Urban Ring Citizens' Advisory Committee

The schedule on the Urban Ring has slipped, partly because of the need for tinkering on some of the proposed bus routings. Another reason is a requirement of the federal government: according to a representative of the City of Boston's Transportation Dept., the federal government has developed a new computer program into which localities should plug their study numbers for proposed projects. Incidentally, Boston found a glitch, which was fixed, in the federal program. Anyway, once the local authorities have put their information into the federal format, every project in every city would be ranked on a common basis with those of other cities. Assuming that everything is done properly, it makes it that much easier for the federal government to rank proposals for funding distributed nationwide. Having said all that, the systems of some localities interface better with the Federal system than others. This is not simply a matter of one computer talking to another. It is also a question of similar study methods. Another problem is that of the local component of funding.

Stephanie Pollock of the Conservation Law Foundation asked why the Silver Line is already there, at least in part, while the Urban Ring is still in the planning phase. In the view of the T's Peter Calcaterra, it is because (in my words), there have been no political "angels" for the line. On the other hand, in the view of observer and Brookline resident Archie Mazmanian, the support for the Silver Line was from the bottom up--the residents wanted the service. There is little local boosterism along the Urban Ring.

Barry Steinberg's comment for this report: Now that I think of it, beyond the interests of the large traffic generators such as Boston University and M.I.T., there has been little locally-organized vocal support along the idea of the Washington St. Corridor Coalition, because it is difficult to envision a significant benefit to the project. To illustrate this, rather than a rail line that has an obvious corridor, which is the anticipated Phase III of the project, the proposed family of bus routes is considered Phase II. According to a handout, this family of buses would be composed of one express route, six "crosstown" routes and six "bus rapid transit" routes. When you have these various routes wandering about along and through the assigned corridor, it becomes less of a conceptual system and more of individual bus routes. And there are existing bus routes in the areas, even though they are otherwise oriented. In other words, the more the diffuse the perceived benefits of the line, the more diffuse the local support. Because Phase II would save the traveler less time, to use Mazmanian's thought, the potential rider would have less incentive to ride, and as a result would be tempted to follow the existing transit patterns--Inbound on the radial rail lines to downtown and back out again on other lines, which provide more frequent and faster service where they go, rather than the potentially more direct Urban Ring service, which would require the use of timetables and maps--either in printed or mental form.