BPDA to spend $400,000 to determine whether Seaport needs gondola to glide through a cloud

I'll do it for 1/10!

(oh hey look BPDA it's a public open bidding process, you should try it some time.)

So I'll tell them for $800,000.

^{from: Universal Hub | BPD could finally gain formal approval to patrol the Seaport}

We have to ruin the streetscape of Summer Street for your company's real estate decisions?

Before we place a Killington Quad over the Fort Point Channel, a new street car line needs to be laid from the Federal Reserve to City Point.

The street is wide enough, Summer Street is straight between South Station and the entrance to the design center. It is such a good idea that street cars ran down Summer Street for 50 years once.

Some land takings by the Federal Reserve and take away parking along Summer Street in places will make for fast service.

The Silver Line was designed by committee and poorly at that. It should be light rail just like a new Summer Street line should be as well.

The City isn't proposing this arguably outlandish scheme. A private developer is.

So why should the City foot the bill to do feasibility studies for this proposal?

Where's our resident Silverline expert to update us on the state of SL improvements.

I've said this before - underwater tunnels are the answer. Build them above ground, then sink them into the briny depths. Put some people movers in there and voila. No wind stoppage, no views ruined.

Elmer, Cybah and everyone else is absolutely correct that the Number One priority should be to allow use of the Silver Line Way on-ramp to the eastbound 90 into the Ted Williams Tunnel. It costs nothing.

I subscribe to the T's transit alerts for the Silver Line, and EVERY DAY (not just during rush hour) I receive alerts that traffic in the Ted is causing 15-30 minute delays on the SL1 to/from Logan and the new SL3 to/from Chelsea.

A couple of weeks after the SL3 debuted, I took the line from South Station to Chelsea on a Thursday afternoon. I waited 38 minutes at South Station for a SL3 (the headway is 10-12 minutes), and was dumped at Airport Station before a different bus completed the trip to Chelsea. All told, it took 73 minutes, including wait time. On the way back, it was 75 minutes once I arrived at Chelsea station to return to Courthouse Station. At off-peak times, you could drive to New Hampshire in that period.

While there is little to be done about Ted traffic, short of a separate tube for transit, steps such as the T under D (Street) tunnel to alleviate unnecessary waits at the traffic light, and the Silver Line Way on-ramp will shave valuable minutes from the trip time.

The traffic problems are creating bunching issues in the Transitway. You can sometimes go 10-15 minutes without a bus in the Transitway, only to have a conga line of seven or eight buses parade at once. And when you have hundreds of people building up on the platforms to try and board overcrowded buses, the chaos ensues on the first few buses.

The situation gets worse every day. There are now crowds throughout the day at Courthouse Station in both directions, and most of the buses that show up are full. It is often quicker to walk to South Station from Courthouse, but that is not an option for all, and if you already paid for a monthly pass for other connections, you may as well wait and get your money's worth, even though you will have to squeeze in like a sardine can.

My suggestion -- if we had the money -- is to create a bus lane between South Station and South Boston on Summer Street. Convert the Transitway to light rail and extend the SL2 as light rail to the Design Center. Best-case scenario is to build the Green Line connection to Boylston/Chinatown. Move the SL1 to the Summer Street bus lane to service the Convention center and the under-construction Omni hotel and access the Ted from the D street on-ramp. The 7 can use the bus lane to Southie.

No need for the gondola -- the wind can be strong much of the time in the Seaport area, and could lead to uncomfortable -- if not dangerous -- conditions.

However, the responsibility of preparing that study (and the costs of doing so) should fall squarely on the developer that is proposing this scheme, and not the City.