Hacker News Reader

Comment by madcaptenor | Hacker News Reader

2014, but still interesting - I wonder how things have changed with more WFH. (And also, from what I hear, with the Red Line basically not working these days?)

View on HN

ridership is about half of what it was pre-pandemic, so there are likely a lot of differences - the green line extension and some additional orange line stations have also opened since

the whole system is a mess right now, but there's a new general manager that seems to be the best chance we've ever had at turning it around

My very anecdotal sense as someone who doesn't come into the city a lot is that rush hour traffic is worse than ever and transit is less crowded than it used to be be.

surprisingly traffic is lower than pre-pandemic overall, though possible it's clustering more at rush hour... anecdotally I do notice that people are worse drivers than ever

Worth noting that the bicycle infrastructure in Cambridge, Somerville, and the adjoining parts of Boston has also skyrocketed in quality relative to its pre-pandemic state, it's extremely heartening to see. I don't take the T much anymore just because it's so easy to bike anywhere that I need to go. Shout out to the new path parallel to the green line extension, which makes it feasible to get from downtown to Somerville (and out to the Minuteman and 20 miles beyond!) without needing to navigate that viaduct and nightmare highway overpass east of Union.

The bicycle infrastructure, at least in Cambridge, does seem to be very heavily used even if it does make for some pretty crazy intersections between pedestrians, bikes/e-scooters, and cars--especially when it's getting dark in the evenings like now. I drove in last night for an event--really no alternative from well outside the city--and it's a pretty wild mix of transportation modes.

The bad part of the new bike lanes however is that it is now politically impossible to implement street cars or dedicated Bus Rapid Transit. There’s not enough space on the main streets and the bike lobby is very powerful.

I say this is someone who bikes, but who would rather have working mass transit first as it is far more useful and also equitable.

I can name several places in Cambridge and Boston which are using dedicated bike+bus lanes as a solution to accommodating public transit and micromobility on our narrow streets. I'm sure that some bike people grumble about it, but the rest of us recognize that every person who decides to bus rather than drive is one less car that we have to contend with.

As for streetcars, Philadelphia shows that you can mix streetcar lanes with car lanes.

I have lived on a streetcar line in Philadelphia and sometimes people double-park. It's not ideal.

True, but we are getting more center-running bus lanes, which in the absence of street cars is at least a reasonable step forward

True. I chose my neighborhood in Somerville with proximity to the T as a top priority because I assumed I'd be taking it to work in Kendall every day. Then I bought a bike and found it better in almost every way: free, enjoyable (much of the time), healthier, and much faster. So much so that I biked nearly all of the time, year-round. I had dedicated lanes for most of the trip, and quiet almost car-free neighborhoods for much of the rest.

An unexpected pleasure was the schadenfreude of passing scores of cars on Hampshire/Beacon on my way home during rush hour.

An unexpected annoyance was the fair weather bikers who don't seem to know their bike has gears, and take f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to get going at a green light.

there are a lot of differences since 2077...

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Category:MTA_stations

It's a bit faster than walking between Alewife and Porter.

I actually did race it on foot a few weeks ago and won!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com