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A CharlieCard on top of stacked dollar bills

Free Passes For Boston’s Main Street Workers Boost Transit, Bluebikes Ridership

By Christian MilNeil | Dec 8, 2021 | No Comments

Workers who got a $60 CharlieCard rode transit an average of 8.3 times during the first four weeks of the program, while workers with a smaller $5 CharlieCard took only 2 transit trips in the same period.

Mayor Wu Appoints GovTech Expert Jascha Franklin-Hodge As Boston’s New Chief of Streets

By Christian MilNeil | Dec 7, 2021 | No Comments

“Under Mayor Wu’s leadership, we have the opportunity to reshape our transportation system to make getting around Boston more convenient, address historic and ongoing inequities, and improve safety, especially for our most vulnerable road users,” said Franklin-Hodge.

A memorial to Kevin Dumont on Mystic Avenue, near the crosswalk where a hit-and-run driver killed him in August 2019.

With MassDOT’s Promised Safety Upgrades in Limbo, More Carnage on Somerville’s Mystic Ave.

By Christian MilNeil | Dec 7, 2021 | No Comments

"We had to bring in Rep. Ayanna Pressley just to get a crosswalk. We have to publicly shame MassDOT for months and months, and all we get are empty promises.”

Bluebike station locations in 2010, 2016, and 2021. When the system launched a decade ago, it primarily served higher-income, whiter neighborhoods in central Boston. However, thanks to new stations, non-white and lower-income residents of these cities and towns now enjoy more equitable levels of access to the bikesharing network.

Inventories Take Stock of Growing Access to Bluebikes, Safer Bike Routes

By Christian MilNeil | Dec 6, 2021 | No Comments

Thanks to system expansions into more diverse neighborhoods, by 2021, non-white residents living in Bluebikes communities are slightly more likely to live near a bikesharing station than white residents.

New "slow zones" on the Southwest Corridor are making Orange Line riders' trips 5 to 6 minutes longer than they were this spring. Chart courtesy of TransitMatters, with MBTA data.

The Orange Line Keeps Getting Slower, At Riders’ Expense

By Christian MilNeil | Dec 3, 2021 | No Comments

Orange Line trips are now 4 to 5 minutes longer between downtown Boston and Forest Hills than they were at the beginning of this summer.

Talking Headways Podcast: Optimism on Infrastructure

By Jeff Wood | Dec 2, 2021 | No Comments

This week we’re joined by Linda Samuels, associate professor of urban design at Washington University in St. Louis, to talk about her book "Infrastructural Optimism." We chat about how growth for growth’s sake is not the answer, learn from postmodernist urbanism, and why systems should be more connected.

A route 28 bus advertising the fare-free pilot passes through Grove Hall on Blue Hill Avenue on October 5, 2021.

More Fare-Free Buses Coming to Lawrence, Haverhill, and Boston

By Christian MilNeil | Dec 1, 2021 | No Comments

Officials approved two major expansions in fare-free bus service on Wednesday: in Boston, the City Council formally endorsed Mayor Wu’s proposal to fund fare-free service on three MBTA routes in Dorchester, and earlier in the day, the Advisory Board of the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority (MVRTA), which serves Haverhill, Lawrence, and surrounding communities, voted […]

New Green Line tracks and fresh pavement on the future Community Path, pictured from Cross Street in Somerville, looking northwest towards the McGrath Highway, on July 30, 2021.

Mass. Officials Still Don’t Know How Much Money We’ll Get From Infrastructure Law

By Christian MilNeil | Nov 29, 2021 | No Comments

"I have seen lots of thoughtful creative ideas of how we could spend the money, but I do caution that the money may not go that far."

Portrait of Whitney Zhang of Boston on the Cambridge side of the Mass. Ave. Bridge on Nov. 23, 2021

Mass. Ave. Bridge Users Praise Improved Bike Lanes: ‘I Hope We See More of This’

By Christian MilNeil | Nov 24, 2021 | No Comments

MassDOT plans to leave the cones in place over the winter and evaluate the new layout for permanent implementation next year after analyzing its effects on user safety, bike traffic, car traffic, and bus speeds on the MBTA’s Route 1.

Wisconsin Car Attack is an Example of Our Failure to Prevent Cars Being Used as Weapons

By Streetsblog | Nov 24, 2021 | No Comments

Policy, culture, and environment create conditions that all too often permit such crimes — and by failing to address those conditions, advocates argue, we practically ensure that such atrocities will continue to happen.

A memorial to the 39 people killed by drivers in the city of Springfield during 2020 and 2021 at a vigil held on the steps of the Springfield Central Library on Sunday, November 21, the World Day of Remembrance. Photo courtesy of Springfield City Councilor Jesse Lederman, via Twitter.

Vigil for Crash Victims Amplifies Need for Safer Streets in Springfield

By Christian MilNeil | Nov 22, 2021 | No Comments

Sunday was the World Day of Remembrance, an annual memorial for the lives lost to traffic crashes. In Springfield, residents joined elected officials on the front steps of the Springfield Central Library, just a few feet away from an informal pedestrian crossing where drivers have struck and killed two victims in the past decade – […]

Rendering of the proposed Northern Strand on-street bikeway on South Common Street, approaching Market Street, in downtown Lynn.

MassDOT Makes Plans to Extend Northern Strand Through Downtown Lynn

By Christian MilNeil | Nov 22, 2021 | No Comments

The project would build new two-way, curb-separated bike lanes along the south side of the Market Square roundabout (pictured above), the Lynn Common, and Market Street.

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