Beyond Red & Blue

Fantasy land for mass transit riders in Boston

Via Universal Hub: the Boston Coasters website is now selling posters, T-shirts, and messenger bags with blogger Vanshnookenraggen's MBTA map of the future. Imagine a Red Line that goes all the way to Burlington; a Blue Line with a branch that serves poor, overlooked Everett; and a new subway line that replaces the limited commuter-rail service in much of Dorchester.

But don't get your hopes up for new subway stations in Boston or anywhere else in America in the near future. From today's Washington Post, which, to my surprise, doesn't mention Boston as one of the fiscal basket cases:

Metro and 30 other transit agencies across the country may have to pay billions of dollars to large banks as years-old financing deals unravel, potentially hurting service for millions of bus and train riders, transit officials said yesterday.

Image ©2008 Vanshnookenraggen

BC-68-1421

Mass. towns may reduce road salt intake

It might be a good thing if higher gasoline prices keep people from driving this winter, since higher prices for road salt might make the streets a little sloppier. Mike Stucka reports in the Salem News:

The cost for road salt is going up — dramatically. A Boxford-based consortium that buys salt for several local towns is facing a 30 percent price increase — from $48.90 a ton last year to $63.83 this year.

Ipswich, which is part of the consortium, expects to spend an extra $100,000 on salt, so it may leave roads a little slushier and stop clearing private ways, something it does now to let firetrucks and ambulances through.

An Obama-Acela ticket?

Matt Yglesias points out that Sen. Joe Biden, supposedly on Barack Obama's short list of possible running mates, would be a thrilling choice for rail fans:

A neglected aspect of the Biden record, however, is that his ascendancy would be excellent news for the SUPERTRAIN. Biden commutes back-and-forth from Delaware to Washington regularly on the Acela, so he appreciates what high-speed rail can do. ... Beyond that, Biden’s son sits on the Amtrak board and unlike some of Amtrak’s leadership (which besides Biden is heavily dominated by Republicans) is actually a forceful advocate for Amtrak and for improving rail.

Does that mean Michael Dukakis, the biggest rail champion in the Bay State, would be pleased by a vice-presidential nomination for Biden? Maybe not, given their clash in the 1988 presidential campaign.

Above: Opening credits from NBC's smash Supertrain, thanks to the Supertrain Web Site.

How the government knew you didn't drive in Maine

Geese - Maine
Originally uploaded by adamantine

I recently posted an item on federal data showing fewer cars on the road. Slate. com explains how the government comes up with these numbers. They're not from satellites or computer chips hidden in cars, by the way. The basic technology has been in place since the 1920s.

Salem more walkable than Dorchester, Rowley not walkable at all

David Moisan of A Salem Blog responds to my post about Walk Score and Boston's subway stops:

I did a WalkScore last year for Salem; I live near the train station so it's close enough. It is 92, and likely to be amongst the best scores outside North Station... My original posting is here.

I found the walkability scores for all the stops on the Newburyport/Rockport line (see below), and Salem actually gets a 94 (out of 100), which is better than all of the Red Line stops in Dorchester and all of the Blue Line stops in East Boston. Salem gets a near-perfect score thanks to such nearby amenities as a movie theater, a "bookstore" (Harrison's Comics), and a "fitness" establishment (Body & Soul Massage).

The worst score I've come across so far is Rowley Station, which gets a single-digit 6. Chelsea and Lynn each get a 75, which says something about how underserved those areas are despite having very dense populations.

NEWBURYPORT/ROCKPORT LINE:
Chelsea: 75
River Works (used by GE employees only): 51
Lynn: 75
Swampscott: 57
Salem: 94
Beverly Depot: 86

Montesserat: 51
Prides Crossing: 37
Beverly Farms: 58
Manchester-by-the-Sea: 69
West Gloucester: 12
Gloucester: 80
Rockport: 66

North Beverly: 68
Hamilton/Wenham: 86
Ipswich: 66
Rowley: 6
Newburyport (not downtown): 54

New York Times casts eye on Mass. police details

The New York Times reports on the Patrick administration's tentative steps toward ending the "Massachusetts anachronism" of having police officers stand guard whenever a road crew is "fixing potholes or laying pavement."

MassINC president Gregory Torres is quoted on the political implications:

“The details erode public confidence that taxpayer money is being spent wisely,” Mr. Torres said. “I think the symbolism is very important when it comes to issues like this.”

Fewer cars on the road in June, especially in Maine

The US Department of Transportation yesterday reported that the number of miles logged on American roads fell in June, for the eighth consecutive month, and that "since last November, Americans have driven 53.2 billion miles less than they did over the same period a year earlier – topping the 1970s' total decline of 49.3 billion miles."

Estimated road travel fell by 4.7 percent in June (compared with the previous June), with the sharpest declines in Idaho (down 7.7 percent), Maine (down 7.0 percent), and Utah (down 6.9 percent). Perhaps gas prices are causing some Bay Staters to cut out summer camping trips and antique crawls along Maine's Route 1?

In Massachusetts, road travel fell by 4.2 percent, not quite as much as the national average -- though the Bay State's drop of 3.9 percent in May almost exactly matched the US total.

Oak Grove, most of Blue Line least "walkable" spots on MBTA

At right: The asphalt horror of Oak Grove station. Creative Commons licensed photo by kbrookes.

WalkScore is being touted all over the blogosphere. You type in an address, and the site immediately rates it on a "walkability" score -- essentially calculating how far it is from services such as grocers, hardware stores, and fitness clubs. It has some kinks, most notably in the inclusion of movie theaters and bookstores in its formula. Sadly, a full-time cinema is too much to expect even in a walker's paradise these days; at any rate, the WalkScore bots don't seem to recognize what a real movie theater is. (Eye Candy Cinema in the Fenway is a production company, not a movie house.) WalkScore also counts porn shops and comic book sellers as "bookstores," though their utility is arguably less than a good newsstand.

So I tested WalkScore by inputting the street addresses (or as close as I could get) of MBTA subway stops, and the results, listed below, seem pretty accurate. (Mass transit stops are not factored into the WalkScore calculations.) There were four perfect scores: Downtown Crossing, Chinatown, New England Medical Center, and Boylston. Fifteen other stops were above 90 percent -- all in downtown Boston, the Back Bay, or Cambridge.

Oak Grove, in Malden at the northern end of the Orange Line, is the only subway station categorized as "car-dependent." ("Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving or public transportation is a must.") Having grown up near there, I can attest to that description. The station is not isolated by highways or bridges or anything, so I don't know why there's so little commerce nearby. It's a heartbreaking site (and sight) for a New Urbanist. "Somewhat walkable" describes the entire stretch of the Blue Line east of Boston Harbor, as well as Wellington on the Orange Line and Quincy Adams on the Red Line (both surrounded by highways and parking lots) and Green and Forest Hills at the southern end of the Orange Line.

Do these scores line up with your perceptions? Are there other criteria you would use to measure walkability? Next I'll try to see how the commuter rail stops line up.

RED LINE
Alewife: 82
Davis: 95
Porter: 83
Harvard: 98
Central: 95
Kendall: 89
Charles: 95
Park: 98
Downtown Crossing: 100
South Station: 97
Broadway: 89
Andrew: 80
JFK: 82
Savin Hill: 74
Fields Corner: 85
Shawmut: 72

North Quincy: 83
Wollaston: 85
Quincy Center: 83
Quincy Adams: 55
Braintree: 74

GREEN LINE
Lechmere: 89
Science Park: 92
North Station: 92
Haymarket: 95
Government Center: 95
Park: 98
Boylston: 100
Arlington: 97
Copley: 95
Hynes: 98
Kenmore: 98

ORANGE LINE:
Oak Grove: 46
Malden Center: 83
Wellington: 65
Sullivan Square: 78
Community College: 74
North Station: 92
Haymarket: 95
State: 95
Chinatown: 100
New England Medical Center: 100
Back Bay: 97
Mass. Ave.: 95
Ruggles: 83
Roxbury Crossing: 88
Jackson Square: 78
Stony Brook: 74
Green: 69
Forest Hills: 65

BLUE LINE:
Wonderland: 55
Revere Beach: 58
Beachmont: 51
Suffolk Downs: 51
Orient Heights: 68
Wood Island: 65
Airport: 65
Maverick: 75
Aquarium: 94
State: 95
Government Center: 95
Bowdoin: 95

Squeaky MBTA wheels get the grease?

Has Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen done the unthinkable and gotten his  dysfunctional airport, highway, and transit clans to see the virtues of sharing — without the benefit of a mandated reorganization certain to prompt massive bureaucratic resistance? Can MassHighway and Massport really be forced persuaded to cough up “operational and fiscal” assistance to their cash-poor cousins at the MBTA and the Turnpike Authority?

That’s what may be coming out of a hush-hush (read: closed to the press and the public) meeting between Cohen and the heads of the four agencies. If so, perhaps MBTA officials can take a deep breath and dampen down their continuous loop of threats fears about future fare increases. (Which just goes to show what front page, above-the-fold headlines in The Boston Globe gets you.)

According to a State House News Service (subscription required) story, “The focus has been on what we can do to help provide some relief to the T and the Turnpike,” Cohen said, calling [the confab] “sort of a family affair.”

Massport is in comparatively good financial shape (at least for now) thanks, in part, to its lucrative parking concession at Logan Airport, but MassHighway has its own debt issues, so it remains to be seen what “assistance” means in the real world.

And, what of MassTrans, the once and future department re-organization plan that no one wants to own anymore?  If the Patrick administration can restore a semblance of fiscal health to the T and the Turnpike, all while bypassing a Legislature definitely unenthused about anything that smacks of defiling the state’s sacred transportation org chart, so much the better for the Patrick administration. (Oh, and yes, presumably Massachusetts commuters...)  What's next, Fast Lane transponders and Charlie Cards for everyone?

Green Line photo by Nekonomist.

Dan Grabauskas wants his

After the Lege stepped in last week and saved the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority from itself by extending the state’s credit to cover a series of costly, Big Dig-related financial miscues by the agency, it was only a matter of time before the MBTA general manager put his hand out.

Grabauskas told CommonWealth last month that a fare increase was likely in 2010. In today’s Boston Globe, he said that such a hike  will probably be a “hefty” one, although he wouldn’t say just how much that meant.

Actually, Grabauskas has been making a case for some sort of state bailout almost since the day he moved into the State Transportation Building in May 2005. Declining sales tax revenue have made the 2000 forward funding pledge designed to get the agency on self-sufficiency more like funding backward. The penny of the 5 percent sales tax that the MBTA receives doesn’t even begin to match the agency’s operating or maintenance or those—dream on—expansion costs. Then there’s that $8 billion debt that still hasn’t gone away. Funny that. And fares are basically just going right out the door to service it.

But browse through the comments on any site that touches on “T” traumas and you’ll find that most posters think Grabauskas’s pleas are just more whining from the petulant head of another bloated Bay State agency. But like it or not, Grabauskas actually has a case, one he’ll repeat ad nauseum to anyone who’ll listen, including probably the mice scampering around the Park Street Station Red Line tracks. Fare increases alone can’t and won’t keep pace with T expenses, hence the never-ending calls for a bailout.

Earth to Beacon Hill: The MBTA’s problems are as bad, if not worse than the turnpike authority.  But for the most part, Legislature and the Corner Office have been quiet of late in all matters “T.” How much this deafening silence has to do with reports that the Ipswich Republican’s days at the agency may be numbered is anyone’s guess.(The Phoenix’s Adam Reilly took a look at the GM’s flagging fortunes in April.)