Podcast 23 - Alon Levy, Pedestrian Observations

We sat down with urban transit student and author of the popular Pedestrian Observations blog, Alon Levy, well known among advocates for his knowledge of best (and worst) practices in urban planning and transportation.

In a time of short-sighted cost-cutting and privatization efforts, it is refreshing to hear smart and effective ways to use our existing transportation assets. We spend some time debunking the myth that new technology like the Hyperloop or personal rapid transit will solve our problems. Instead, we know how to address our challenges using existing technology, for example, modernizing commuter rail, increasing core system capacity and upgrading the network to serve modern travel needs. Using electronics before concrete. And of course, we cover the MBTA's Control Board and the ongoing mess, including privatization, late night service, the Green Line Extension, North South Rail Link, and try to learn why construction costs so much.

And much more.

The Transit Matters Podcast is your source for transportation news, analysis, interviews with transit advocates and more. By offering new perspectives, uniting transit advocates and promoting a level of critical analysis normally absent from other media, we can achieve a useful and effective transportation network because Transit Matters.

Like what you hear? Share it around, tell your friends and colleagues, and subscribe to the blog and podcast (on iTunes) to be notified of new posts and episodes. Support our work by becoming a member, making a donation or signing up to volunteer because we can't do this alone. Let us know what you think by connect with TransitMatters on Facebook or Twitter. Follow Jeremy Mendelson @Critical Transit, Josh Fairchild @hatchback31, Jarred Johnson at @jarjoh, Marc Ebuña at @DigitalSciGuy, and or email us here.

Podcast 22 - MBTA Raising Fares Again, Overtime Lies, Challenges and Opportunities

The MBTA fare increase proposals (presentation, summary) are unnecessary and not even helpful in closing the budget gap. This is the latest example to the way the Fiscal & Management Control Board is using misleading statistics to support an ideological agenda that has never worked. What happened to being visionary and taking a fresh look?

Short of major investment -- which is needed more than ever -- many simple changes could improve the user experience and help alleviate capacity constraints. For example:

1. The transfer policy could allow unlimited use within 2 hours (instead of the current one-transfer limit) to offer new options for shorter trips, increase ridership, reduce congestion downtown and save money.
2. All-door boarding on buses and trolleys means faster trips, more frequent service, lower fare evasion and operating cost savings.
3. Expanding Zone 1A on Commuter Rail to all Boston stations as well as Waltham and Lynn would offer fast service for thousands of low-income riders while reducing operating costs.
4. Many low-cost changes such as upgrading bus stops, stations and terminals would improve service quality and increase ridership.

UPDATE: See our Fares & Service fact sheet (the longer version is here).

All this and more in this week's show, recorded in the WMBR studio at MIT in Cambridge. Marc offers some insights from this year's TransportationCamp DC on how regional governance could address some of our management challenges, and former T General Manager Beverly Scott was there. We hear a little bit from the growing transit advocacy network, as organizations like TransitMatters start to pop up in cities across the country.

The Transit Matters Podcast is your source for transportation news, analysis, interviews with transit advocates and more. By offering new perspectives, uniting transit advocates and promoting a level of critical analysis normally absent from other media, we can achieve a useful and effective transportation network because Transit Matters.

Like what you hear? Share it around, tell your friends and colleagues, and subscribe to the blog and podcast (on iTunes) to be notified of new posts and episodes. Support our work by becoming a member, making a donation or signing up to volunteer because we can't do this alone. Let us know what you think by connect with TransitMatters on Facebook or Twitter. Follow Jeremy Mendelson @Critical Transit, Josh Fairchild @hatchback31, Jarred Johnson at @jarjoh, Marc Ebuña at @DigitalSciGuy, and or email us here.

Why Transit Matters

Transit moves us. Our city is built around the MBTA, and everything we love about it could not exist without a robust transit system. It is why our population and employment base have exploded in recent years — nearly 10 percent in the city of Boston alone — and MBTA ridership has skyrocketed. Even conservative estimates show an additional 130,000 people in the Boston region by 2030.

Yet even as ridership on the rapid transit and major bus lines has increased as much as 30 percent in just 10 years, MBTA service hours and frequency have remained the same and the quality of service has actually declined in a culture of austerity. This is causing severe strain that is breaking the system.

We advocate for investing in a fast, frequent, reliable and comprehensive MBTA network to more effectively serve the growing population and employment base of our cities.

Today we have several critical challenges:

1. Neglecting our infrastructure is coming back to bite us in the form of disabled trains, signal problems, overcrowded buses and inability to operate reliably in any weather.
2. Rapid transit and most major bus lines do not have enough capacity for their current riders.
3. The network has not grown or changed to accommodate the city’s growing population, and existing service patterns do not match desired travel patterns.
4. A lack of vision and expert transit management (as well as inadequate funding) have caused many simple, cost effective upgrades to be ignored.
5. The housing crisis is making areas with rapid transit unaffordable and pushing people to areas with poor transit service. A four-mile commute can take over an hour.
6. Failure to invest in transit has worsened traffic congestion and many locations — including on most major bus corridors — experience near gridlock for several hours per day, making these buses slow and unreliable.

We have a long way to go but in only one year TransitMatters is making progress in shifting the conversation around transit issues. We host monthly social events where transit planners, advocates and other riders can learn and get involved. In addition to pursuing alternatives to fare increases and further austerity, we have started to pursue small but meaningful changes on the streets: things like dedicated bus lanes, signal priority and improved bus circulation around major stations and bottlenecks.

In this difficult political climate, our voice is needed more than ever. However, we are all volunteers and can only do so much. We would like to hire a director to ensure our efforts can continue.

Please support TransitMatters -- volunteer; join; donate -- and help us continue the fight for effective transportation. Learn more about Our Vision for Transit, read our position statements and advocacy initiatives, listen to our podcast and let us know how we can help you. And most of all, get involved!