PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRANK CURRAN LOOKING AT THESE THREE GUYS, you wonder what they have in common. Marc Ebuña is a 30-year-old information technology worker who dresses fashionably, lives in Jamaica […]
Transportation
Posted inOpinion
A new breed of advocacy
THIS ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS a new breed of advocacy that appears to be emerging here in Massachusetts, an advocacy driven more by data than ideology. Our Conversation introduces you to Marc […]
Posted inOpinion
Mass. critical hub for autonomous systems
IT’S AN EXCITING TIME to be in the Commonwealth’s innovation sector. There’s a technological revolution taking place around the world and Massachusetts is ground zero as an emerging new industry […]
Posted inTransportation
Is Baker’s commission another delay tactic?
LIKE RED LINE TRAINS, the state’s efforts to address transportation funding are constantly bedeviled by fits and starts in a seemingly endless quest to reach the destination. In the latest […]
Posted inOpinion
Sound lessons from Seattle
MASSACHUSETTS IS ABUZZ with talk about whether Amazon might choose one of our communities for its second North American headquarters. Just days after Amazon announced a nation-wide search for “HQ2,” […]
Posted inTransportation
T notes: Pollack slams Keolis on-time performance
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY STEPHANIE POLLACK took Keolis Commuter Service to task on Monday for failing to improve its on-time performance. Pollack acknowledged after the meeting of the Fiscal and Management Control […]
Posted inThe Download
Mixed messages on paying for transportation
These numbers from the 106-page report by a group of state senators on transportation in Massachusetts shouldn’t surprise anyone: 80 percent of respondents to a survey don’t think the transportation system […]
Posted inTransportation
Study raises transportation concerns, punts on solution
THE MASSACHUSETTS TAXPAYERS FOUNDATION released a report on Tuesday raising concerns about the state’s ability to maintain and improve its transportation infrastructure, but called for another study of the issues […]
Posted inEconomy
Millennium promises shorter Winthrop Sq. tower
THE DEVELOPER MILLENNIUM PARTNERS agreed on Monday to cut the height of its proposed tower in Winthrop Square from 775 feet to at least 702 feet to ease concerns raised […]
Posted inOpinion
Baker taking T privatization too far
WE’RE ALL GUILTY OF IT. Something breaks in the house that needs to be replaced by a trained professional, but instead of making the proper investment we glue, tape, and […]
Posted inEconomy
A Boston tower and the law of unintended consequences
I WAS REALLY BAD IN MATH and physics in college. My brain was wired to appreciate things like alliteration and metaphor, not equations or abstract laws of nature. But I […]
Posted inTransportation
T cites $400m in Pacheco Law waiver savings
THE MBTA EXPECTS TO SAVE more than $400 million in operating and avoided capital expenses over the next 10 years because of privatization initiatives engineered under a waiver from the […]
Posted inOpinion
Bus stops and the future of digital placemaking
THE TYPICAL URBAN BUS STOP is a miserable thing: a piece of metal attached to a pole; a strip of colored paint on a curb; a beaten-up shelter. Such bad […]
Posted inThe Download
City, Boston teachers kick the can
City officials and the Boston Teachers Union eagerly shared the news on Thursday that the two sides reached a tentative contract agreement after 18 months of negotiation. But it turns […]
Posted inOpinion
Pike-ageddon looms
MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION and Boston officials have done an admirable job minimizing impacts of rebuilding the Commonwealth Avenue bridge above I-90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike) in Allston at the BU Bridge. […]
Posted inThe Download
Smart money in Massachusetts
Back in 1990, during his run for governor, John Silber made the somewhat controversial observation that not everyone is college material and those folks would be better off focusing on […]
Posted inTransportation
Lack of public sector experience is troubling
THE APPOINTMENT OF LUIS RAMIREZ as the new general manager of the MBTA again raises the question of whether a successful private sector businessman or woman can make a successful […]
Posted inTransportation
Study prices out N-S Rail Link
A RAIL LINK BETWEEN North and South Stations would cost between $3.8 billion and $5.9 billion to build, according to a data analysis conducted by a group of students and […]
Posted inThe Download
Trump’s disruptive power
Donald Trump signed 42 executive orders in his first 200 days as president. By comparison, Barack Obama, who Trump criticized for signing too many, averaged 35 executive orders a year […]
Posted inTransportation
Uber, Lyft gain market share at Logan
A SIX-MONTH STUDY of traffic patterns at Logan International Airport generally confirms what earlier data suggested – that transportation network companies such as Uber, Lyft, and most recently Wingz are gaining market share but […]
Posted inTransportation
Transportation tech isn’t easy
AS THE LEADER of a transportation agency, there is no shortage of people ready to tell me how technology is going to revolutionize the way we do business. From autonomous […]
Posted inThe Download
Catching up with inaccuracy
In an editorial on Thursday, the Metrowest Daily News unloaded on President Trump for his embarrassing stance on climate change, which the newspaper said prompted scientists to leak a draft […]
Posted inPolitics
Rep. Straus’s idea is a really bad one
AUGUST. That lazy, hazy month without an official vacation day because, well, everyone is either on vacation or slowing down because everyone else is on vacation. Like that bewitching period […]
Posted inThe Download
NYC subway system looks to Boston
In case you missed it, the New York City subway system is in crisis mode, and officials in the Big Apple are looking to Boston for some answers. At the […]