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Wu looks to extend free service on three bus lines

By adamg on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 9:21am

CommonWealth Beacon reports Mayor Wu is looking at ways to continue the free-service pilot on the 23, 28 and 29 bus routes past its current planned end of Feb. 29.

Neighborhoods: 
Boston
Topics: 
The T
Free tagging: 
Route 23
Route 28
Route 29
buses


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Comments

By Rwgfy on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 9:42am.

Wayfair and Spirit workers can enjoy free rides to free museums in their free time.

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By John Costello on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 10:17am.

Why not the 92 and 92?

Why not the 9 and 11?

Why not the 20 and the 22?

Why are these bus lines being signaled out?

All of the other lines I list are within Boston City Limits.

Does someone have an explanation for this?

Why do limited neighborhoods get free service but Charlestown, South Boston or West Roxbury do not?

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By cinnamngrl on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 10:57am.

I think she would like to, but these lines were chosen. These lines are very busy and go through poor neighborhoods.

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By John Costello on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 11:37am.

Allston is a poorer neighborhood than Mattapan.

Mattapan has a higher per capita income than Chinatown, Dorchester, The Fenway, Allston, Roxbury, and Mission Hill as well.

Why are the 28 and 29 free south of Franklin Park?

Why do you have to pay on the 20 at all? Dorchester is a less well off area per the City's own data. The 22 is free (but not the 23).

Seems weird.

Now, let's go look at voting patterns for the last mayoral election and see who gets free buses....

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By FenwayRyan on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 12:00pm.

The data for the Fenway, Mission Hill, Allston, etc is heavily skewed by students...almost to the point of not even being usable.

I do find it interesting that fares only cover ~10% of the operating cost of the MBTA's buses today (in 2022 T spent $532 million on bus service and generated $55 million in fare revenue). How much money are they putting into fare collection & enforcement to only collect $55M per year?

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By SwirlyGrrl on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 2:09pm.

When I've produced maps using individual poverty levels I've gotten legit comments from college towns that it doesn't present a true picture of conditions on the ground. So I started adding data for household poverty levels as a check.

I'll use Amherst as an example. When my son was a student there his personal income came from his internship over the summer and winter breaks, and it was below poverty level. However, I was paying for his meal plan and some of his housing, clothing, bike maintenance, etc. He would count as having a below poverty level income, but he was subsidized by parents.

About 25% of individuals in Amherst have sub poverty level incomes, while less than 10% of families do.

Compare to Gardner, where 19% of individuals and 16% of families have incomes below the poverty line, and the skew is apparent.

I checked out some older numbers at the tract level for Allston - while there are a lot of students, there are also a lot of young adults who are paying their own bills. The numbers for individual and family poverty for the three tracts that I checked were all within 5% - meaning that Allston is more mixed students/non-students than it is reputed to have.

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By berkleealum on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 12:12pm.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/11/04/boston-mayoral-election-results-pre...

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By cinnamngrl on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 2:47pm.

the 23 is free. the 28 and 29 are free

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By Lee on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 11:48am.

…. were disenfranchised when the Orange Line was relocated and the Silver Line was not extended to Egleston as originally promised.

It’s not much, but maybe a small way to try to make up for that.

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By John Costello on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 12:14pm.

Please, tell me when the Orange Line served Mattapan?

The buses which are free still go to guess what? Orange Line stations.

Mattapan Square has a Red Line stop and a Commuter Rail stop.

The Green Line down Centre Street to Arborway was removed 2 years before the Orange Line on Washington Street.

Why isn't the 39 free then?

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By Lee on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 1:34pm.

…disenfranchised and the crumbs they are thrown.

Got it.

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By John Costello on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 3:22pm.

I pointed out that there are other Boston neighborhoods with less of an average household than Mattapan. Mattapan has roughly the same average household income as East Boston. Are they poor?

Are you calling Mattapan poor or is that just your vile racist bias?

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By SwirlyGrrl on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 3:34pm.

IMAGE(https://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201011/r681890_5048629.jpg)

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By John Costello on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 4:33pm.

Thanks.

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By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 01/20/2024 - 6:51pm.

I'll put up your Senior Picture:
IMAGE(https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*0IL0BEJgTGvtcrIzxuawJg.jpeg)

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By Friartuck on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 12:21pm.

And Mishawum residents... there are poor people in Charlestown

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By SwirlyGrrl on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 12:57pm.

https://mass-eoeea.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=1d6f6...

I'm so sorry you find life so difficult and feel so marginalized.

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By John Costello on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 1:11pm.

Newton Upper Falls, Parts of Wellesley, and all of Boxborough too?

After all, this map which you cite points out that these areas are environmental justice communities.

Also, by linking to this map you prove that the 20 should be free.

Thanks for playing. Go watch Wapner.

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By SwirlyGrrl on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 1:35pm.

Including the other RTAs.

That would rival the level of subsidy that drivers get.

But, yes, there are EJ communities throughout the state. Poverty and marginalization aren't the sole province of cities, and "the help" has to live somewhere, amirite?

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By redheadedjen on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 12:57pm.

Or the 32? The one that always have buses are taken for other routes.

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By fungwah on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 4:11pm.

(here)

The 23 Bus route (Ashmont to Dorchester Center, Grove Hall & Ruggles), the 28 Bus route (Mattapan Square, up Blue Hill Ave. to Nubian Square & Ruggles) and the 29 Bus route (Mattapan Square, up Blue Hill Ave. to Jackson Square) each serve a diverse ridership, and all three travel through and along Blue Hill Avenue, an important corridor connecting riders who are underserved by the existing transit network. Blue Hill Avenue has been identified by Livable Streets Alliance as one of the corridors that should be prioritized for improvements to increase reliability and boost ridership, which the City is working to address through the Blue Hill Ave Redesign Plan.

These three routes are some of the routes with the highest ridership throughout the City of Boston. Route 23 serves over 100,000 monthly riders, runs past Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, the Grove Hall Branch of the Boston Public Library and various places of worship. The route also intersects with Columbus Avenue, home to the first center-running bus lane in New England, demonstrating the potential to combine fare-free transit with modern transit infrastructure to reduce local air pollution, ease congestion and speed up service.

Wu's been pretty consistent for years now that she'd like to expand it, but until there's more money for that, I think these seem like good reasons to have started with these three routes. And it makes more sense to keep the same routes going rather than switch everything around in a way that makes it difficult for people to plan around.

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By Angry Dan on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 11:04am.

All the buses should be free.

Unfortunately, the mayor cannot do this on her own. But what she has been able to do is helpful and continuing to call attention to the issue.

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