Redesign the Urban Ring

^ I would count Hudson-Bergen (jurisdictions don't matter). Other than a short stretch through JC, however, this is hardly an example of neighborhood-centered Parisian transit. Most of the line (at least on the stretch I've taken from Bayonne to the backside of Hoboken) is in old rail corridors on the edge of neighborhoods.
 
There was actually a plan put out but the RPA (Regional Planning Association) that envisioned an urban ring for New York that used a lot of freight trackage. It didn't make too much sense to me since it didn't go through any employment centers.

The G does, however, and is the redheaded step child of the system. It always runs under capacity and has had service cut back in recent years (though they will be expanding service in Brooklyn soon.) If they extended it to La Guardia Airport then I think there would be a massive boost in ridership.

This is an example of an urban arc since it only goes from Brooklyn to Queens, and is also why I didn't think a singular urban arc would work in Boston (if it isn't working that well in NY.)
 
The G's lesson might be that serving a number of neighborhood destinations with a crosstown subway is a bad idea. The line connects two major employment centers (one in Queens and the other in downtown Brooklyn), but intercepts only one subway line in between. The 9 other intermediate stops slow the service down to the point that passengers originating in Queens trying to get to Brooklyn are usually better off staying on the E, V or R and riding all the way through Manhattan (w/ transfers where necessary). When you add in the fact that the G serves the periphery of downtown Brooklyn's business district (IIRC), it's easy to see why this service is underutilized. Eliminating 5 or 6 intermediate stops and including a JMZ transfer would help a lot.
 
belmont square said:
By the way, what is NYC doing on this front?
Click to expand...
#7 Extension

2nd. Ave. subway.

Both serve employment centers and residential. #7 is future residential and employment --a line to a present-day wasteland.
 
My bad. My question was in response to your advocating for AdamBC's alignment that did not serve any major employment centers. IMO Midtown and Lower Manhattan are major employment centers, whereas the corners of Holton and Franklin streets in Allston or E 8th and L Street in Southie are not. I thought you were thinking about a service similar to the G.
 
In terms of stations in residential vs commercial areas, I think that you have to think of the Urban Ring working in conjunction with the other lines as opposed to a stand alone in that most trips will probably include a transfer. With that in mind, I think residential vs commercial is moot; we'd be much much much better served if we simply focused on opening up areas that are currently underserved. The Gateway and South Bay Centers, Union and Inman Squares, Everett, Chelsea, Charlestown (actual 'hood, not along the highway), Dorchester, and Roxbury all fit that criteria.
 
Many of those areas are underdeveloped, but Inman Square is quite crowded and full and just fine as it is. I'd love to see it get a T station, but I'd hate to see any large-scale redevelopment there, beyond the one or two parking lots along Hampshire St.
 
^I totally agree about Inman, that's why I called it underserved and not underdeveloped.
 
^ I wouldn't mind seeing the dead dead stretch of suburban residential Cambridge Street between Harvard and Inman transformed by intense redevelopment...
 
A lot of that stretch is hospitals and medical offices and Cambridge's high school and (further west) Harvard academic buildings; those aren't going anywhere. And I like that neighborhood the way it is.
 
I don't. It's a dull, dark walk, and it's the number one location for muggings in that half of Cambridge. It's one of Jane Jacobs' grey areas, where car ownership and use is frustrating but walking even more so.
 
I guess tastes just differ. I find it a pleasant walk. Google Map says the distance from Harvard Square to Inman Square is 1.1 miles, but it's actually a bit less on foot since you can't drive diagonally through Harvard Yard.
 
Too narrowly constricted. Overprivileges relatively loose-populated residential areas (Charlestown, Southie) over major employment centers (Harvard, Longwood).
 
I've been working for days on a routing for my urban ring in my little dream-world MBTA. Just wanted to post it.

http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...34766256038742.000483372f2e2d6aca853&t=h&z=10

It's intended to be heavy rail (I would accept nothing less).

I would post just the ring portion, but then you'd probably wonder it runs Harvard-Porter-Davis when the Red Line already does, but I removed the Red Line there, though, so it made more sense to show the whole thing.

Also, sorry, no markers for stops, but I'm sure you can figure most of it out.


OH, and I think the ring should be Silver, of course. Save the colors for spokes. And I was going to use Gold for the "inner" ring, but since they converge in Everett all the way to the airport, and also share the Everett Branch, it was a bit pointless. I may use Gold for some sort of core-area arc/ring, though.
 
We could tear down all the tripple deckers, two and single family homes and start building some high density housing. (It's a fanasty world after all)
 
Why reroute the Red Line to West Cambridge and some point north of downtown Watertown? This isn't a very dense area, and the 71 trolleybus serves the Harvard-Watertown Sq route pretty effectively.

And what's with the northern Brown Line branch basically shadowing the Green Line into East Cambridge?
 
The brown line could keep going a few blocks down Cambridge St. and meet up with the other lines in Inman Square.

I like that's it's almost Paris level subway saturation. The T as it is couldn't support much more density then we have now.
 
It's an incomplete map. The only thing complete really is the Urban Ring (except I'm considering an inner-to-outter connector from Inman to Harvard), every other line still needs fixes and reroutings.

The "Waverly" Branch is incomplete, and was going to go up Trapelo Rd and have a park&ride at the junction of Rt2 and Rt128. I stopped because I figured the distance from Waverly to the junction was too great and there was no population, so the Waltham Branch of the Blue Line will become the Red Line branch via Harvard. The only reason I even made it is because I didn't have the heart to leave Harvard and Central without a line into downtown.

The Brown Line (will likely end up using black for trolleys since brown is "ew") has seen hardly any work at all. The only thing for certain with it is Boylston to Dudley, Boylston to Kenmore, and Lechmere to Inman. I'm considering the C line picks up BC and the B line is up in the air.
 
I like the extension of the Mattapan line to Roslindale, but am I reading this right, did you eliminate the South Shore Red Line?

[edit]
Okay, I see what you did, you just rerouted it a bit.
 
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