6 ms·

TransitMatters, a transit advocacy group in Boston

100 points by devy 8y ago

rkochman 8y ago
Was the author getting paid per use of the word “millennial“?
- rayiner 8y ago
  Given that the oldest millenials are mid 30s (most start the generation at 1981) is this really noteworthy? That’s a typical age for people to be assuming positions of responsibility even in traditional companies.
- dang 8y ago
  That's certainly annoying, but please don't start a new thread with a shallow dismissal. It leads to lousy discussion, and this article has a lot more interesting stuff in it than that. The guideline that asks "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize" applies to articles as well. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
twoquestions 8y ago
I'm more than a little glad that public transit is becoming cool again, and people are seeing it as a thing they can improve rather than a "big bad government" artifact. Maybe in 20 years we might get some transit out here in the Midwest!
- microcolonel 8y ago
  Better hope they try buses before trams, or there will be a lot of tears and scandal, and not a lot of transit. Politicians hate buses though.
brlewis 8y ago
This part's exciting for me: "Early this year, TransitMatters’ leaders released their most ambitious proposal yet: a “regional rail” plan to speed up and electrify the MBTA’s sprawling, aging commuter rail system, which covers most of eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. With faster, quick-accelerating electric trains, and high-level platforms for every train car in each station to speed up entry and exit, TransitMatters predicts that its plan could cut the commuter rail’s Boston-to-Providence travel times from as long as 73 minutes down to 45 minutes."
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  This excites exactly nobody who rides the commuter rail. What would excite us is more staff. You can only get on/off a train at a door where there is a conductor (you only get on/off at a door opened by a conductor) regardless of platform height, most time spend getting on/off is waiting in line for everyone in front of you to go through whichever few doors are open. We don't need faster clock speeds, we need more cores (metaphorically speaking). Even the conductors complain about this. They could literally hire more people tomorrow if they wanted to. Three is no need to go through a long RFP + proposals + procurement process like they would need to do for new rolling stock. This entire piece reads like some aloof central planners telling everyone else what they need without actually assessing the situation. Another thing that would be exiting is trains that run on time. Whether they run on diesel or whale oil won't matter to most people as long as they're an improvement over the status quo. A week doesn't go by when there isn't a (mechanical breakdown related) 1hr+ delay on any given line. Edit: Yes, raised platforms are faster but they're not so much faster (and they're certainly not cheaper) than utilizing the existing infrastructure (i.e. all the doors on the train) to a greater extent.
  - Shelnutt2 8y ago
    You don't need a conductor at every door to allow all door embarking/disembarking. Look at metro north, or SunRail. They both allow all door boarding without a conductor at each door. Raised platforms is something that could help to achieve process improvement.
  - 8y ago
dsfyu404ed 8y ago
>TransitMatters has gone big, with an ambitious, high-cost proposal to speed up and electrify the T’s diesel-chugging commuter rail system. Make the damn thing run on time and nobody will care if it burns whale oil and exhausts powdered asbestos The schedule change for conductors was last week and we've already discussed with the new conductor what kind of pizza we should order when we have our multi-hour "the switches are frozen and nothing can leave north station" delays this winter. >Ofsevit steps off an MBTA commuter-rail train onto a platform, then turns and looks behind him. His train car has already emptied, but the rear cars haven’t. Instead of stepping quickly onto platforms, riders are stepping slowly and gingerly from the train to footstools, then to the ground. This is pure BS. There are no footstools or anything like that at Waltham. If they wanted people to get off the train fast they'd let people exit at doors where there isn't a conductor or they'd use more conductors to staff more doors. This would also reduce conductor workload and let them eliminate all the ticket checkers at the stations. >high-level platforms for every train car in each station to speed up entry and exit, This requirement does not allow for partial implementation. Many towns are stuck maintaining grandfathered in stations because they don't have the money to do a full length, full height platform. If you want to save time open more doors for people to use. Of course a bunch of transit budget planners in Boston would rather tell the towns to build platforms rather than hire more bodies to open more doors because the towns are the ones who have to pay for the platforms.
- azeotropic 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure the MBTA owns the stations and platforms as successor to the Boston and Maine, NYCRR, etc. Maintenance and upgrades are the MBTA's problem, not local cities and towns. The downtown ticket checkers are useless and should all be sacked. Even if they're part-time at minimum wage there's no way that there's enough fare evasion to justify their salaries. The overwhelming majority of passengers at peak travel times have pre-paid monthly passes.
- cure 8y ago
  > Make the damn thing run on time and nobody will care if it burns whale oil and exhausts powdered asbestos I beg to differ; it really stinks when one of those old diesel commuter trains goes by. They are also very noisy (electric trains are basically silent at the slow, slow speed of the MBTA commuter rail). Ask anyone who lives near or passes by the tracks regularly what they think - there's tens of thousands of us.
helen___keller 8y ago
Improving regional rail in greater Boston can also serve as a key to improving the housing crisis that the city is experiencing, especially if some of the suburbs served by regional rail can be convinced to re-zone for higher density mixed-use development in an area around their commuter train stations. > millennials who’ve rejected suburban life to go car-free or car-light in the city I'm one such millennial living car-free in Boston. I would gladly move to the suburbs if I could complete all my ordinary day-to-day tasks (commuting, grocery store shopping, hitting my favorite local restaurant, etc) without touching a car. But the fact is, aside from the commercial/residential zoning divide, having these stores in walking distance is not economically feasible without a certain level of density that American suburbs just can't fulfill. America's strange obsession with big lawns and single family housing has shut down the dream of living without a car everywhere except for the urban cores of the few top metro areas in the country. Furthermore, this dispersed suburban housing style is enforced by local zoning ordinance (& requires supermajority of town vote to change zoning rules in the state of MA)!
- dsr_ 8y ago
  Waltham has that. Within walking distance of the commuter rail station (which is also a bus nexus), there are apartment buildings, two supermarkets, a large number of restaurants, and most of the other non-big-box store types you want. A nice movie theater, too. Waltham has a big stock of rental housing because there are two colleges (Brandeis in the south and Bentley in the north). Crime tends towards shoplifting and driving with a suspended license. It's 23 minutes on the commuter rail to North Station, less to Porter Square. The 70 bus runs to Central Square Cambridge, stopping at the Arsenal Mall along the way. Come be my neighbor.
  - helen___keller 8y ago
    Thanks for the reply. I've actually been looking at renting in Waltham when my current lease ends (as well as a few other places I've been looking - Quincy, Malden, Somerville). A while back I was thinking of buying, but prices are really damn expensive right now.
this2shallPass 8y ago
It is amazing what this community advocacy group is accomplishing in Boston. If you want to improve transit in the Bay Area and beyond, starting with SF, there's a group of people volunteering at Code for America working on similar things as TrasnitMatters for MUNI and Bay Area public transit. Not meeting on Halloween this Wednesday, but the following Wednesday and each week at 115 9th St (a few blocks from Market Street) at 6PM - ~9:15PM. The group: http://opentransit.city/ http://opentransit.city/ Part of SF Code for America: https://codeforsanfrancisco.org/ https://codeforsanfrancisco.org/ Currently using GraphQL, Node, Cassandra, HTML, CSS, JS, Bootstrap, and React. Always open for developers, data scientists, product and marketing people, transit people, and whoever else wants to improve public transit in the Bay Area.
favorited 8y ago
As someone who took the E trains of the Green Line to high school every day, the fact that they were holding up the entire system at night is not surprising in the least.

100 points by devy 8y ago

rkochman 8y ago

Was the author getting paid per use of the word “millennial“?

rayiner 8y ago
Given that the oldest millenials are mid 30s (most start the generation at 1981) is this really noteworthy? That’s a typical age for people to be assuming positions of responsibility even in traditional companies.
dang 8y ago
That's certainly annoying, but please don't start a new thread with a shallow dismissal. It leads to lousy discussion, and this article has a lot more interesting stuff in it than that. The guideline that asks "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize" applies to articles as well. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

twoquestions 8y ago

I'm more than a little glad that public transit is becoming cool again, and people are seeing it as a thing they can improve rather than a "big bad government" artifact. Maybe in 20 years we might get some transit out here in the Midwest!

microcolonel 8y ago
Better hope they try buses before trams, or there will be a lot of tears and scandal, and not a lot of transit. Politicians hate buses though.

brlewis 8y ago

This part's exciting for me: "Early this year, TransitMatters’ leaders released their most ambitious proposal yet: a “regional rail” plan to speed up and electrify the MBTA’s sprawling, aging commuter rail system, which covers most of eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. With faster, quick-accelerating electric trains, and high-level platforms for every train car in each station to speed up entry and exit, TransitMatters predicts that its plan could cut the commuter rail’s Boston-to-Providence travel times from as long as 73 minutes down to 45 minutes."

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
This excites exactly nobody who rides the commuter rail. What would excite us is more staff. You can only get on/off a train at a door where there is a conductor (you only get on/off at a door opened by a conductor) regardless of platform height, most time spend getting on/off is waiting in line for everyone in front of you to go through whichever few doors are open. We don't need faster clock speeds, we need more cores (metaphorically speaking). Even the conductors complain about this. They could literally hire more people tomorrow if they wanted to. Three is no need to go through a long RFP + proposals + procurement process like they would need to do for new rolling stock. This entire piece reads like some aloof central planners telling everyone else what they need without actually assessing the situation. Another thing that would be exiting is trains that run on time. Whether they run on diesel or whale oil won't matter to most people as long as they're an improvement over the status quo. A week doesn't go by when there isn't a (mechanical breakdown related) 1hr+ delay on any given line. Edit: Yes, raised platforms are faster but they're not so much faster (and they're certainly not cheaper) than utilizing the existing infrastructure (i.e. all the doors on the train) to a greater extent.
- Shelnutt2 8y ago
  You don't need a conductor at every door to allow all door embarking/disembarking. Look at metro north, or SunRail. They both allow all door boarding without a conductor at each door. Raised platforms is something that could help to achieve process improvement.
- 8y ago

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

>TransitMatters has gone big, with an ambitious, high-cost proposal to speed up and electrify the T’s diesel-chugging commuter rail system. Make the damn thing run on time and nobody will care if it burns whale oil and exhausts powdered asbestos The schedule change for conductors was last week and we've already discussed with the new conductor what kind of pizza we should order when we have our multi-hour "the switches are frozen and nothing can leave north station" delays this winter. >Ofsevit steps off an MBTA commuter-rail train onto a platform, then turns and looks behind him. His train car has already emptied, but the rear cars haven’t. Instead of stepping quickly onto platforms, riders are stepping slowly and gingerly from the train to footstools, then to the ground. This is pure BS. There are no footstools or anything like that at Waltham. If they wanted people to get off the train fast they'd let people exit at doors where there isn't a conductor or they'd use more conductors to staff more doors. This would also reduce conductor workload and let them eliminate all the ticket checkers at the stations. >high-level platforms for every train car in each station to speed up entry and exit, This requirement does not allow for partial implementation. Many towns are stuck maintaining grandfathered in stations because they don't have the money to do a full length, full height platform. If you want to save time open more doors for people to use. Of course a bunch of transit budget planners in Boston would rather tell the towns to build platforms rather than hire more bodies to open more doors because the towns are the ones who have to pay for the platforms.

azeotropic 8y ago
I'm pretty sure the MBTA owns the stations and platforms as successor to the Boston and Maine, NYCRR, etc. Maintenance and upgrades are the MBTA's problem, not local cities and towns. The downtown ticket checkers are useless and should all be sacked. Even if they're part-time at minimum wage there's no way that there's enough fare evasion to justify their salaries. The overwhelming majority of passengers at peak travel times have pre-paid monthly passes.
cure 8y ago
> Make the damn thing run on time and nobody will care if it burns whale oil and exhausts powdered asbestos I beg to differ; it really stinks when one of those old diesel commuter trains goes by. They are also very noisy (electric trains are basically silent at the slow, slow speed of the MBTA commuter rail). Ask anyone who lives near or passes by the tracks regularly what they think - there's tens of thousands of us.

helen___keller 8y ago

Improving regional rail in greater Boston can also serve as a key to improving the housing crisis that the city is experiencing, especially if some of the suburbs served by regional rail can be convinced to re-zone for higher density mixed-use development in an area around their commuter train stations. > millennials who’ve rejected suburban life to go car-free or car-light in the city I'm one such millennial living car-free in Boston. I would gladly move to the suburbs if I could complete all my ordinary day-to-day tasks (commuting, grocery store shopping, hitting my favorite local restaurant, etc) without touching a car. But the fact is, aside from the commercial/residential zoning divide, having these stores in walking distance is not economically feasible without a certain level of density that American suburbs just can't fulfill. America's strange obsession with big lawns and single family housing has shut down the dream of living without a car everywhere except for the urban cores of the few top metro areas in the country. Furthermore, this dispersed suburban housing style is enforced by local zoning ordinance (& requires supermajority of town vote to change zoning rules in the state of MA)!

dsr_ 8y ago
Waltham has that. Within walking distance of the commuter rail station (which is also a bus nexus), there are apartment buildings, two supermarkets, a large number of restaurants, and most of the other non-big-box store types you want. A nice movie theater, too. Waltham has a big stock of rental housing because there are two colleges (Brandeis in the south and Bentley in the north). Crime tends towards shoplifting and driving with a suspended license. It's 23 minutes on the commuter rail to North Station, less to Porter Square. The 70 bus runs to Central Square Cambridge, stopping at the Arsenal Mall along the way. Come be my neighbor.
- helen___keller 8y ago
  Thanks for the reply. I've actually been looking at renting in Waltham when my current lease ends (as well as a few other places I've been looking - Quincy, Malden, Somerville). A while back I was thinking of buying, but prices are really damn expensive right now.

this2shallPass 8y ago

It is amazing what this community advocacy group is accomplishing in Boston. If you want to improve transit in the Bay Area and beyond, starting with SF, there's a group of people volunteering at Code for America working on similar things as TrasnitMatters for MUNI and Bay Area public transit. Not meeting on Halloween this Wednesday, but the following Wednesday and each week at 115 9th St (a few blocks from Market Street) at 6PM - ~9:15PM. The group: http://opentransit.city/ http://opentransit.city/ Part of SF Code for America: https://codeforsanfrancisco.org/ https://codeforsanfrancisco.org/ Currently using GraphQL, Node, Cassandra, HTML, CSS, JS, Bootstrap, and React. Always open for developers, data scientists, product and marketing people, transit people, and whoever else wants to improve public transit in the Bay Area.

favorited 8y ago

As someone who took the E trains of the Green Line to high school every day, the fact that they were holding up the entire system at night is not surprising in the least.