Transportation in Boston

A Boston, Massachusetts above-ground Green Line subway train rumbles by, while a taxicab, a privately owned vehicle, and person walking demonstrate some of the other ways of getting around the city.

The city of Boston, Massachusetts, boasts the entire range of transportation options. The Boston transportation system includes roadway, rail, air, and sea options for passenger and freight transit. The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) operates the Port of Boston, which includes a container shipping facility in South Boston, and Logan International Airport in East Boston. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates bus, subway, short distance rail, and water ferry passenger services throughout the city and region. Amtrak operates passenger rail service from the downtown to Portland, Maine, Springfield, Massachusetts, Hartford, Connecticut, and New York City. A major bus terminal at South Station is served by varied intercity bus companies. The city is bisected by major highways, I-90 and I-93, the intersection of which has recently undergone a major renovation, nicknamed the Big Dig. Boston also boasts an extensive network of secondary highways, parkways, and local roads.

Road transportation

Road infrastructure

The construction of the Big Dig's Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge (now complete) over the Charles River. The elevated Central Artery, on the right, has since been demolished.

The streets of Boston, Massachusetts may seem as though they were not planned—a common fiction is that they evolved from old cowpaths—but in the 17th century they avoided swamps and marshes and followed shorelines before the original peninsula comprising the city was expanded with landfill in the 19th century. Except for the Back Bay and part of South Boston, Boston has no street grid, which is confusing for nonresident drivers. Roads change names and lose and add lanes seemingly at random, and many drivers are flummoxed by rotaries.

Expressways and major arterial roads in and around Boston are laid out with two circumferential expressways: Interstate 495 and Route 128. The circumferential routes are bisected by several radial highways that were planned to start in downtown Boston and proceed outward from the city. In reality, the Central Artery was the only one of these radial expressways that was fully completed. The freeway revolt prompted the governor of Massachusetts to halt construction on all remaining expressways within the Route 128 beltway in the early 1970s in lieu of light rail/subway lines to serve areas through which the radial expressways were planned.

By the early 1990s traffic on the elevated artery was 190,000 vehicles per day, with an accident rate four times the national average for urban interstates. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper for six to eight hours per day, with projections of traffic jams doubling by 2010. Plus, the elevated structure itself was decaying.

For most of the 1990s and early 2000s, driving in Boston was disrupted by the Big Dig, the most expensive (roughly $14 billion) road project in the history of the United States.

Walking and bicycling

Boston is known to travel agents as "America's Walking City". Boston is a compact city, sized right for walking or bicycling and according to a Prevention magazine report in 2003, the city has the highest percentage of on-foot commuters of any city in the United States. In 2000, 13.36% of Boston commuters walked to work according to the US Census. This was the highest of any major US city, but bested by college towns such as nearby Cambridge. Most of the area's cities and towns have standing committees devoted to improvements to the bicycle and pedestrian environment.

Bicycle paths are marked on some roadways, and several separated paths are available to cyclists. The Minuteman Bikeway (which runs though several suburbs of Boston) and Charles River bike paths are popular with recreational cyclists and tourists. The Southwest Corridor also provides cycling infrastructure. Many MBTA riders use a bicycle to get to the station.

Although cycling is popular in Boston, for both recreation and commuting, Bicycling magazine, in its March 2006 issue, named the city as one of its three worst cities for cycling. The distinction was earned for roads that are in terrible shape, few bike lanes that are disconnected, and a city government that makes pro-bike gestures, then rescinds them, such as hiring a bike coordinator, then eliminating the position after only two years. Neighboring Cambridge earned an honorable mention as one of the best cities for cycling with a population of 75,000-200,000. Boston has an active Critical Mass ride and MassBike is a bike advocacy group active in supporting cyclists in the area.

Buses

The MBTA bus system operates 162 bus routes within the Greater Boston area with a combined ridership of approximately 375,000 one-way trips per day. Included within the MBTA system are four of the few remaining trolleybus lines in the U.S. (71, 72, 73 and 77a), although these principally operate in the adjoining city of Cambridge. The basic bus fare is $1.25; monthly commuter passes are available, as are transfers between some bus lines and the subway.

In an effort to provide service intermediate in speed and capacity between subways and buses, the MBTA has begun projects using the Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT, system. The MBTA has one BRT line, the Silver Line, although this operates in two discontinuous sections. The Silver Line operates in part in a dedicated trolleybus tunnel, in part in on-street bus lanes, and in part in general street traffic. Service through the trolleybus tunnel is by hybrid trolleybus, which operate off diesel power for the rest of the route.

In addition to local bus service and BRT, South Station is a major bus depot for inter-city travel. Many bus lines such as Greyhound and Peter Pan operate from the station.

Several companies operate tourist trolleys on hop-on/hop-off tours of Boston. Other companies operate duck tours that use amphibious vehicles, mostly derived from World War II era DUKWs, and encompass both the city's streets and its waterways.

Parking

Automobile parking was not a particular concern of Boston's first settlers. The city that sprung up accommodates cars only awkwardly; parking comes at a premium throughout the city. Off-street parking spaces have sold for more than $160,000 in Beacon Hill. Understandably, on-street parking is the norm in many sections, and the city created a resident permit parking program to reserve street space for permanent residents. The cost to obtain a permit is extremely low, however, and the program is overused; permitted spaces remain scarce. Meters city-wide are priced at $1 per hour, and thus metered spaces also often are difficult to find.

The number of public parking spaces downtown has been capped since the mid-1970s. The number of parking spaces in East and South Boston, and the hours that they may be used, also is restricted by state regulation. This is part of the state Department of Environmental Protection's plan, approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to address the non-compliance of the region with the mandatory National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone.

The MBTA operates several large park and ride facilities on its subway and commuter rail lines, close to major highways, providing access to downtown. While most of these tend to fill up with commuters on weekday mornings, they provide a good place for visitors to leave their cars and see the city without parking hassles on evenings and weekends.

Rail transportation

Subway

Boston has the oldest subway system in North America, with the first underground streetcar traffic dating back to 1897. In the early 1960s, the then new MBTA hired Cambridge Seven Associates to help develop a new identity. Cambridge Seven came up with a circled T to represent such concepts as "transit", "transportation" and "tunnel." Today, Bostonians call their rapid transit network "the T" and its subway is the fourth busiest in the country, with daily ridership of 549,000 trips excluding the Silver Line bus, which compares with the Washington Metrorail's 910,100, the Chicago L's 596,300, and Los Angeles's 126,900, though is dwarfed like the rest by New York City's 6.0 million average daily weekday trips taken.

The basic one-way fare is $1.70 (or $2.00 if paid cash). Monthly commuter passes and day and week visitor's passes are available. There are four subway lines in the metropolitan Boston area: the Red Line, Green Line, Orange Line, and Blue Line. The colors of each line have a meaning: the Blue Line runs along the ocean; the Red Line used to terminate at Harvard University (whose school color is crimson); the Orange Line used to run along Washington Street, which was once called Orange Street; and The Green Line runs into the leafy suburbs of Brookline and Newton.

The Green Line is actually four different lines; it starts as one and about halfway through the system it splits into four different branches, the B (Boston College), C (Cleveland Circle), D (Riverside) and E (Heath Street) trains. Because the split is only present on the outbound end of the line one may take any train inbound, but when going outbound one must be careful of which train one gets on or else one will end up in a very different place. The Red Line splits as well, with southbound trains going either to Braintree or Ashmont.

Though most of Boston's rapid transit network is powered via third rail, significant portions of the Blue Line, as well as all of the Green Line and the Mattapan High Speed Line are powered by overhead lines. The name "subway" is something of a misnomer, as with other systems, large segments run above ground when far from the city's downtown. Additionally, the Green Line and Mattapan High Speed Lines are technically light-rail services, using trolley cars rather than the typical multiple unit trains. The Mattapan line uses refurbished pre-war "PCC" trolleys; the Green Line relies on more modern LRV cars from Japan and Italy.

Like the New York City subway, Boston's subway system does keep to an exact fixed schedule (unlike the Tokyo subway) and it has no mechanism in place to inform customers of current train locations or estimated times until arrivals (unlike the Washington Metro).

Elevated sections

Despite the first section being built underground, many later parts were built as elevated railways. The only old-style elevated remaining is the Red Line at Charles-MGH, between the tunnel under Beacon Hill and the Longfellow Bridge. Until 2004, the Green Line was elevated near North Station; the tunnel to replace it opened in the summer of 2004. The part north of there will remain elevated and runs along a concrete arch bridge.

The Boston Elevated Railway was the company that owned all the elevateds and subways. The following els once existed:

• Causeway Street Elevated (closed 2004), from the Haymarket Incline to the Lechmere Viaduct
• Washington Street Elevated (closed 1987), from Forest Hills to an incline north of the Masspike
• Charlestown Elevated (closed April 4, 1975), from the Haymarket Incline to Everett
• Atlantic Avenue Elevated (closed 1938), from the Washington Street El at the Castle Street Wye at Herald Street (Tower 'D') to the Charlestown El and Causeway Street El at North Station (Tower 'C')

Commuter rail

The MBTA Commuter Rail system, sometimes known as the Purple Line, brings people from as far away as Worcester and Providence, Rhode Island into Boston. There are approximately 125,000 one-way trips on the commuter rail each day.

There are two major rail terminals in Boston: North Station and South Station. Lines from the North Shore and northwestern suburbs begin and terminate at North Station; lines from the South Shore and the west start and end at South Station. There is no direct rail connection between North Station and South Station and interchange between the two stations requires the use of two diffent subway lines (Red/Orange or Red/Green), although passengers on commuter lines serving Back Bay Station can interchange directly from there to North Station using the Orange line. A North-South Rail Link has been proposed to allow commuter trains to serve both North and South stations, but there are no definite plans to build this.

Intercity rail

Amtrak's Northeast Corridor service terminates at South Station, whilst their Downeaster service to Maine terminates at North Station. The Northeast Corridor service also stops at Back Bay Station, in Boston's Back Bay district, and Route 128 Station, outside the city on Route 128. All of these stations are also served by commuter rail.

The lack of a direct rail connection between North Station and South Station means that passengers transferring from the Northeast Corridor to the Downeaster are also faced by a transfer between the stations. Although most such transfers can be achieved using the Orange Line between Back Bay and North Station, Amtrak recommends passengers with luggage to use a taxi.

Freight rail

CSX is the only class I railroad serving the Boston area, which it reaches by its Boston Subdivision line to Springfield, and by trackage rights over the Northeast Corridor. CSX also has trackage rights over much of the southern half of the MBTA's commuter rail network. CSX's principal rail freight facility is located in Allston in west Boston.

The only other significant freight railroad in the Boston area is Pan Am Railways (PAR; formerly known as the Guilford Rail System). PAR is a class II railroad that operates lines to the north and west of Boston, reaching destinations in New Hampshire, Maine and New York as well as Massachusetts. It also has trackage rights over much of the northern half of the MBTA's commuter rail network.

Water transportation

Port of Boston

Main article: Port of Boston

The Port of Boston is a major seaport and the largest port in Massachusetts. It was historically important for the growth of the city, and was originally located in what is now the downtown area of the city. Land reclamation and conversion to other uses means that downtown area no longer handles commercial traffic, although the US Coast Guard maintains a major base there, and there is still considerable ferry and leisure usage.

Today the principal cargo handling facilities are located in the Boston neighborhoods of Charlestown, East Boston, and South Boston, and in the neighbouring city of Everett. In 2006, the port handled over 14 million metric tons of cargo, including 201,000 container TEUs. Other major forms of cargo processed at the port include petroleum, liquefied natural gas (LNG), automobiles, cement, gypsum, and salt.

The Black Falcon Cruise Terminal is situated in South Boston. During 2006 it served about 208,000 cruise ship passengers and there were 81 cruise ship visits that year.

Ferry services

A pair of water taxis operating on the waterfront of Boston

The MBTA boat system comprises several ferry routes on Boston Harbor. One of these is an inner harbor service, linking the downtown waterfront with Boston Navy Yard in Charlestown. The other routes are commuter routes, linking downtown to Hingham, Hull and Quincy. Some commuter services operate via Logan International Airport. All services are operated by private sector companies under contract to the MBTA.

Outside the MBTA system, seasonal ferry services operate to the Boston Harbor Islands, to the city of Salem, and to the city of Provincetown on Cape Cod. Water taxis provide on-demand service from various points on the downtown waterfront and from Logan Airport, and in particular between the airport and downtown.

Several companies operate tourist oriented cruise boats on the harbor and on the Charles River. Other companies operate duck tours that use amphibious vehicles, mostly derived from World War II era DUKWs, and encompass both the city's streets and its waterways.

Aviation

Main article: List of airports in the Boston area

Boston has extensive domestic and international airline service at three airports:

• Logan International Airport in East Boston
• T. F. Green Airport in Providence, Rhode Island
• Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire

There are also several general aviation facilities including Hanscom Field in Bedford and Norwood Municipal Airport. Silver Line bus rapid transit connects Logan terminals with South Station and there are shuttle buses between the terminals and the Blue Line Airport station. Train service is planned from T.F. Green to Boston.

Since September 11, 2001 attacks to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, exceptionally strict security has been implemented at all of Boston's airports. Because of this and its location as the closest American port to Europe, airliners that experience security breaches or disturbances while enroute to the U.S. are likely to be diverted to Boston, although they may also be diverted to Halifax, Nova Scotia, or other Canadian airports.

See also

• Boston, Massachusetts
• MBTA accessibility
• List of U.S. cities with most pedestrian commuters

Sources

General

• http://www.mbta.com/profile/glance/ridership.cfm
• http://www.mbta.com/profile/glance/infrastructure.cfm
• http://www.mbta.com/schedmaps/maps/system/
• http://members.aol.com/netransit/
• http://www.boston-online.com/Transportation/Trains/
• Car Free in Boston
• http://www.pathfriends.org/
• Chronology of subway construction in Boston

External links

• Boston's Big Dig
• Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority