THE SUMNER TUNNEL shutdown on July 5 prompted an increase in MBTA passenger levels on subways, buses, ferries, and commuter rail, but the increase wasn’t as big as expected and there’s little evidence that people who tried public transit during the closure remained riders after the reopening on August 31. According to a presentation to […]
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Posted inHealth Care
Disability community is ignored demographic in pandemic
LIKE MANY OTHER marginalized populations, the disability community often finds itself an outlier when it comes to decision-making but always at the center of who is suffering the most. Findings from across the country indicate that COVID-19 has been a massive problem for the disability community. An analysis of private health insurance claims found that […]
Posted inTransportation
Lime riders traverse dangerous roadways
PEOPLE RENTING BIKES through an app often travel down dangerous roadways, such as Revere Beach Parkway, according to a planning agency that is hoping to sift the travel patterns of those cyclists to inform future decisions about transportation infrastructure. The Metropolitan Area Planning Council facilitated contracts between multiple Boston suburbs and Lime, a bike-sharing company, […]
Posted inTransportation
Red Line ridership hasn’t recovered
RED LINE RIDERSHIP has not fully recovered from the hit it took after a June 11 derailment, and the MBTA’s regular monthly survey of users suggests satisfaction with the agency remains near an all-time low. The T late Monday released data indicating Red Line ridership, which had been averaging more than 200,000 on weekdays the […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker proposes new ride-hailing regs
Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday proposed a range of new regulations to prevent abuses of the Uber and Lyft ride-hailing platforms and to more precisely monitor how those on-demand travel services are being used. The legislation would require the tech giants that host the services to share reams of anonymized data about rides so that […]
Posted inTransportation
Isolation problem: T fares rising faster than cost of driving
IN NOVEMBER 1990, Bill Weld won his first election as governor, NBC aired the first full season of Seinfeld, and someone driving from Melrose to catch a Bruins game could expect to pay 87 cents more for the car trip than the $1.65 train fare into North Station. A lot has changed since then. Looking […]
Posted inUncategorized
Pulling the data together
It’s not easy comparing the cost of different modes of travel. With driving, for example, there are a lot more costs than just the per-mile cost of driving – the cost of the vehicle, insurance, maintenance, tolls, parking etc. This appendix delves into some of those costs and how they have changed over time. It […]
Posted inPolitics
Weston residents biggest political donors in Mass.
THE MOST GENEROUS political donors in Massachusetts state and municipal campaigns last year, perhaps unsurprisingly, tend to live in some of the wealthiest communities in the state. In its spring newsletter, the Office of Campaign and Political Finance put out a list of per-capital political spending from every city and town in the state ranked […]