Mass. transportation planning until 2030's

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Digital_Islandboy

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Just a heads-up everyone, Central Transportation Planning (CTPS) is putting out their proposal for the state's future transportation investment. It covers roughly the next 20 years. I believe they still have a span of time for people to look it over an submit comments, or attend meetings about these future projects.

*Journey To 2030
 
Seems to be a lot of road improvements which is something the state really needs. I like the fact that many of the projects have a bike lane component. Also the transit projects are the big names: Green Line, Red-Blue Connector, Fairmont, Fall River/New Bedford, Parking, etc. It seems to be really stripped down compared to the last CTPS report (which I based my original maps on). Even with this, how can the state find the money? Bonds? Taxes? It's not like they are building a casino here.
 
What really scares me is that the state doesn't seem to really care about finding a financing solution for the T. The mounds of debt are only growing and no one really seems concerned.

Why can't we be like other cities and impose a temporary sales tax to pay for projects before we build them. .05% in Boston to go towards the red/blue connector. .05% in Somerville/Medford for the Greenline. This seems to be how other cities are doing it. It won't solve all the financial problems, but it seems to make sense to at least have a funding mechanism before starting selling another couple $Billion bonds.
 
The 93/95 interchange in Woburn has been in the works since 02. The DOT (or whatever did that back in 02) came out w/ a plan. It involved big fly-overs and taking of properties in Stoneham, Woburn, and Reading to do it. This caused a major backlash and since then there have been many meetings and revisments. I think the new versions will take little to no homes.

One thing that came accross my mind was how much longer will the Tobin be sctructurally sound?
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
Also the transit projects are the big names: Green Line, Red-Blue Connector, Fairmont, Fall River/New Bedford, Parking, etc. It seems to be really stripped down compared to the last CTPS report (which I based my original maps on). QUOTE]

The document linked here is the federally required 20 year regional transportation plan. It is constrained to projected revenues over the 20 year period. Perhaps your map was based on the Program for Mass Transportation (http://www.ctps.org/bostonmpo/4_resources/1_reports/1_studies/3_transit/pmt.html) which evaluates potential projects without considering the availability of funds.
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What part of the 93/95 interchange needs replacing? I don't think any of the bridges are that old yet.
 
Ron Newman said:
What part of the 93/95 interchange needs replacing? I don't think any of the bridges are that old yet.
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The cloverleaf setup, it is an absolute disaster. Not that it's just a disaster in this spot, but I don't know any other spot where traffic is more screwed up by a single exit ramp than the 93-95 interchange. Hopefully it'll lead to the elimination of more major cloverleafs.
 
I don't think it's a replace because of decay thing. It's to increase capacity and saftey. Right now the onramps are real tight.
 
Is it a good idea to increase capacity, instead of adding more commuter rail service?
 
Ron Newman said:
Is it a good idea to increase capacity, instead of adding more commuter rail service?
Click to expand...

If you read the proposal there will also be transit mitigation, something about shuttles to the nearby rail station and more parking.
 
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