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Transformation of Forest Hills continues with new upper-busway bus exits
By adamg on Tue, 12/26/2017 - 10:49am
Deb Beatty Mel reports buses are now leaving the upper busway at Forest Hills through a pair of exits that separates them from oncoming traffic at the old exit at South Street.
State officials recently said they hope to have the bulk of the Forest Hills/Arborway road work done by the end of this week, although long suffering upper-busway riders will have to wait until next fall for a canopy to protect them from rain, snow and hail.
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Traffic at Forest Hills
This will only work if the MBTA has a Transit Officer stop traffic to allow the buses to exit the station.
Well ...
They have traffic lights.
Buses take care of themselves sometimes
More than once I've had to stop at a green light heading north on Washington St when a south bound buses decided they didn't want to wait for their green light and just pulled out. Still, there's no need for a traffic officer if they would occasionally 1) ticket people for blocking the box and 2) impound peoples cars for double parking across the street from the Dogwood.
Oh you want to pick someone up and there's not a spot in the pull over lane? Guess what, you need to drive around the block or something. So often people seem to think that if there's not a place to park they simply have no other option but to bork traffic south bound on HPA just for their own convenience.
Wait
Your suggestions, which are good, to handle the problems at Forest Hills are
Not to nit pick, but you'd need some kind of traffic officer to do these things.
Also, as a general comment, I do want to note that the buses on the upper busway now stop twice as far from the entrance to the station proper from before. Just wanted to get that gripe out there.
It takes a lot less time to
It takes a lot less time to pick someone up than it does to get a tow truck through that traffic. Ticketing popular double parking spots in the city are a full time job no one is staffed for, unfortunately.
But
It takes drivers and buses a lot more time when cars double park.
It's actually very simple
Ticketing cars requires minimal labor per car ticketed and makes money for the City. Towing cars requires significant labor per car towed and costs the City money.
It looks like they made the southbound turn too tight
I saw two buses have to back up trying to make the southbound turn (which is almost a U-turn) to the stop light - the bus I ended up riding barely made the turn without having to back up. All of them departed from the left-side lane (34, 34E, 35, 36, 37) - maybe the right-side lane has an easier approach?
It's too bad our nation's
It's too bad our nation's road engineers have to figure this out by trial and error, never having designed a road for buses before.
New canopy will fix that.
All the controversy over the new canopy aside, it will be built further back from the street than the current bus lanes. Once that happens, the bus lanes will move further back under the canopy and the turns won't be so tight.
Side effect: when you come out of the station, you will need to do a major jog to the left to get to the buses and none will be visible from inside the station.
What's stopping them from
What's stopping them from plopping down some pre-fab bus shelters for the winter?
Maybe they're worried they'll work too well, proving the 10 million dollar canopy is a mistake.
Quonset Hut?
Well...
I wonder if the old bus shelter graveyard at Everett has anything salvagable that can be fixed up.
But also: WHY DEMOLISH THE ROOF OF ONE OF THE BUSIEST MULTIMODAL BUS STOPS WITH NO FUNDS OR CONCRETE PLANS TO REBUILD IT?!?!
As my grandmother would say: "What are these people?! Stuck on stupid?!
Or an easier idea
Why didn't they preserve the old roof and just stick in over where the buses will be?
I mean, a fancy shelter would be great, but any decent shelter does the job. The old shelter was a great shelter, but as I repeatedly point out, those who use the train station were the lowest of concern for those who conceived this project.
For the same reason the Casey came down
Structural deficiency.
It was a fine shelter
Unlike the overpass, which was built of subpar materials.
Forrest Hills MBTA
You are forgetting a lot of people wanted to make a fortune building housing around the station. That is the only reason the Casey overpass was deemed beyond repair. It was always a scam.
The overpass was beyond repair
Did you see the thing before it was torn down. Even I, who thinks a bridge should have replaced it, knows that.
How would an overpass have
How would an overpass have stopped housing built on the parking lots?
Hey Adam,
Hey Adam,
Figured since this was an MBTA thread I would throw this in here:
On March 2nd the Boston City Council is having a meeting with the MBTA to talk about the inconsistencies with the Commuter Rail fare within the city of Boston.
Michelle Wu had posted a flyer on twitter.
March 2nd
Hyde Park Community Center
1179 River St
Perfect
Who wants to print out the 4000 pages of previous U Hub posts on how pricing is based on distance not town borders and bring it to the meeting.
Now, Now
If the city wants to give a bunch of money to the T to subsidize the service, I’m sure they’ll take it.
Of course, that means some other city budget areas would have to be cut, for a benefit only the people of Roslindale, West Roxbury, and Readville would get, but I’m sure the people in East Boston would be okay with that.
Wrong Year
No, that hearing took place in 2016 on that exact date at that exact location.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1088682471176302/
The new City Council session hasn't even started, so they can't schedule hearings yet. Maybe she mixed up her years?
She tweeted the photo 3 days
She tweeted the photo 3 days ago...maybe it was a friendly reminder that yes, the ppl in the city are subsidizing the end of the liners.
Subsidizing
You have a funny idea of "subsidy".
Perhaps it will be an annual event
Just throwing it out there.
Like Festivus? We can air
Like Festivus? We can air our MBTA grievances once a year!
Actually...
She retweeted Tim McCarthy's tweet...which seems to reuse their old flyer to call attention to the fare inequity of the Needham Heights riders who live in the city of Boston.
If it's McCarthy
He is probably talking about Hyde Park and Readville Stations. Readville to South Station costs $6.75. That's what the rich people in Needham pay.
Bellevue to SS (or BB) is $6
Bellevue to SS (or BB) is $6.25. Slightly less than what the rich folk pay for half the mileage.
Alas, it’s like taking a cab
There’s that big first charge, then smaller incremental increases with additional mileage.
If only there were another, less expensive, way to get into town from that area.
Yes, there are many busses to
Yes, there are many busses to FH. If they keep the bus lane on Washington maybe many of the riders will switch to taking a bus and the orange line.
As long as we're picking out
As long as we're picking out fare anomalies, don't forget JPers riding the commuter rail from Forest Hills to Back Bay for 55c/mile, while Roslindalites have to pay $1.18/mile.
Who's the good guy and the bad guy here? I don't know how to assign blame based on municipality (both are in Boston) or median income (I have no idea which neighborhood has more).
Alas, it's like taking a cab
Except that anyone from Roslindale can take the commuter rail from Forest Hills inbound. Heck, I used to take it every morning from there until the whole Charlie Card/Charlie Ticket thing started up. I still take it between Back Bay and Forest Hills from time to time, but not as often now that it requires buying a ticket versus using one's subway pass. Just hop the bus to Forest Hills. Or walk. The stairway to the commuter rail platform is just beyond the subway entrance on the right.
Link to McCarthy's tweet
https://twitter.com/McCarthy4Boston/status/944743901956595712