Category: Transportation
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Solving for Space and Time: Ending homelessness by fixing the DTA and MBTA
Photo: Shinya Suzuki What does improving the food system and reducing vehicle traffic and air pollution (especially in urban areas) have to do with ending homelessness worldwide? Everything. Well then, how can Massachusetts lead the rest of the world in doing this? Massachusetts could first humanize the management system used by the Department of Transitional…
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A Pissing Contest
In the May 2 issue of Spare Change News carried a cover story called “Infrastructure Inequality” by Alex Ramirez about the Long Island Bridge, which connects Boston’s homeless to the city’s Long Island Shelter via a bus route through Quincy. The bridge is old and rickety and has been in decay for years. It is…
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Priced Out: Development Drives Rising Rents in Union Square
It’s 7:30 on a sticky Tuesday morning in mid-June. The bus is packed with teenagers studying for exams and finishing homework. Windows are cracked and hot air blows in, moving the stagnant air. Droopy-eyed professionals move aside as the bus approaches School St., allowing students to exit the bus and start their day, alleviating the…
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Infrastructure Inequality: The Battle to Fix the Long Island Bridge
Outside of Woods-Mullen Shelter, just down the street from Boston Medical Center, sits a large, cage-like structure. A fence runs down the middle, creating two chain-link hallways. On a windy Boston afternoon, people in hoodies, sweatpants, ball caps and shades gather there, some huddled together, others standing and talking or smoking, many clinging to the…
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MBTA Launches Late-Night Service
BOSTON, Mass.—The MBTA’s Late Night Pilot Program launched on Friday, March 28, extending service on the subway and 15 key bus routes by 90 minutes early Saturday and Sunday mornings. According to the MBTA, they will run subway service every 15 to 20 minutes, with the last trains leaving downtown stations around 2:30 a.m. Trains…
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Sides Staked Out for "Adult Conversation" About Transportation Funding
By Andy Metzger STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, JUNE 11, 2012�� Even if the state chose not to fund the $1.3 billion Green Line Extension, several of the revenue-generating ideas tied to that project in newly released documents will need to be used to keep state transit authorities afloat, Transportation Secretary Richard Davey…
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House Advances T Bailout Bill That Involves Moving T Ferry Services to Massport
By Matt Murphy STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, JUNE 11, 2012….A possible transfer in the next year of MBTA ferry operations to the Massachusetts Port Authority would be studied under a T bailout bill that received initial House approval Monday morning. The bill rescues the T from its near-term budget crisis, but drops…
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The People Have Spoken … For Naught
James Shearer Spare Change News The other day while I was in Brookline I ran into two people with clipboards trying to get signatures against the MBTA’s fare hikes and service cuts. “It’s already too late,” I said to them. “No, it isn’t,” they protested. “Yes,” I said sadly, “it is.” And yes, boys and…
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The People Have Spoken
James Shearer Spare Change News Last week there was a rally in front of the Boston Public Library organized by people who are against the MBTA’s service cuts and fare increases, which are scheduled to take place in July. The rally, which was shortly before one of the many public hearings organized by the T…