Technology

Using the web to improve accessibility

Using the web to improve accessibility

TransitScreen is piloting technology in Cambridge

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Transportation in cities is changing rapidly as new technology-enabled mobility options such as bike-sharing, car-sharing, and ride-sharing emerge. Our mission at TransitScreen is to make information about these proliferating public and private mobility choices accessible to everyone – regardless of their age, language, or social status – allowing them to save time and money while(...)

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Uber, Lyft changing traffic patterns at Logan

Tracking Transportation

Uber, Lyft changing traffic patterns at Logan

More passengers choosing to be chauffered

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RIDE-SHARING SERVICES appear to be changing traffic patterns at Logan International Airport, boosting the number of people paying for chauffeured services while causing a slight drop in the use of private cars, rental cars, and public transportation. Data compiled by the Massachusetts Port Authority indicate the number of people using ride-share services, taxis, and limos(...)

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Drivers urge DPU to alter background checks

Tracking Transportation

Drivers urge DPU to alter background checks

Rejected Uber and Lyft drivers say unlimited reach discriminates

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EDWARD HARUNK SAID driving for Uber gave him the flexibility to take care of his sick wife and bring her to doctor’s appointments whenever she needed. “Being an Uber driver enabled me, as a sole caregiver, to set my own time and allowed me to focus on my wife’s challenges,” the 59-year-old Wellesley resident, a(...)

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Death of a cancer lab

Spring 2017

Death of a cancer lab

Once-thriving publicly funded research program driven into bankruptcy by questionable characters

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FEW PLACES HAVE the resources and brain power to match Boston when it comes to biomedical research, including the search for effective ways to treat and prevent cancer. Internationally renowned hospitals, combined with some of the leading universities in the world, make the region a magnet for top researchers and the funding that fuels their(...)

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Esports: More than a game

Spring 2017

Esports: More than a game

Big bucks online competition now gaining academia's interest

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FOR MOST PEOPLE over the age of 30, playing video games is perceived as a waste of time, a solitary, non-social activity that serves to melt one’s brain. Yet as a 20-year old who has been playing video games for about 15 years (and whose brain is still intact), I believe that perception is way(...)

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Logan passengers can now get a Lyft

Tracking Transportation

Logan passengers can now get a Lyft

Massport set to reach agreement with other ride-hailing companies

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MASSPORT HAS REACHED an agreement with Lyft to allow the ride-hailing company to operate out of Logan Airport, a move that paves the way for other transportation network companies such as Uber to pick up passengers at the terminals and take one of the last remaining lucrative routes away from Boston cabbies. “This is something(...)

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Got robots?

Winter 2017

Got robots?

Dairy farmers use technology to eke out a living

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Sixth-generation family farmers Dave and Steve Barstow have stretched the limits of what dairy farmers can do to stay afloat. They opened a store and bakery on their dairy farm at the foot of Mt. Holyoke in Hadley. They generate electricity from composted cow manure and food scraps. They even market a line of farm(...)

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Business unusual at the T

Tracking Transportation

Business unusual at the T

Unsolicited proposals to privatize services pique officials’ interest

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IT’S A MANTRA spoken so often these days it could be a bumper sticker. “The MBTA is open for business,” Brian Shortsleeve, the agency’s chief administrator and acting general manager, said in talking about unsolicited proposals for third-party vendors to operate T services. Shortsleeve thinks it’s so important for people to know “the MBTA is open(...)

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The toughest mile

Fall 2016

The toughest mile

State provides funding to wire rural towns for internet

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IN 2008, THE Patrick administration set out to wire 123 cities and towns in western Massachusetts for broadband. But eight years, 1,200 miles of fiber-optic cable, and nearly $100 million later, the effort has stalled with 44 communities still without high-speed internet. The towns that remain essentially disconnected—or, in the words of state officials, “unserved”—represent(...)

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Study: Storage could deliver 600 MW in 10 years

Study: Storage could deliver 600 MW in 10 years

Officials say incentives could lead to “game-changer” in renewable energy

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STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH THE RIGHT amount of encouragement, energy storage technology – a field that can range from batteries to more novel contraptions – could account for 600 megawatts of energy in Massachusetts by 2025, providing more than $800 million in savings and reducing greenhouse gases by the equivalent of removing 73,000 cars(...)

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