food Market to .. the BRA? Is this a (non)- tax write-off? LMFAOI was pumping iron while you were pumping irony.
Nero fiddling while Rome burns.
Anyway, a great way to start your new job with the MBTA - $155 million more in debt!
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I was pumping iron while you were pumping irony.
Nero fiddling while Rome burns.
Anyway, a great way to start your new job with the MBTA - $155 million more in debt!