General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Was looking at the MBTA job openings, and it seemed like there's no jobs to develop employees and a shitload of openings for every kind of management role. Seems really shortsighted
 
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.

https://imgur.com/a/d6TERUJ

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.
 
Delvin4519 said:
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.

https://imgur.com/a/d6TERUJ

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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
JeffDowntown said:
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.
Click to expand...

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?
 
JeffDowntown said:
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.
Click to expand...

stick n move said:
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?
Click to expand...

Yea. It's crazy to me how many say Boston is one of the more walkable cities, up near the top with NYC and Chicago. Some same Boston is wayyy more walkable than other US cities like Houston, Phoenix, and whatnot. The same is said with Boston's MBTA transit system pre-COVID, that the MBTA network pre-pandemic was one of the best in the US & Canada.

I still feel though Boston is still orders of magnitude behind European cities, especially those found in the Netherlands. The only really pedestrianized area in Boston is surrounded by a vertical office park, where now 50% are still working from home post-pandemic. Plus, cars still dominate the area. It's crazy to me how Boston's freedom trail that extends northwards past North End into Charlestown and the Navy Yard is horribly almost completely car dependent now. MBTA transit pre-pandemic may have been better than other US cities, but it's magnitudes far behind those in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, or London/Paris.

Even pre-pandemic, wait times for MBTA buses were still kinda long. 20-30 minutes on a weekday afternoon for non key routes like the 69, 87, 88, 92, or 93 buses, whatnot. I would be transferring from the MBTA's Green Line, which was meh/fine back then, and it'd be a long transfer. It'd be almost the same time as the whole Green Line ride, just waiting for a transfer for a bus connection. That anetode of easy and fast connections of trains in the Netherlands makes me very jealous.

There's a lot of work to do to fix Boston's MBTA transit system, but I think it's going to take decades/lifetime of commitment to fix. I came across the article that the MBTA is horribly understaffed and needs to hire 2,800 workers in the next 12 months. Reading through myself, it's quite demoralizing.

www.wbur.org

Report shows 'stunning' MBTA labor shortage

A new analysis by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundations suggests that the MBTA looks to be on track to start the next fiscal year with staffing levels 20 to 25% below what's required to maintain the system, and it would need to hire 2,800 workers in the next year to ensure safety and progress.
www.wbur.org www.wbur.org

I think the Netherlands is very interesting country, I've never been there yet. I've only heard about it through Not Just Bikes & Strong Towns. They have lots and lots of bikes, and a decent bus and train network.

I should probably make a dedicated thread "Not Just Bikes & Strong Towns | Stories of Great Dutch Cities & Planning/Building Better US Cities". A thread dedicated to discussing, well, experiences and stories of great urban planning/cities in the Netherlands, as well as discussion of the Strong Towns concepts/approach to building better cities in the US/Canada. NJB (Not Just Bikes) discusses Strong Towns a lot, so I think they go hand and hand.
 
stick n move said:
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?
Click to expand...
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.
One of the things that I really liked about Rotterdam's metro is that it used high floor LRT type cars, and like the blue line here, some used both third rail and overhead power as well. Same thing with Frankfurt. I'm honestly starting to look at moving back to Europe because I'm done with trying to get ahead here and the cost of everything.
 
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.
 
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Blackbird said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
bigeman312 said:
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.
Click to expand...

There was a little stupidity involved on my part.

My usual route into town would be taking the 100 bus to Wellington and getting on the OL. But because it’s only running to North Station right now, my phone told me to take the 96 to Porter and get on the red line. I was waiting at the stop and ProximiT was saying the bus wouldn’t come for another half hour, so I got on the 94 instead because the sign showed it was going to Davis. On the way, it passed by the new Tufts green line stop. I thought “this will get me to Park Street, and I haven’t had a chance to ride the new extension yet”. So I got off the bus and onto the green line. It wasn’t until it started rolling that it was announced the train wouldn’t be going past North Station. At this point it was 4:45pm. I left my house at 4pm and had to be at Tremont and Boylston at 5:15pm. So, I got off at Ball Square and called the Lyft.

I really should’ve known that if the orange line wasn’t running through downtown, the green line wouldn’t be either. Especially since I follow this board. But I forgot in the moment. I did check how far of a walk it would be from North Station to Boylston Street Station, and it was ~25min. I wasn’t optimistic that the shuttle from North Station to Gov Center followed by getting back on the green line would be a quick process either.
 
I think that the new GM, Phillip Eng is going to have his hands full with all of the crap he'll have to deal with tomorrow when he comes to work!! I think that he's gonna have to shake up employees & whip them into shape. We'll see how his first day goes. :eek:
 
Wonder how the new GM's first day on the job went. Anyone know? :unsure: :)
 
Jahvon09 said:
Wonder how the new GM's first day on the job went. Anyone know? :unsure: :)
Click to expand...

Tweet from MBTA about it:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1645912144486039555

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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!

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