Massachusetts - Greater Greater Washington

Map bus speeds

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 08:28:00 EDT

Using NextBus data, a cartographer built a constantly-updating map of how fast buses in Boston go. What would such a map here look like? (Atlantic Cities)

Comment

Vehicular cyclists fight bike lane

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:17:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Somerville, a city next to Boston, wants a protected bicycle lane, but residents who don't want to lose parking are getting help from die-hard vehicular cyclists who oppose any dedicated bicycle infrastructure. (Streetsblog)

Comment

Jury excuses killing cyclist

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:03:00 EDT

by David Alpert

A Massachusetts grand jury refused to indict a truck driver who killed a cyclist, despite video, witnesses, and the truck driver fleeing the scene. This may show a continued bias against cyclists in society. (Boston Globe)

Comment

Mendelson: "We're being too easy on drivers" who kill (Mar 22, 2010)
MPD unsuccessfully pursued charges in October 2008 death (Mar 25, 2010)
Bicycles, drivers, and pedestrians all have their reckless minority (Aug 17, 2009)
Halsey veers from bike tragedy to ethnic generalizations (May 24, 2010)
Ped/bike safety enforcement stories, part 1: Alice Swanson (Feb 7, 2011)

And...

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:28:00 EDT

by Thaddeus Bell

Justice Sotomayor chose U Street because it's "scruffy" like NYC's East Village. (DCist) ... Massachusetts considers taxing parking lots to fund transit. (Streetsblog) ... How about a Union Market-style "food destination" on Half Street in Near SE? (JDLand)

Comment

Sotomayor's eminent domain stance: What does it mean for cities? (May 29, 2009)
UFT still narrow-minded on parking (Jan 19, 2008)
UFT disappoints on parking (Jan 8, 2008)
Free parking near the Navy Yard given away to commuters (Sep 17, 2008)

And...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:34:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Don't be alarmed if you see people on Metro this weekend without pants. (Patch) ... The London Tube turned 150. (Atlantic Cities) ... Boston gives the food truck treatment to city hall services. (Atlantic Cities) ... SW Ecosdistrict gets OK from NCPC. (WTOP)

Comment

Travel-time maps show how time and distance relate (Nov 22, 2011)
Regional congestion relief for the cost of a latte (Mar 29, 2010)
NPS considers less traffic an "adverse effect" (Mar 31, 2008)
Cars vs. bikes (Jan 14, 2008)

A few cars have big impact

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 11:03:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

A study of Boston and San Francisco traffic showed that getting as few as 100 cars from specific neighborhoods off the road could dramatically reduce commute times. (WTOP)

Comment

Field report: San Francisco congestion pricing workshop (Aug 5, 2008)
Golden Gate congestion pricing out, performance parking in (Aug 20, 2008)
"BRT creep" makes bus rapid transit inferior to rail (Mar 9, 2011)
Freeways that never were (May 13, 2006)
Market-rate parking comes to SF. What can DC learn? (Apr 11, 2011)

And...

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 08:18:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

See the history of urban maps and diagrams that influenced cities for better or worse. (SPUR, David E.) ... One group recommends 12 ways that governments can make roads safer for pedestrians. (Green Car Congress) ... Learn the history of Boston's decision to stop all new highway building in 1972. (Boston Society of Architects, David P.)

Comment

Wear a helmet or you'll look like this

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:39:00 EDT

by Thaddeus Bell

Boston follows the style of anti-smoking campaigns with ads showing a bloodied face to convince cyclists to wear helmets. Does the ad do more to discourage biking or encourage helmet use? (Boston Biker)

Comment

Ask GGW: How do you prevent helmet hair? (Jul 23, 2012)
Women: How comfortable do you feel biking? (Mar 30, 2011)
Swanson tragedy almost repeated (Sep 5, 2008)

And...

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 08:42:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

The Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation swears off superhighways. (Streetsblog) ... Everything you wanted to know about ANCs but were afraid to ask. (RPUS) ... With climate change on the horizon, DC works to improve its levees. (Patch)

Comment

Romney's record on smart growth

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 08:28:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Mitt Romney has some impressive achievements in smart growth while he was governor of Massachusetts but since running for president he seems to have backed away from those policies. (Next American City)

Comment

Arlington explains Smart Growth (Sep 12, 2010)
Smart Growth America talks to Tommy Wells (May 9, 2012)
Arlington's Smart Growth Journey: What is Smart Growth? (Jun 11, 2009)
"We Are Smart Growth" (Aug 28, 2007)
Arlington's Smart Growth Journey: Introduction (Jun 4, 2009)

Boston "travel time" map shows the T in a new way

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:37:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Designer Peter Dunn created another fascinating transit map, which shows the Boston T based on the time it takes from downtown to other points:

Dunn previously made a travel time Metro map, and then when we talked about "spider maps" on Greater Greater Washington, put together one of those for the H Street neighborhood:

H Street "spider map." Click for full version (PDF).

Transit maps generally lay out the lines and stations either geographically, based on their actual location, or diagrammatically, which shows the connections in the network and organizes the lines to be simple and straight.

But there is more information which riders need to know. They include service frequency (how often trains or buses come), span of service (is this a rush hour only line? does it run on weekends?) and travel times. Frequent network maps, like Metro's geographic map or Dan Malouff's schematic version for Washington area buses, are one way to highlight frequent routes. This time travel map is a way to give more information about times and distances.

Left: Frequent network map by WMATA. Right: Schematic version by Dan Malouff.

Transit maps shape the way people see a city, and affect people's choices of how and where to travel. Experiments which add new information to maps or present information in a different way enrich our understanding of transit and create ideas which could make it into future generations of maps.

3 comments

Would personalized "spider maps" be useful for DC? (Aug 18, 2011)
London's spider maps (Sep 25, 2009)
WMATA creates 15-minute bus map (Nov 21, 2010)
Metro releases station-oriented bus maps (Aug 17, 2009)
People believe subway maps over reality (May 18, 2011)

Gas mileage performance parking?

Thu, 03 May 2012 08:21:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

A planned parking lot in Boston will give a 10% discount to hybrid and electric vehicles and charge 10% more for cars with poor gas mileage. It only has 12 spots total, though. (Co.Exist)

Comment

Terrible parking ideas come from Boston's "T" (Jan 6, 2011)
Testify to close the free-parking tax loophole (Jun 24, 2008)
Remove rush hour parking? Or allow parking all the time? (Jun 2, 2011)
Georgetown Post Office shows need for performance parking (Dec 8, 2010)
What to do for Car-Free Day? (May 28, 2008)

Vending machine serves up safety

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:26:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

A prototype vending machine lets bike sharing riders rent or buy helmets, and return them later for a partial refund. (Boston Globe)

Comment

Mickey on the Bikeshare (May 6, 2011)
American bike sharing systems more than doubled in 2011 (Dec 30, 2011)

Real-time data enables amazing Boston bus art

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:40:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Two self-described "cartography geeks" took publicly available real-time position data for Boston buses and created this image that's part map, part piece of art:

Image from Bostonography.

The image color-codes bus trips by their average speed. Buses are fastest on freeway segments, slower on most city streets, slowest in the dense neighborhood cores. Some of this is road speed, but buses also move more slowly in areas where there are more stops and more people boarding and alighting.

Since buses only report their location every few minutes and can't report inside tunnels, the bluest lines show up as fuzzier sets of spread-out lines.

WMATA created a similar, but more diagrammatic and less artistic, set of maps for DC buses:

Image from WMATA.

This is just one of the many applications people can create on their own, thanks to having open data publicly available. The more transit agencies provide, the more useful tools people can create, whether very practical mobile apps or beautiful and informative visualizations like this one.

4 comments

How fast is your bus? WMATA maps bus speeds (Jul 20, 2010)
Where's My Bus?: NextBus for Circulator (Jun 26, 2009)
Let's talk ideas for open transit data and maps (Jul 15, 2011)
WMATA will open up real-time data to developers (Jun 8, 2010)
New site lists open data apps, agencies (Dec 10, 2009)

Boston bits

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 10:14:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Hubway, Boston's bike sharing system, is exceeding expectations and has few problems. (Mobilizing the Region) ... Governor Deval Patrick has dismantled state Smart Growth functions that were instituted by his predecessor, Mitt Romney.

Comment

Economists for sprawl? (Jan 3, 2006)
Maryland and Virginia trade places (Dec 19, 2008)
They're smart up in Boston (May 20, 2005)
Maryland's missed opportunities (Feb 9, 2008)
Where's O'Malley? (Oct 16, 2008)

And...

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 12:53:00 EDT

by Eric Fidler

Delaware passed a 3-foot passing law. (Streetsblog) ... If US metro areas were countries, where would their economies rank? (Atlantic) ... Graffiti is growing nationwide. (Post) ... Launching bike sharing, Boston's mayor says "the car is no longer king." (WBUR)

Comment

Boston columnist wants bikes banned

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 15:02:00 EDT

by Eric Fidler

Just as Boston is rolling out its bike sharing system, a columnist wants all bikes banned in the city. Why? These "cavalier cyclists" get in the way of his car. (Boston Globe)

Comment

Weekend video: World's biggest bike share (Jun 5, 2011)
Metro needn't ban bikes all day on the 4th (Jul 2, 2010)
Mickey on the Bikeshare (May 6, 2011)
Boston's new planner not a fan of starchitecture (Jul 1, 2008)
Bike-o-Meter gives snapshot of bikesharing worldwide (Oct 30, 2010)

It's a wonderful community meeting

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:13:23 EDT

by David Alpert

Greater Greater Mom sent over this video from my hometown about the importance of participating in community meetings:

Want to see generous sidewalks, safe bicycle options, local retail, and avoid enormous big box parking lots? Whether you live in a big city or a small town, participate!

Via Patch.

3 comments

Weekend video: It's a wonderful city (Feb 12, 2011)
New event calendar (Mar 5, 2008)
Get involved this week in PG Co., Arlington, DC (Mar 31, 2008)
Terrible parking ideas come from Boston's "T" (Jan 6, 2011)
Two views on road safety from east of the river (Feb 7, 2011)

A greenway isn't enough

Mon, 16 May 2011 08:52:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Three years after burying a freeway, the parks Boston created are still pretty devoid of people, showing how it takes more than just creating "green space" to make successful urban parks. (Boston Globe)

Comment

New Haven next to boulevardize a freeway (Mar 28, 2008)
Boston's new planner not a fan of starchitecture (Jul 1, 2008)
Westwood Station (Jan 21, 2006)
Weekend video: Virginia Avenue park and garden (Jun 27, 2010)
Park(ing) at Sherman and Park (Jun 10, 2008)

CaBi's utility creates converts

Mon, 02 May 2011 08:28:00 EDT

by Erik Weber

It's people like Aaron Adkins, who more than cut his commute time in half, who have made Capital Bikeshare a rousing success. They're also likely to be the most powerful voices for its expansion. Boston is looking to DC for tips as it prepares to launch its own bike sharing system. (Boston Globe)

Comment

CaBi goes corporate, should consider Eco Pass model (Oct 26, 2010)
Buy a CaBi membership, donate to WABA (Apr 8, 2011)
Readers finding success bridging Metro gap with CaBi (Oct 10, 2010)
Capital Bikeshare introduces new 5-day pass (Mar 14, 2011)
Is your CaBi station getting full or empty? (Mar 23, 2011)

I'm an environmentalist but... around the nation

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:31:00 EDT

by David Alpert

What do Park Slope, Cape Cod and Berkeley have in common? Some of their generally very liberal residents nonetheless oppose green policies. DC's closest analogue is probably Klingle Valley. (NYT)

Comment

An environmentalist says Gray is greener (Sep 7, 2010)
DDOT presents Klingle trail progress (Dec 17, 2009)
Klingle rebuild probably dead (Apr 26, 2008)
I'm an environmentalist but... (May 9, 2008)
The blank wall today (Jan 2, 2008)

"BRT creep" makes bus rapid transit inferior to rail

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:08:00 EDT

by Dan Malouff

Can the US make Bus Rapid Transit work as well as Latin America? Tanya Snyder asks that question in GGW and Streetsblog.

Curitiba BRT station. Photo by whl.travel

BRT systems in places like Bogota and Curitiba have narrowed the gap between bus and rail, producing BRT lines nearly as good as subways. If they produce such great BRT, why should American BRT be considered the little sister of rail?

The answer is something I call "BRT creep". Putting aside the inherent differences between bus and rail, one of the big problems with BRT is that it's too easy to strip down. There are too many corners you can cut that save a lot of money and only degrade service a little bit.

You put your BRT in HOV lanes or regular travel lanes instead of dedicated lanes, or you build "stops" rather than more luxurious "stations", or you leave out pre-pay, or you don't give buses signal priority, or you don't give your BRT unique branding, or whatever. There are a thousand corners like that you can cut that individually may or may not hurt too much, but collectively add up to the difference between BRT and a regular bus.

In the US, BRT creep is a big problem. Generally speaking the main reason American cities opt to build BRT instead of rail is to cut a corner and make it less expensive. Once you've adopted that view of your transit system—that cutting corners to save money is OK—it's too easy to keep going and cut a lot of other corners as well. Once you've made the decision to cheap out and go with BRT rather than rail, then your priorities are clear and the temptation to cheap out in other ways is too strong to pass up.

It happens all the time. The four leading examples of recently-built BRT in the United States are in Boston, Cleveland, Eugene, and Los Angeles. Boston's Silver Line BRT was built with curbside bus lanes like the one on 7th Street in DC, and is perpetually stuck behind car traffic using the lane illegally. Cleveland's Euclid Avenue BRT spends half its time stopped at red lights because it doesn't include signal preemption.

Eugene's EmX BRT doesn't even have its own lane for much of its route. LA's San Fernando Valley Orange Line BRT is probably this country's most successful "rail like" bus line, but even it was forced to repave its running way after barely a year of operation because the originally-constructed running way was substandard. So far, every example of BRT built in the United States has cut at least one extremely damaging corner.

And then there's Northern Virginia, where the HOV lanes on I-395 and I-95 that the state wants to convert to HOT lanes were originally built as a bus-only facility. Here, we built a pretty good busway and have spent the years since opening it up to more and more use by cars.

And why not? After all, if your goal is to substitute a less expensive but less effective alternate mode, why should anyone be surprised when you make the same sort of substitution when it comes to details of running way engineering or signalization?

If BRT is just a way to avoid spending a lot on transit so more can go to highways, why be surprised when BRT lanes are converted to car lanes? If decision makers were actually interested in spending the money to produce a transit line as good as rail, well, why not build rail?

I don't mean to suggest that BRT alone suffers from these problems, or that it's useless. Certainly rail projects can suffer from creeping cost reductions as well, and certainly good buses—including rapid ones—should be a part of every major transit system.

Still, as long as US planners think of BRT as a cheap replacement for rail, then the US will be very unlikely to ever produce BRT that is actually rail-like (as much as it can be anyway), because that mindset inherently undervalues many of the specific features that are needed to produce a high-quality transit line, regardless of mode.

25 comments

Amid rail advocacy, are we neglecting bus projects? (Feb 3, 2009)
Buses and BRT: some facts (Dec 9, 2008)
Another ad denigrates transit (Mar 10, 2009)
Metro isn't always the best option for transit expansion (Sep 21, 2010)
Montgomery Council agrees on 270 widening, debates BRT versus light rail (Nov 10, 2009)

Snyder mad over parking revenue?

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 08:51:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Did Dan Snyder really decide to go after Dave McKenna because McKenna exposed Snyder's bad parking behavior, lobbying Prince George's County and Agawam, Mass. to ban walking to FedEx Field and Six Flags under the guise of "safety" just so he could charge more for parking? (TBD via RPUS)

Comment

Are you ready for some Metro? (Nov 3, 2008)
Breakfast links: upset neighbors edition (Jun 24, 2008)
Bethesda weekend parking: Still free, still too crowded (Mar 17, 2010)
Fund Ride-On, not subsidized parking, says Transit First (Mar 16, 2009)
Floreen floats parking tax proposal (Sep 10, 2008)

Terrible parking ideas come from Boston's "T"

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:33:00 EDT

by David Alpert

The Washington area might have a ways to go to make suburban communities more walkable, and it might be the sport of the year to criticize WMATA, but at least we're not Boston. While WMATA is making it a priority to and wants to avoid building huge numbers of new parking spaces, the MBTA is proposing a variety of terrible parking-related ideas.

Photo by nd-nʎ on Flickr.

The "T" is the latest organization to consider "privatizing" parking garages. Like the other bad deals such as New Jersey Transit's, all this really does is sell future revenue for money today, creating tougher budgets for the next generation in exchange for a one-time fix. It's more of a long-term borrowing plan than a privatization plan.

Are MBTA officials concerned about the many drawbacks of other parking privatization schemes? Apparently not; the only concern cited in the article is that rates might rise, as Chicago's parking meters did. They want to privatize the lots, but keep the power to maintain rates below the actual market demand.

Most of all, such a deal would force the MBTA to keep its parking garages as parking for the life of the contract. If they want to develop mixed-use transit-oriented development (TOD) instead, their hands will be tied.

Though it's not clear the MBTA has much interest in pursuing TOD at all. In my hometown of Acton, which has a commuter rail stop, the MBTA wants to build a parking garage on their current surface parking lot. Residents, understandably, are concerned it will just draw traffic. The MBTA rejected other ideas about making a connection to the nearby bike trail and improving pedestrian accessibility.

Absent from this discussion is anything about possibly putting housing and jobs on the site, which is one of Acton's relatively walkable nodes.

This increase in parking was actually partly environmentalists' idea:

The MBTA must add 1,000 new parking spaces along its commuter rail lines by the end of 2011 under an agreement with environmental groups to mitigate the impact of the Big Dig.

In fairness to the environmental groups, that settlement also includes a number of other, non-car-oriented provisions, like building the Green Line in Somerville. But while adding parking to commuter rail could improve ridership in the short run, it would generate more car trips in the long run as new sprawl farther out would just replace any car trips on the major highways that switch to commuter rail.

Better to pursue housing within walking distance of transit, both in the suburbs and city, which has the added benefit of not making the MBTA add even more money-losing parking facilities and further strain the budgets of the next few decades.

29 comments

Is privatization inherently bad or just botched? (Feb 12, 2010)
Fund Ride-On, not subsidized parking, says Transit First (Mar 16, 2009)
Bethesda weekend parking: Still free, still too crowded (Mar 17, 2010)
Boston adds key bus routes to rail map (Dec 10, 2009)
Westwood Station (Jan 21, 2006)

Parking ticket and a little yoga

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EDT

by Erik Weber

Cambridge, Massachusetts has revamped their parking tickets to be a little less serious, including yoga poses and relaxation tips. Some residents are amused, others not so much. (GOOD)

Comment

Lord Jesus Christ hit in crosswalk

Fri, 28 May 2010 09:16:00 EDT

by David Alpert

One Northampton, MA driver doesn't even stop for the Lord... or at least a pedestrian whose legal name is "Lord Jesus Christ." (WBZ)

Comment

The magic of sharing data

Fri, 28 May 2010 09:16:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Boston has embraced open data, now sharing bus locations in real time as well as schedules. At a recent meeting with software developers, one person built an app just during the lunch break, which soon became a phone app. And a real-time display in a Jamaica Plain ice cream shop is drawing more customers. (Marketplace, Sand Box John)

Comment

Bike hate in the B's

Wed, 12 May 2010 09:05:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Michael Dresser's Baltimore Sun column has hosted some vehement bicycle debates recently. An Elkridge women wrote in about the driver who killed her husband in a hit and run, and a Timonium man says Baltimore drivers are "worse than Texas." ... Boston has been having its own debate about whether cyclists need to "earn" respect. (Streetsblog Network)

Comment

Space that's green but little else

Tue, 04 May 2010 12:43:00 EDT

by David Alpert

When Boston buried its freeway, it planned a series of public parks on the new land. But they've become desolate, solitary places because there's little to do there and little reason to go. (Globe via PPS)

Comment

MA's bicycle Republican

Tue, 04 May 2010 08:59:00 EDT

by David Alpert

A Republican running for state rep in Massachusetts touts how he uses his bicycle in a new ad that riffs off Senator Scott Brown's ad about driving around the state in his old truck. If only more Republicans who weren't in Massachusetts or DC praised rather than mocked bicycles. (Streetsblog Capitol Hill)

Comment

Housing and transportation costs around Boston

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:55:00 EDT

by David Alpert

A ULI study expands upon the total cost of housing plus transportation data in the Boston area: the core and inner suburbs are cheap because of access, some areas are cheap because housing is cheap, and most areas are pricey either because of high housing prices, high transportation costs, or both. (FT Energy Source, charlie)

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