Seaport Transportation

This is an op ed by someone who really doesn't understand nuts and bolts but loves grand schemes.

As far as I can tell there are only three viable options for improving seaport transportation:
- bus lanes with reconfigured bus routes. Cheap and effective for the short term at least.
- reroute the Red Line further east. More expensive but very effective. This was part of the original Transitway study back in the late 80s or early 90s (not sure on the date).
- connect the Green Line to the Silver Line and use the SL tunnel for dual modes. More expensive than anyone wants to admit but would be a total game changer. I know we've discussed the myriad different ways this could happen in the Green Line thread so let's not bother with the details here.
 
Even converting the Silver Line tunnel to light rail (with Airport/Chelsea buses rerouted to the surface or given guidance equipment to increase tunnel speeds) without a connection to the Green Line would be a huge boon. A 72-foot Green Line car has about twice the passenger capacity of a 60-foot bus; using multiple-car trains or longer cars (most modern light rail vehicles have multiple models, which can be 100+ feet longer) would increase this even further.

You're still dependent on the Red Line connection at South Station, but you could get easily 2-3 times the capacity from the tunnel for a modest expense. Figure two dozen cars at $5M apiece, laying rail in the tunnel, separating D Street, laying rail + overhead for the SL2, and a maintenance yard (even if the biggest maintenance involves truck over to Riverside)... you're probably looking at $200M to $250M to conversion, plus you need to have buses capable of running with guidance and on battery in the tunnel.

But that's an order of magnitude smaller than connecting to the Green Line (which you can do as Phase 2) and something that can be done with zero surprises and relatively little opposition. Just run SL buses on the surface during the brief period where you're laying rail and separating D Street.
 
I've posted something similar before regarding BRT routes:

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This is a Seaport-centric BRT plan linking to Back Bay, North Station and beyond, residential Southie and Dudley. It hinges on a series of transfers at Dewey Square (South Station). Under this plan, the current SL would still likely be the best transfer for Red Line commuters, but obviously a lot of capacity would be freed up. Also, SL would still be the best airport route from South Station.

Doubling up on routes along the Greenway makes that into a major transit corridor like the old El, making transfers from BL and OL very quick and easy.

Some BRT lanes would need to be counterflow, but otherwise this corresponds well to the grid. The Dudley line in particular utilizing the Haul Road will be a very quick express.
 
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It would never be implemented properly. No way they actually take away general travel lanes on the surface roads used by rush hour suburban commuters in favor of bus-only lanes for intra-urban travellers. Cheap and easy is great unless it really means "done half-assed so as to not upset rush hour, single-occupancy drivers".
 
^ Yes. It can't be done half-assed. You'd need to majorly sacrifice some car lanes on each of these key corridors. For example: Copley-Back Bay-South Station-Seaport ... how long should this take? At rush hour with no signal priority and dismal separation, probably 30-40 minutes, in other words, not competitive with a transfer to red then transfer to silver (although still close). But, with the right implementation, it could be 10-15 minutes. Literally. That's a game changer.

To give a sense for how this would enhance connectivity across the network:

uWfjIii.png
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Like it. Why not also:

-Extend from Dudley to rox/ruggles (or even over Mission Hill to Brigham circle) and let the 15/23/28/66 use the lane too
-Extend from NS to Charles mgh to take a little traffic out of park st.yw
 
Here's a question. I kept this localized in Boston, not extending to Cambridge, for a reason: could City of Boston fund, build and operate this separately from the MBTA while also accepting Charlie/transfers and fare remits? MassDOT/MBTA would obviously never get this done. I could see Boston fast-tracking this.
 
Shepard said:
^ Yes. It can't be done half-assed. You'd need to majorly sacrifice some car lanes on each of these key corridors. For example: Copley-Back Bay-South Station-Seaport ... how long should this take? At rush hour with no signal priority and dismal separation, probably 30-40 minutes, in other words, not competitive with a transfer to red then transfer to silver (although still close). But, with the right implementation, it could be 10-15 minutes. Literally. That's a game changer.

To give a sense for how this would enhance connectivity across the network:

uWfjIii.png
[/IMG]
Click to expand...

I have to admit, I cannot even begin to imagine getting the political will lined up to sacrifice all those car travel lanes. We cannot even keep the current bus lane on Essex Street clear.

I have to believe that the routing to Back Bay would be enormously contentious. (I am certain others would be as well). Most of the roads that are big enough to contemplate a bus lane are already totally clogged at rush hour because they are Expressway and Turnpike feeders (and not by many drivers that would use these bus routes), and often already have parking restrictions.
 
The T should construct a surface BRT loop in the Seaport district and South Boston to improve transit in the area. The loop could run from South Station on Summer St into the Seaport District and connect to East and West Broadway in South Boston. It could then run into the South End on 4th Street/East Berkeley St., and circle back towards South Station on Washington and Essex Streets. This configuration would provide an easier connection to the Green Line from the Seaport, and it would provide more options for people who need to get to South Boston or the Seaport District from Downtown. In addition, it would be very cost effective to construct. If Broadway is too crowded to accommodate this, then the south Boston portion of the loop could also run on East and West First Street, as it is becoming more developed. This could allow the First Street right of way to be developed more explicitly for BRT.
 
Shepard said:
Here's a question. I kept this localized in Boston, not extending to Cambridge, for a reason: could City of Boston fund, build and operate this separately from the MBTA while also accepting Charlie/transfers and fare remits? MassDOT/MBTA would obviously never get this done. I could see Boston fast-tracking this.
Click to expand...
Cool, but do show Silver Line Gateway to Airport Blue and Chelsea.
 
JeffDowntown said:
I have to admit, I cannot even begin to imagine getting the political will lined up to sacrifice all those car travel lanes. We cannot even keep the current bus lane on Essex Street clear.
Click to expand...

I'm not buying the pessimism. Look what Everett did with its temporary parking ban, discussed over on the BRT thread. And anyway, let's look at this line by line:

1) Navy Yard to South Station via Greenway: I see no issues. The Greenway should have had BRT from its inception. With 4-6 surface lanes and 6-8 highway lanes, yeah, this corridor can spare a few feet of road surface. Also, the new Charlestown bridge will have dedicated bus lanes, and Chelsea Street adjacent to the Navy Yard probably wouldn't need them.

2) North Station to Beach via South South Station and Summer: L Street in Southie is the only 'politically' killer stretch. I'd do here what Everett did on Broadway.

3) Back Bay to Drydock via Seaport Blvd: Definitely more complicated getting from South Station to Back Bay, but there are creative routings along broader streets - for example, Kneeland/Stuart to a St James and Stuart parallel pairing. But I'd also add that when the pike gets on/off ramps in the Back Bay, this BRT route would have a ready made express.

4) Dudley to Drydock via Melnea Cass and Haul Road: Probably no issues whatsoever, except the need for signal priority around 93. And a complete game changer for Dudley to have such quick access to the Seaport.
 
Shepard said:
Here's a question. I kept this localized in Boston, not extending to Cambridge, for a reason: could City of Boston fund, build and operate this separately from the MBTA while also accepting Charlie/transfers and fare remits? MassDOT/MBTA would obviously never get this done. I could see Boston fast-tracking this.
Click to expand...

This is a prime example on why I believe that Boston/Boston Metro should really go down the path that London did with creating Transport for London. Let Boston and Boston Metro control it's own transportation without the red tape on needing to worry about what MassDOT has to say or approve
 
Shepard said:
I'm not buying the pessimism. Look what Everett did with its temporary parking ban, discussed over on the BRT thread.
Click to expand...
Pessimists should explain who are the people who drive an SOV on these roads at rush hour? And how did this small number of people come to matter politically? (and what's the evidence they are still to be feared?)

My guess is rich execs who live in Lexington, Weston, Melrose or Milton. Are these the big donors to Mayoral campaigns?

Property owners may get an earful from the top execs of their tenants, but in due time the execs will hear from the rank and file that they like the buses. Or let cabs/limos/chauffeurs use them as HOV-2 lanes, which would divide and conquer top black-car-driven execs from drive-alone execs.

We do know from research by William Whyte that execs play a huge/oversize/biased role in determining where offices are located (they shorten their own commutes), but bus lanes are not going to "un-center" the Boston CBD.
 
Is there any reason that BRT and LRT vehicles couldn't share the transitway tunnel? Seattle has a shared tunnel and it works okay.
 
It would work fine. The Harvard Sq. bus tunnel used to be a shared tunnel. Seattle's also works great.
 
FWIW, the SL1 was absolutely crushed today :(

Being a victim of your own success can be a badge of pride for a little while for a while, but someone needs to make a procurement and fast. Are there more buses on the way?
 
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