January 16, 2012
Highlights
- The Tricky Second Wave of Urban Highway Removals (Atlantic Cities)
By Anthony Flint -- Dismantling urban freeways—replacing elevated viaducts of steel and concrete with parks and boulevards—is happening in so many places, it’s like an unspoken national urban policy. We've reached a unique point in city-building when the destruction of a public works project has all the glamour and buzz of breaking ground on a new one. [...] The three post-Big Dig interventions are surely less well-known around the country, but passions about them are running just as high: the McGrath/O'Brien Highway in Somerville and the Rutherford Avenue connector through Charlestown, both north of the city, and the Casey Overpass in Jamaica Plain, well south of downtown. - MBTA: Fare and Service Proposals, Public Outreach (MassDOT Blog, Boston Globe, Bloomberg)
MassDOT today [Jan 3] released proposed fare increase and service reduction plans for the MBTA aimed at closing a projected $161 million budget gap for fiscal year 2013. Earlier estimates projected the gap would total approximately $185 million for FY13. The MBTA has taken aggressive steps to reduce that deficit: reducing energy purchase costs, planned introduction of single person train operation on the Red Line, encouraging MBTA employees to enroll in more affordable health insurance plans and other operating and administrative efficiencies. However, growing debt service costs associated with capital projects, significant increases in maintenance costs for an aging fleet and higher costs for the RIDE mean additional solutions are necessary. - The case for the $6 parking meter (Boston Globe)
By Leon Neyfakh -- The search for a parking space on the streets of downtown Boston can warp a person’s world. Fire hydrants become symbols of thwarted hope. Other drivers become bitter enemies. Signs assume the properties of Talmudic texts, calling out for interpretation and bedeviling us with their complexity. As we drive in circles, sweating and honking hopelessly, our eyes dart around and the clock ticks. Happiness is the sight of red taillights coming on as someone prepares to leave; temptation is a taunting yellow placard offering garage space for $15 an hour. In dense, urban areas like Boston, as many as 30 percent of cars on the street are cruising for parking at any given time. - The cost of auto orientation (Strong Towns)
By Charles Marohn -- In the United States we've proceeded for sixty years with reconfiguring our public spaces to accommodate the automobile. The built in assumption of this approach, especially when it comes to commercial property, is that the more cars driving by the better. What we've overlooked in our haste to "modernize" is the lower return on investment we get from this approach, even under ideal conditions. Today we need the humility to acknowledge that our ancestors -- who built in the traditional style -- may have known what they were doing after all. - Paved, but Still Alive (New York Times)
By Michael Kimmelman -- THERE are said to be at least 105 million and maybe as many as 2 billion parking spaces in the United States. A third of them are in parking lots, those asphalt deserts that we claim to hate but that proliferate for our convenience. One study says we’ve built eight parking spots for every car in the country. Houston is said to have 30 of them per resident. In “Rethinking a Lot,” a new study of parking, due out in March, Eran Ben-Joseph, a professor of urban planning at M.I.T., points out that “in some U.S. cities, parking lots cover more than a third of the land area, becoming the single most salient landscape feature of our built environment.” - Guide to Street Design in Urban India (Planetizen)
By Todd Litman -- A new guidebook illustrates ways to create safer streets and more livable public spaces. This detailed and illustrated manual, produced by the Institute for Transport and Development Policy and the Ahmedabad-based Environmental Planning Collaborative, provides guidance on how to apply good design to create attractive, safe multi-modal streets and more livable public spaces.
"Streets"
- Editorial: Lots of pain, small gain [BU Bridge] (Boston Globe)
- Letter: Bridge project, now completed, will still leave motorists fuming (Boston Globe)
- Morton's may book ex-Borders' spot (Boston Herald)
- Connect Historic Boston aims to link pedestrian, bike paths to transit hubs (Boston Globe)
- Mayor predicting progress on downtown (Attleboro Sun Chronicle)
- A vision for downtown Truro (Truro Daily)
- Boston's old West End persists as a 'palace' (Boston Globe)
- Related: Photo Gallery (Boston Globe)
- Accidents common at Cambridge intersection (Boston Globe)
- Editorial: Make streets safe for cyclists (Boston Globe)
- The Tricky Second Wave of Urban Highway Removals (Atlantic Cities)
Walking
- How to prevent falling on slippery ice (Boston Globe)
- Citizen complaint of the day: Stupid Massholes on Huntington Avenue (Universal Hub)
- The Science of How We Walk (Atlantic Cities)
- Winter commences (Somerville News)
Bicycling
- Bicycling in Boston --
- The good times sometimes roll (Boston Column)
- Mass. Ave, BU Bridge bike lanes completed (Boston Globe, Boston Magazine)
- Giant spin on moving (Boston Herald)
Transit
- MBTA: Fare and Service Proposals, Public Outreach (MassDOT Blog, Boston Globe, Bloomberg)
- Don't Complain About the MBTA Fare Hikes (Boston Magazine)
- Your Money or Your Bus (Boston Magazine)
- MBTA Service Cuts Seen Hurting Cape Ann (Gloucester Daily Times)
- T eyes weekend shut-down of Mattapan trolleys (Dorchester Reporter)
- Are the Fares Fair? T Fares vs. Other Cities (Brookline Patch)
- MBTA puts Arlington bus routes on the chopping block (Arlington Advocate)
- MBTA's budget-saving options include axing Somerville bus routes (Somerville Journal)
- No breath of fresh air: T cuts could be health hazard (Boston Metro)
- Mass Transit Needs Mass Action: It's Up to You to Respond to the MBTA Fare Hikes (BostInno)
- The MBTA Needs Adequate Funding: Raise the Gas Tax (BostInno)
- 12 Years of MBTA Budget Woes: Was The T Born Broke? (BostInno)
- Editorial: The T: Serving more than strap-hangers (Boston Globe)
- Newton mayor blasts proposed MBTA service cuts (Boston Globe)
- MBTA proposals include big cuts for South Shore bus riders (Enterprise News)
- Business leaders resigned to MBTA changes (Boston Business Journal)
- Life on the line: Bus 19 Fields Corner to Kenmore (Boston Globe)
- Brothers seek a way up and out (Boston Globe)
- Hospital housekeeper sets aside her dream (Boston Globe)
- MBTA renovations between Harvard & Alewife (Boston Globe)
- Thieves troll MBTA lots for catalytic converters (Patriot Ledger)
- The Problem with Naming Transit Stations (Atlantic Cities)
- No Cell Service on the Blue & Green Lines as Promised: A Delay That's Actually Not the MBTA's Fault (BostInno)
- MBTA to T staff: Wake up! (Boston Herald)
- Commuter rail to stay in private control (Boston Globe)
- MBTA tracks down Arlington girl's missing flute (Arlington Advocate)
- Facing Funding Shortfalls and Protest, Better Rail for Boston Region is Delayed (Transport Politic)
Cars/Parking
- Site lets you pahk your cah in someone else's yahd (Boston Herald)
- The case for the $6 parking meter (Boston Globe)
Transportation financing/Government
- Historical roadblock (CommonWealth Magazine)
- The puzzle at DCR (CommonWealth Magazine)
Development projects
- Letter: Zoning law change would benefit Chestnut Hill Realty Project (Cambridge Chronicle)
- 2011 Development Year in Review (BRA)
- Proposed apartments would transform S. Boston Waterfront (Boston Globe, Boston Herald)
- State Street weighing move to Seaport (Boston Globe)
- Developer to unveil plans for downtown Malden ballpark (Boston Globe)
- MassDOT seeks developer for parcel between Haymarket, Greenway (Boston Globe, Boston Business Journal)
- Projects to watch: Are the stars finally in alignment for these developments? (Boston Business Journal)
- Sale of Hite Radio building in South End is finalized (Boston Globe)
- Mill redevelopment in Lawrence, Lowell, Haverill coming back strong after recession (Boston Globe)
- 'Overwhelming interest' in redeveloping courthouse, state says (Cambridge Day)
- Assembly Square development gets 1st major tenant (Boston Globe)
- Developer agrees to more density for Boston Herald site development (Boston Business Journal)
Land Use/Planning
- BRA board unanimously approves proposed Hyde Park re-zoning (Boston Globe)
Out-of-state
- New York City --
- The Grid at 200: Lines That Shaped Manhattan (New York Times)
- DCP Advances Promising Manhattan Parking Reforms, Fixes Flawed Study (Streetsblog)
- Relax, if you Want, but Don't Put Your Feet Up (New York Times)
- Lucky Seven (Architect's Newspaper)
- Planting a Park (New York Times)
- A Vision for Urban Parks (New York Times)
- Bike Tour's Popularity Leads to Changes (New York Times)
- A Whole New York City Borough Gets Realm-time Bus Information (Transportation Nation)
- Brought to Us by the B.Q.E. (New York Times)
- Buffalo, Then and Now (1902-2011) (Atlantic Cities)
- Bicycle Shop Pays Area Residents to Lose Weight (PRWEB)
- The cost of auto orientation (Strong Towns)
- New South Florida Rail Connection to Miami International Airport Almost Done (Transportation Nation)
- Amateur Film Offers Glimpse of San Francisco Streets in 1955 (Streetsblog SF)
- New System Uses Radar to Detect Bicyclists at Intersections (WIRED)
- SF's new parking program reduces ticket anxiety (San Francisco Gate)
- Houston Starts Small As It Tries Out First-Ever Bike Share (Transportation Nation)
- Back to Basics for Detroit Light Rail (Transport Politic)
- Taking a u-turn on the one-way street (National Post)
- Metro plans to hire 1,000 new workers as it considers fare hikes (Washington Post)
- In Long Beach exhibit, urban planning is art and play (Los Angeles Times)
- See-Rent-Ride: Bikeshare changes the way people see the city (LAB)
- Three Cities, Three Tales of Tenuous Transit Plans (FORBES)
- Montana to Parents, Kids: We Know It's Winter -- But You Can Still Walk & Bike To School (Transportation Nation)
National trends
- High Speed Rail --
- For High-Speed Rail, Support in the Past From G.O.P. Presidential Hopefuls (New York Times)
- 2012 Presidential Election --
- How to Pay for America's Infrastructure (Atlantic Cities)
- Opening and Construction Starts Planned for 2012 (Transport Politic)
- Many Urban Cities Now Welcome Walmart (Planetizen)
- A Proposal To End The Highway Trust Fund (Planetizen)
- Playing Tea Party: Planning and Agenda 21 (Better Cities)
- Paved, but Still Alive (New York Times)
- What Citizens Add to Planning (Atlantic Cities)
- The versatility of passenger train investment (NARP)
- Subway Blues: Car Commuters Are Getting Bigger Tax Breaks Than Transit Riders (GOOD)
- Improving Towns One Walk at a Time (AARP)
- After Demolishing a Highway, How Should a City Rebuild? (Atlantic Cities)
- Retrofitting the Suburbs to Increase Walking (UCTC)
International news
- VIDEO: Master Planner - Jan Gehl (Monocle)
- Cycling fines to increase dramatically in 2012 (Copenhagen Post)
- Looking to the skies for answers: a second look at gondola transit (Toronto Star)
- Polar challenge: How do you cycle to the South Pole? (BBC)
- Dublin city centre plan will see cars give way to pedestrians (Irish Times)
- Seville goes green (BBC)
- More rental bikes, subway lines to ease Beijing traffic congestion (English.news.cn)
- VIDEO: Copenhagen Cargo Bike Culture (Copenhagenize.com)
- Guide to Street Design in Urban India (Planetizen)
StreetHeadlines