General Boston Discussion

[Blackbird]

Sadly, not remotely surprising.... but I find it extremely hard to believe metro Boston's traffic is meaningfully (*statistically significantly*) worse than other great metros across the country.

For example, here's 3 other 37-mile itineraries I just mapped-out:

1.) LA: From the intersection of Hwy 39 and I-10 in Covina, I-10 all the way west through Downtown to Santa Monica Pier.

I'd be astonished if you could ever do those drives mid-day, workweek, in less than 80 minutes.

Edit: Didn’t get to check today, but will report back if/when I do.

Here’s your first one at least. Same local time as my trip from hell last week. (2-2:30pm)

And again: this goes through downtown. The gps specifically routed me around the city via 128 to get from Medford to Foxborough in order to avoid traffic. It still took 1hr 20min. There were no accidents.

 

[DBM]

Here’s your first one at least. Same local time as my trip from hell last week. (2-2:30pm)

View attachment 50678

And again: this goes through downtown. The gps specifically routed me around the city via 128 to get from Medford to Foxborough in order to avoid traffic. It still took 1hr 20min. There were no accidents.

Genuinely glad you're following-up on this and very curious to see more results... however, assuming you did your metro Boston drive mid-week (i.e., Tues/Weds/Thurs), shouldn't you also be doing these comparative tests mid-week as well, on the assumption that, nationwide post-pandemic, metro highways are much more jammed midweek, with office commuters, than the rest of the week?

 

[Justbuildit]

So the sky isn’t falling because the millionaires have all left? Quoting an old reply about potential surpluses and deficits. Thrilled the Commonwealth is 20% over expectations and that they’re remaining prudent about fiscal questions until things settle for awhile

Surpluses are good, especially when they’re legally bound to transportation and education spending. Hopefully some of this can go to offset MBTA budget woes.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/20/metro/millionaires-tax-massachusetts-generated-18-billion/

State officials said Monday that the voter-approved surtax on high earners has generated more than $1.8 billion in revenue this fiscal year — with still three months left to go — meaning state officials could have hundreds of millions of surplus dollars to spend on transportation and education initiatives.