You know, we're pretty good at bringing people together in the Boston area … particularly as compared to Atlanta:
A 2003 World Bank study comparing various cities in the United States illustrated the dramatic difference a bit of sprawl can make. Boston, for instance, isn't the most compact city around, but if its population was as spread out as, say, Atlanta's, then Bostonians would be driving about 9 percent more, kicking up a lot more carbon into the air. If Boston had Atlanta's inferior rail system, driving would increase another 5 percent. In fact, if you could somehow wave a magic wand and move the entire population of Boston to a city with all of Atlanta's sprawl-like characteristics, total driving would increase 25 percent.
Wow. (via Matt)
I'm finding that being an ex-Red Line regular living in Medford, I really detest driving around here. But at least I'm not stuck in Atlanta or DC traffic. BTW, a side effect of improved public transport is that driving sucks less, since there are fewer people on the road.
Anyway, for a place that's so old, it looks like we're the future.
Thank gopod we’re not LA.
A number of U.S. cities might have developed in a more compact way, or would have maintained rail corridors that could help now, if the rail systems hadn’t been dismantled by auto/oil/tire interestshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy] in the mid-20th century.
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p>For whatever reason, Boston’s light rail was not bought up and dismantled. Detroit, New York, Oakland, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Tulsa, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Seattle and Los Angeles were not so lucky. I don’t know what Atlanta’s excuse is.
Great American Streetcar Scandal
The reason parts of Boston’s streetcar system survived the 50s, 60s and 70s was that it also doubled as 1/4 of our SUBWAY system. Ditto for Philly and San Fran. Everyone else’s streetcar lines that got switched to buses were above ground. As the T’s Silver Line team has learned these past few years, it’s a pain to try and run buses through narrow tunnels.
Hey, in cities such as LA, Houston, or Atlanta, one can jut build out..not an option in Boston or NYC. The geography makes things dense around here. Was in Phoenix last week, and you can drive for thirty minutes through buildup within Phoenix city limits before one even sees downtown.
Sure, we’ve got water to the East, but there’s nothing about the geography stopping Boston from sprawling from the NH border to Providence RI, and all the way to Springfield.
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p>The reasons are historical, political, and economic, far more than geographic methinks.