Seaport Transportation

whighlander said:
..are still hooked on a technology which was born about when Edison invented the Lightbulb and Bell the Telephone and had antecedents back to James Watt
Click to expand...

You say that like it's a bad thing....
 
CSTH said:
You say that like it's a bad thing....
Click to expand...

CSTH -- No not intrinsically -- it just has to be put in the proper context

The design of rail systems are a direct evolution from the challenge and response from the first systems --- thus you had to pull from the front because the steam boiler was very very heavy and also the steam lines had to be kept short -- so all the motive power was up front with the boiler. Note that even as electric and then diesel-electric replaced steam -- the pull from the front mostly stayed.[

Because you had the huge mass up front to make the system cost-effective you just kept on stringing cars behind -- Thereby forcing everyone to go everywhere the loco went. There was however, the abortive experiment with single cars and internal combustion engines [Bud Liner]. Some of the CR system evolved to the point that individual cars or sets of cars collected their own electricity and had their own motors [e.g. Metro North]

Today, on most rail lines it hardly makes sense to have lots of cars pulled from the front. And if you are going to power them individually by electricity, or even small high performance internal combustion engines -- then why bother to connect them together. The Combination of GPS and modern communications can enable you to use the network much more efficiently with the addition of some passing sidings or even station bypasses.

Likewise, why force people to crowd onto a small number of large vehicles, when individual or "custom -routed" pods, or moving walkways might be superior for less dense routes or shorter high density routes

Technology has so changed the world of control and sensing that you can easily package the basic controls, communications and navigation and most of everything you need to run a vehicle into an Iphone or similar package. What it takes to control a single pallet on a linear motor moving walkway can be packaged into a Fitbit watch.
 
bakgwailo said:
The first moving sidewalk debuted in 1893, and, I am sure, just like rail (and automobiles from the 1870s onward, and their prototypes before that) they have progressed in technology over the years - just like the light bulb and telephone has. That said a giant collection of underground moving sidewalks for seaport transportation and north/south linkage seems, well, as asinine as a monorail, or PRT solutions. It is kind of amazing how much current tech (including GPS) are just improvements on ideas/methods from hundreds to thousands of years ago. Then again I don't take either GPS or Wifi for granted, and I am very well aware of how they work.
Click to expand...

Bakgwalo -- and the reason why -- "underground moving sidewalks for seaport transportation and north/south linkage seems, well, as asinine as...." would be ???
https://youtu.be/ygbfFOHD-8w?t=53
 
Vertex joining the Seaport Shuttle program.

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2017/01/19/seaport-traffic-gets-dose-of-relief-as-vertex.html

The article headline is a little confusing as I don't think it will relieve much traffic. The issue in the Seaport isn't too many shuttle buses. But if these shuttles run more frequently to each company, e.g. every 5 minutes at rush hour at each company vs. a company's own shuttles coming every 20 minutes, that could be a big win and convince some people to shift to public transit. If anyone knows details of how it works, that would be appreciated.
 
JohnAKeith said:
... shift to public transportation? What do you mean?
Click to expand...

the shuttle runs to commuter rail.

Big problem with 2 seat rides are the connections. When you can wait up to 20 minutes for a shuttle bus, that makes it take significantly longer/variable. High frequency shuttle service between commuter rail and the Seaport can shift people from 90 or 93 onto commuter rail. That's less people driving into the Seaport. Obviously, people can take the Silver Line from South Station as well, but with it at crush capacity using the current vehicles, high frequency shuttles would be a useful supplement.

I should note, when you posted about the shuttles on UHub almost 2 years ago, [Ari Ofsevit said the same thing](http://www.universalhub.com/2015/mcca-offers-shuttle-seaport-employees#comment-428071), if this increases frequency over the company shuttles, it can be a major win. Headways matter a lot for mode share.

It is not clear to me whether they actually are using this to improve headways, but that is what I would do if I was in charge. I certainly hope they are.

(As for whether to call this itself public transit, that's debatable, but its not personal transit and it connects people to commuter rail, which is definitely public transit)
 
Yeah, the idea that private companies are getting (literally) a free ride from the Convention Center has irked some people.

Seaport transportation:

Rich people: drive
Middle-income people: private shuttle
Low-income, hourly workers, visitors: Silver Line (it's a bus), or walk
 
JohnAKeith said:
Yeah, the idea that private companies are getting (literally) a free ride from the Convention Center has irked some people.

Seaport transportation:

Rich people: drive
Middle-income people: private shuttle
Low-income, hourly workers, visitors: Silver Line (it's a bus), or walk
Click to expand...

Drive? I thought the really rich people were getting a heliport.
 
Hey remember when we were going to get a commuter rail spur to the BCEC?

Did that plan finally get put out of our misery?

Did it finally dawn on them that going to all that trouble to drop a station where it wouldn't be useful to the rest of the neighborhood, might not be the best idea?
 
JohnAKeith said:
Yeah, the idea that private companies are getting (literally) a free ride from the Convention Center has irked some people.

Seaport transportation:

Rich people: drive
Middle-income people: private shuttle
Low-income, hourly workers, visitors: Silver Line (it's a bus), or walk
Click to expand...

As someone who assumed this was funded by the companies utilizing it, I agree that this is bullshit.
 
it is funded by the companies/building owners and the MCCA is making money off of the service.
 
As of now, I think the companies are getting a free ride? I think the idea is that MCCA will be charging. At least in "trials", PoC was getting the ride for free.
 
from BBJ article last week:
The MCCA receives funding for the service from the management companies that run the participants’ buildings, according to Folk

I remember reading an article in the fall that the MCCA was actually turning a profit contracting out the service.
 
So how often does each/all MCCA busses actually run?
On what routes?
Does it actually move at average speeds faster than walking from Seaport to South Station?

Whether operated by MCCA, individual employers, or MBTA, the Seaport needed to have any or all of:

- Parking bans at rush times 6a - 10a / 4p - 6p
- HOV (bus) lanes
- bus routes that extend to Blue/Green/Orange/NS
 
My understanding (my wife takes this shuttle) is that in the morning the bus runs from North Station to State Street (to pick up the Blue Line) and then on into the Seaport. In the evening it runs from the Seaport to Aquarium and then on to North Station. The main purpose of the bus is to pick up Green Line, Blue line, Orange Line and North Station commuters (so that they can avoid the transfer to red and then to silver).

I do not believe there is a shuttle from South Station to the Seaport (but I could be wrong).
 
BBJ article (the 4 buildings are referencing Fan Pier buildings):
The agency services all four buildings using six buses, Folk said. If the buildings operated their own shuttles, they would need a total of 18 buses, he said. In addition to cost savings, one of the MCCA’s main pitches to businesses has been that its consolidated shuttle service will help alleviate the traffic problems in the neighborhood by taking dozens of shuttle buses off the roads. The MCCA shuttles run roughly every 10 minutes from North and South stations during morning and afternoon rush hour, which is more frequent than the buildings’ previous shuttles ran, Folk said.
Up to 1,200 riders per day now use the service, most of them to and from North Station, since at the moment Vertex’s headquarters is the only other stop on the South Station route, according to Folk. The agency is trying to interest the other businesses in the South Station route, he said.
 
^ I guess I don't understand the South Station Route. Isn't that the job of the Silver Line? Do we just need more frequent SL2 runs so the busses are not packed by Logan passengers?
 
^ And or a 'Logan Express South Station' working the HOV lane?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top