By HarryMattison on Mon., 3/16/2015 - 11:13 am 
"Keep your cars out of our backyard" says BU President Brown
The Boston Globe reported today that in exchange for an $8M contribution to build the West Station commuter rail station adjacent to its campus, Boston University sought "enforceable language prohibiting the use of BU's West Campus as a route for buses or other vehicular traffic to carry commuters to or from West Station."
If a new commuter rail station is going to be built in Allston, shouldn't we make it easy for people to get to the station so more people will use it?
Wouldn't it be great if we could also provide new, direct routes for people driving, riding a bus, biking and walking to get from Coolidge Corner & Comm Ave to Cambridge Street, Western Ave, Harvard, and Cambridge?
Should drivers coming from Comm Ave be able to get on the Mass Pike more easily than they can today?
And at the same time should we reduce cut-through traffic on Brighton Ave, Harvard Ave, Linden Street, and Cambridge Street by giving people better north-south travel options?
Many Allston residents and transportation advocates say YES to all of these questions. Unfortunately, BU has been using its wallet and political clout to say NO.
There certainly are negative impacts associated with highways or any busy street. It might be nice if we could all live on quiet dead-end streets while still being able to travel easily in a thriving city (but we can't). Hopefully the decision makers and planners at City Hall and the State House will find a way to balance the burdens and benefits of living and working near a vital part of our region's infrastructure as they continue work on the Mass Pike Allston reconstruction project & West Station - one of Boston's largest public works projects of the foreseeable future.
Full text of the letter from BU President Brown to former Governor Patrick courtesy of Boston Globe reporter Michael Levenson: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Mv_n6nNyOTc0hzYXVqb2dIUC1IMWxySDFac1ZiVG0wemZV/view
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Comments
Campus = Streets?
By Love them Shadows
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 12:23pm
The article is really Globe "reporting" at its worst. No facts, little analysis. Here's what needs clarifying: BU has said they don't want their "campus" to be used as a cut-through to the station for cars and buses. I can't tell whether that would include the yellow hypothetical bridges/streets highlighted in Harry's map - presumably if built those would be public streets and not part of the "campus." perhaps they literally meant they didn't want campus roads used for access, and would be fine with these new public streets that bridge over to the station?
What BU does not want
By HarryMattison
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 1:02pm
has been made clear at the many MassDOT public meetings in 2014. BU does not want any changes to the roads between Comm Ave and Linden Street.
Gonna sound like a BU/NIMBY stooge...
By Mia123
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 12:37pm
But living in the area, I'd prefer not seeing an increase in car traffic because of the new station. To me, it's another point of access in and out of the city, which is already a huge improvement. Won't the station be a quick walk to Comm Ave, the b-line and 57 bus? It doesn't get easier than that. Well, sort-of, it's still Comm Ave, the b-line, and 57.
The only way to reduce car
By Matt_R
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 5:55pm
The only way to reduce car traffic is to increase ped/bike/bus connectivity.
Also, the traffic Harry is talking about already exists. Today it goes from Comm Ave to Brighton to Cambridge St. It's a matter of rerouting it.
And rerouting that traffic three blocks up ain't gonna do much.
By Mia123
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 7:14pm
I live in Allston, I get that the traffic sucks on Harvard and Linden Ave, but elongating Babcock (for instance) will just create another bottleneck that I think will be far more disruptive, especially to the B line. BU is reading the cards right in this case. West Station and it's Indigo line will take people to Cambridge and connect directly to two other southeast-bound lines that will take you to Fenway and another line that will take you directly to Back Bay Station and South Station. AND, on top of that, it will be a quick walk to the B line and 57 buses. It shouldn't be a bus hub moving through Allston and the west campus and it shouldn't be a shortcut for cars between Commonwealth and Cambridge Ave. It would better serve locals by being a green space where pedestrians and bikes can move more easily between Allston/Cambridge/Storrow without traveling on Cambridge or Comm Ave, where cars have rule of the road. I mean, the whole way this was presented by the blogger was clearly biased and why this turned into a BU Sucks circlejerk. I've got a laundry list of grievances with the university (namely how it houses it's students), but I happen to agree with them about this.
Bigger version of that map?
By Lecil
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 12:41pm
Can you point me to where I can get a closer look at that map?
Thanks.
If they're not careful, they
By anon
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 1:06pm
If they're not careful, they'll end up demonstrating something I've been saying all along: that this proposed location for West Station makes no sense.
Not that I think prohibiting
By anon
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 1:11pm
Not that I think prohibiting all but a circuitous route to the station is a good idea, but the language in Harry's post is dishonest.
"And at the same time should we reduce cut-through traffic on Brighton Ave, Harvard Ave, Linden Street, and Cambridge Street by giving people better north-south travel options?"
Brighton Ave, Harvard Ave, and Cambridge Street are through streets, so by definition it's not cut-through traffic. On the other hand, Malvern, Alcorn, and the northern piece of Babcock *are* quiet neighborhood streets that don't see a lot of through traffic today. (Even though they mostly face parking lots today, I assume that area is planned for a campus redevelopment.)
We may have different definitions of "cut-through"
By HarryMattison
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 3:53pm
but what is dishonest about what I wrote? You describe Alcorn Street as a quiet neighborhood street. Whose neighborhood is it? The Star Market parking lot, the entrance to the parking lot below BU's New Balance Field, the non-access side of Planned Parenthood, or the non-access side of Star Market?
If you are driving from Coolidge Corner to Harvard Square, I think it is reasonable to say that you are "cutting through" Allston. Is it OK to want to let those people drive through our neighborhood more efficiently than they can today?
If you are driving from Harvard Square, Harvard Business School, or Harvard Athletics south to the Comm Ave / BU / Coolidge Corner area, does it really make sense for people to have to take the following streets, all of which are partially or completely residential?
North Harvard St to
Cambridge St to
Harvard Ave OR
Harvard Ave -> Brighton Ave -> Babcock St OR
Highgate St -> Farrington Ave -> Linden St -> Ashford St -> Babcock St
Cities grow, evolve, and change. Many streets that were once quiet neighborhood streets today are a lot noisier with a lot more traffic. The redevelopment of the Mass Pike Allston interchange in Allston will be a very big change in Boston. Some day thousands of people will travel to destinations that today do not exist. To suggest that Alcorn Street, Malvern Street, and Babcock Street in Allston - all of which will become much more valuable than they are today as a result of these changes - should bear none of the burden of increased activity seems quite unfair.
As I said, I'm not opposed to
By anon
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 4:20pm
As I said, I'm not opposed to providing more through streets to improve efficiency. I'm just opposed to misusing terms to form a dishonest argument.
Cut-through traffic means using quiet neighborhood streets (the ones with stop signs, etc) to avoid backups on through streets (the ones with double yellow lines, bus routes, and stop signs on the other streets that intersect them).
North Harvard St, Cambridge St, etc *are* the through streets, even though they have houses on them.
How would you feel about encouraging through traffic on Seattle or Windom Streets in the name of efficiency?
(What's the history of the Hooker-Sorrento Playground -- did those streets used to go through?)
Seattle St = Malvern St???
By HarryMattison
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 5:03pm
I'm not going to play hypothetical with you about Windom Street. The construction of Stadium Way from West Station to North Harvard (crossing Cambridge St & Western Ave) is a much better way to promote efficient travel. If Stadium Way crossed over the Mass Pike and connected with Comm Ave it would be even more efficient.
You can see at http://www.bahistory.org/1925_Plate26_LO.pdf that Sorrento St was never fully connected.
I still believe that people driving from Brookline to Harvard Sq or Central Sq to Watertown are "cutting-through" North Allston, even if they drive only on roads with double yellow lines. Why you think I am dishonest for having that opinion I have no idea.
...
By davem
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 5:11pm
[i]"Cut-through traffic means using quiet neighborhood streets (the ones with stop signs, etc) "[/i]
You just described Linden, Highgate and Farrington. Which are LOADED with traffic overflow during rush hour because Harvard Ave can't handle it.
So yeah, making Malvern, Alcorn and/or Babcock cross the Pike would be reducing "cut-through" traffic by both your, and Harry's definitions.
I'm also not sure how talking about streets in Lower Allston, north of the project site, have any relevance to anything. We're talking about traffic created by limited points to cross the Pike, not the vehicular meanderings through L.A.
Harry said we should make
By anon
Tue, 03/17/2015 - 6:50pm
Harry said we should make quiet streets like Malvern into through streets to reduce traffic on streets like Harvard Ave, Cambridge Street, and North Harvard.
I asked if we should do the same north of the Pike. The vast majority of traffic is going to be through traffic, not traffic to West Station. (People driving from Brookline to Cambridge aren't going to park-n-ride at a commuter rail stop in Allston. Maybe they'll take a one-seat through transit trip, if it isn't slow as molasses.)
Turning quiet dead-ends into through streets to reduce cut-through traffic on other quiet streets which are already through streets is an interesting idea. But that's a complicated enough scenario that neither of us can declare if it will work or not.
I don't blame BU
By Gary C
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 1:23pm
I lived for 2 years at BU West Campus and 7 years off Cambridge St in Lower Allston. BU has always suffered from not really having a campus, but just being a collection of buildings along Comm Ave. I don't blame them for trying to defend the few places where they have a bit of a "real" campus. They should not be able to buy their way into blocking sensible transportation improvements, but at the same time they shouldn't have an excessive number of outside vehicles rolling through, disrupting where their students live and attend school.
People who live & work on Harvard Ave & Linden St
By HarryMattison
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 1:43pm
also shouldn't have an excessive number of outside vehicles rolling through
Agreed
By Gary C
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 1:53pm
Like most things, the devil in all this in the details. You shouldn't have to drive all the way up to Linden or Harvard to get across to Cambridge St. At the same time, BU should have some say in how new streets are created and what they will look like.
Like any negotiation, BU is doing what it can to maintain a position where it has some say in the final outcome.
Yes, BU probably should have some say
By roadman
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 1:59pm
But that say shouldn't be "you VILL NOT run traffic down these streets."
I blame them
By Will LaTulippe
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 5:39pm
The river and Comm Ave were both there when they built it. I didn't tell BU to put the college there.
Boston wasn't there
By RhoninFire
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 10:48pm
Know your history Will. The land BU is on is reclaimed land. When BU first started in the area, it was a giant vacant field. It's first big plan was a campus along the river. Only they got hit with the Great Depression then Boston shoved Storrow Drive (whom I should remind again James and Hellen Storrow fought against it their whole lives only for the state to wait for them to die then legislature quickly move to build through it - BU did not have the clout then to do anything about it).
To say it's BU fault they didn't have foresight when they first started building in the area 1910's is a bit of an ass thing to say.
The bigger picture for transit
By Matthew
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 8:23pm
I think some here are missing the bigger picture. A bus route that crosses the turnpike at around West Station isn't about West Station alone. That's just one stop.
The point of a bus route that crosses the turnpike at that point is that it can serve Harvard, Allston, West Station, Boston University, Brookline, Longwood and Ruggles, while also connecting with all Green Line branches and several important bus routes. There is no other way to achieve this kind of connectivity (barring a crazy subway tunnel).
It would essentially be a highly useful, achievable piece of the Urban Ring. But it can only happen if buses are able to cross the turnpike. The detour to Harvard Ave is too long and too congested (just look at the 66), and would wind up skipping both West Station and Boston University.
All the chatter about people being able to disembark a bus and walk to West Station is missing the point, entirely. Running a dinky shuttle bus between Harvard and West Station isn't much of an achievement. Opening up a new crosstown bus route between Harvard and the Longwood Medical Area is huge.
Why is it than the amateur
By anon
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 2:39pm
Why is it than the amateur planners ranting on slightly obscure news websites on the internet often make more sense than MassDOT engineers?
exactly
By anon
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 3:00pm
West Station with buses across the pike (and pedestrian and bike lanes) is a game changer for making it easier to get around town. Without, and it will benefit suburban dwellers who work in the Cambridge area and some of the Allston residents (me included) where our walk to the station wouldn't be impacted much (West of Linden Ave people or Lower Allston people).
This site has the full plan for the MBTA for 2024 (not all approved - the map can be blown up using the link). If the Indigo line is installed with buses over the pike to access West Station, public transportation for Boston will be revolutionized and will hopefully reduce traffic in town. West Station will link to Cambridge and North Station. People could get to South Station in 15 minutes instead of the 1 hour it takes with the B/Red lines (if you're lucky enough to be allowed onto a train that is).
http://www.masslive.com/news/boston/index.ssf/2014...
Game changer for Cambridge and maybe Longwood, too.
By Ari O
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 4:42pm
It's also a potential big deal for Cambridge, and the gridlock getting off of the Turnpike every day. If you look at commuting surveys for employers in Cambridge most people bike/walk/transit. The big outliers are west of Boston: there is no connection from the Framingham/Worcester Line to Kendall/Central/Harvard without going all the way in to South Station. So, a trip from Newtonville to Kendall takes 42 minutes, 30 of which are spent getting to Yawkey Station. Similarly, a trip from Harvard Square to Wellesley Farms takes an hour: after 40 minutes you wind up going through the old Beacon Park Yards, a mile as the crow flies from Harvard Square. For trips like these, having a good connection at West Station would save commuters 45 minutes per day: a bus (or in the long run light rail, or even subway) connection to Harvard Square (quite possibly privately-funded by Harvard or as part of the MASCO routes) and a rail shuttle along the Grand Junction to the Kendall area (again, potentially privately funded). A lot of the gridlock getting on and off the Turnpike results from people for whom it's faster to drive, because the transit options from points west only work if you're going to Back Bay or Downtown. Yawkey helps the situation for the LMA somewhat, but West Station would help the gridlock on the other side of the tracks. But it's all about connectivity: the ability to drive (or at the very least have transit) between Harvard and points south makes too much sense. Imagine a bus (or other transit line) that went from Kenmore Square to Harvard Square via Comm Ave and the West Station area, part of that way in exclusive transit lanes. That is a huge connection, but only if we don't let BU walk all over us.
Go big on it.
By KBHer
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 5:35pm
West St. to Harvard is the holy grail of the urban ring. The mode is ultimately going to have to come down to the necessary capacity. As much as I deplore the way BRT is used as a (not really at all-) "substitute" for light rail on corridors that could support light rail service, there could be a case for it here. The real question is whether the Union Spur can be extended through Cambridge via Porter (or not, sort of depends what happens to Union Square on the employment front) to Harvard Sq, then through Lower Allston. I don't see how it could farther south than that initially without a tunnel - reaching LMA is a toughie. Really the whole thing is one grande opium dream. You're 100% right though, the issue in Boston is the over-reliance on the hub-and-spoke - it's slowly killing the transfer stations through congestion and whole system goes down if any of those start to fail consistently, nor does it reflect the commute patterns of the current city.
The Grand Junction is whole nother can of worms. I don't see how it's possible to run decent headways on that without screwing up auto traffic on every east-west arterial out of Cambridge and screwing with the #1. The MBTA has looked at it before as a bypass for a few F/W trains, but decided it would be too disruptive. You might be able to run a limited headway here, but nothing approaching rapid transit frequency. Idk how anything changes for the GJ before NS-SS link. I'm glad the T has slated something for it, but I'm worried it'll be one of the first connections to slash when the inevitable cuts to the capital program pop up.
Man, the Grand Junction comes
By Matt_R
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 6:08pm
Man, the Grand Junction comes awfully close to Union Sq, Somerville and Inman Sq, Cambridge.
The advantages of the West Station bus connectivity Matthew wrote about and the ability to connect Allston, Kendall and North Station by rail with the Grand Junction ought to more than make up for the cost of a few bridges or underpasses.
That's the problem with the
By KBHer
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 8:58pm
That's the problem with the Grand junction. It looks so useful. And it will be, but not for a while. The CR, Amtrak, and freights all use it, the CR and Amtrak to shuttle their equipment northside to southside. The next closest loop is Framingham and they're not going to give up the GJ for anything. You can't build up because of air rights, can't pop over the crossing because those grades will be too steep for push-pulls, can't bury it for the same reason and because the red line tunnel at Main. You need to use it as is, and using it as is comes with a host of problems - the question is, do you run a low(ish) frequency service in full knowledge of the high costs of readying that line for DMUs or do you wait until you can do it right when the circumstances are better for it. Allston-Kendall isn't going to happen for a long while.
Mass Pike off-ramp @ Beacon St
By HarryMattison
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 7:00pm
Would let a bus/car travel from Harvard to West Station via Stadium Way, get on the Pike, go 1 mile on the Pike, then get on Park Drive to Longwood
I'll try to not let perfect
By KBHer
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 8:30pm
I'll try to not let perfect be the enemy of good, but a bus, even with its own ROW, is a short term solution. West Station to Harvard is still a reach at sub-10/15mins during peak hours. JFK bridge reconstruction (if that shit every gets done) will help, but the pinch in Cambridge is the killer - also I'm assuming that it'll run in a segregated ROW through Lower Allston. Going all the way to Longwood doesn't make sense in my mind if the WS-HS route is established - west originating riders can get off at Yawkey instead and make the trek, and I'd be surprised if there was significant Cambridge-Longwood demand to warrant it (I know Harvard med is down there, but in my experience at least, most of the med students/doctors/professor are holed up in the pill hills and not so much Cambridge, I could be completely wrong, granted). A Beacon St offramp is probably a must, or at least something to ditch the Bowker and get cars off Storrow, but what/where exactly you'd know better than I. I'd still like it to be light-rail one day, but it would need to reach the ridership threshold for that which could take a while and would probably need to link into the Green Line somewhere, but ultimately that's the most economical and quickest option.
Ugh, just build 695 already.
By anon
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 10:15pm
Ugh, just build 695 already.
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