Inspired by an article I was editing for American Journal Experts on traffic and vehicle emissions management in China, I started thinking about the traffic and transit problems in my own city, Boston. Although it is certainly not among the most congested or polluted cities, partially thanks to (faulty though they may be) projects such as the Big Dig, Boston has its share of problems. I am certainly guilty of contributing to the problem by hopping in my car at times instead of hopping on the T. The line I live on, the "B" Green line, a largely above-ground trolley line, is SOOO slow. It drives me nuts.
This brings me to my argument on public transit efficiency. In order for people to consistently choose greener transit options over driving, it has to be faster and cheaper (see emphasis on the speed factor above). Why not give the above-ground Green lines more control over the traffic signals? Give them a button to press to change lights after they have loaded some passengers and are ready to proceed. This would be a considerably more cost effective choice than putting the trains underground, and although it would undoubtedly make car traffic less efficient in the short term, it might encourage more people to ride instead of drive in the long term. Just a thought.
In the mean time, I probably need to purchase the above T shirt from Boston's Weekly Dig newspaper to share my Green line frustrations with my like-minded comrades.
