1/ So I've been reading a fantastic book lately. It has me reflecting on the differences in why transit works so well in London as compared to Boston... 
2/ A great deal comes down to the fact that London's civic community largely buys into the Gustavo Petro ethos, (I'm paraphrasing here) "a developed [city] is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich take public transit"
3/ This isn't to say London is perfect... They flirted with massive highway projects that bulldozed neighborhoods, like the Westway. Not quite the charming, quaint high streets we come to expect from the Brits.
Not that Boston has much room to talk...
4/Because of the limited space for parking, widespread support for transit, and the congestion fee, transit captures about 38% of journeys in and out of inner London, while driving has fallen from nearly 30% to 20%.
5/ Boston's transit share isn't too bad at 34%, but driving alone number is much higher at 38.9%. This data is from the 2014 ACS, so I think we all suspect that driving number is a least a few points higher.
6/ This is because (most) civic and elected leaders in the Boston metro have prioritized auto oriented solutions over transit for decades. This is in opposition to London with Crossrail, Thameslink, High Speed 1, and more. Our national peers have also exceeded us in transport $
7/ Even car oriented cities like L.A., Seattle, and Vancouver are putting Boston to shame. And it's because the civic community, advocates, and elected leaders are all on board with better public transport. They are willing to take away lane space to do so and spend the money.
8/ Back to London.. a great example of the different philosophies of industrial dock regeneration. In Boston, we have the S. Boston Waterfront or Seaport. London has Canary Wharf and the Greater Docklands area. Both were declining ports close enough to the CDB.
9/ Now, both areas compete with their respective downtowns as the hottest address in town. (I should add that Docklands are much larger than the S. Boston Waterfront, but the core, Canary Wharf is similar in size to Fort Point, BCEC, and "Seaport".)
10/ Canary Wharf is so well connected by transport, the following came up when I Googled "Canary Wharf traffic"
11/ Canary Wharf's mode share is overwhelmingly focused on transit and walking. Over 70% travel to Canary Wharf on transit, while more than 60% of residents use transit to travel to jobs in CW and elsewhere. Private car usage is about 12% and 10% respectively.
12/ Compare this to the Boston Seaport area. According to nearly 10 year old ACS data, over 53% drive to the Seaport alone, while 31% take transit. The City of Boston has more recent data for residents, but it pales in comparison to CW.
13/ Why is the mode share so different? Transit access was key in the development of Canary Wharf and the Docklands. See the radical change in transport infrastructure over the last 40 years. And more is planned.
14/ Long before a single tower went up the UK gov & London Transport began constructing a light rail system, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). While the priority in Boston seemed to be roads. The Ted Williams opened to truck & limited car traffic in 1995. The Silver Line in 2004
15/ The DLR now has 7 lines, countless service patterns, and driverless trains with 3-5 min headways. If the system was in America it would be the #1 light rail system with over twice the ridership of the Green Line, (119m vs. 53m) despite being centered on the east side of LDN.
16/ Before the DLR was even finished, civic and political leaders were already planning a tube line to add more capacity. The line had massive starchitect stations. It extended a 1978 built tube line and connected with EVERY tube line! (The Silver Line only connects with 1/4)
17/ As if that's not enough, London's transport department is building a new full size railway under London that connect Heathrow, and Reading (37 mi) directly to Canary Wharf. It may be running late and expensive by continental standards, but for 2x the cost of East Side Access
18/ which has 1 station, TfL will get 7 new underground stations & loads of additional capacity. In the past 40 years, Boston has extended the Red line, shifted the Orange Line away from density, & is working on the world's priciest at grade light rail line (a decades old plan).
19/ I'm wrapping this up, I promise! Compared to this progress, the Seaport is quite behind. The reason is political will. Transit simply wasn't important to political and civic leaders. There was to be one public transit service- downgraded before it broke ground...
20/ The Silver Line lost the transit only tunnel to Logan, went from light rail to bus, lost the tunnel under D & access to the ramp. Quite frankly getting cars easy access to the Seaport was the priority. That's why there are 10x as many parking spaces in the Seaport vs. CW.
21/ The real life consequences are low income residents without cars are unable to access jobs and culture in the Seaport and the area has serious gridlock during rush hour. The number of car trips is expected to grow even if some are optimistically projecting slightly lower %s
22/ This holds an important lesson as we ponder the future of places like Allston Landing, Readville, Widett, and more. Boston's business community & state and local officials need to prioritize transit, not easing congestion, or car throughput. Boston's position as a world city
23/ depends on it. Our climate, our commitment to equity, and economy depend on us prioritizing transit. The comparison here is not 1 to 1 of course, but it is instructive. When you prioritize transit, you get a walkable hood able to handle 100k workers with 2500 parking spots,
24/ a ~70% transit share, and no real traffic. @ca_webb & her amazing team in Kendall have kept the SOV share low while expanding by limiting parking and working w/ civic leaders to encourage walking and biking (as well as shuttles). We need more districts to model this!
Also, this is a Twitter thread, not a research paper, so I'm not interested in nitpicking. But please let me know if I got something totally wrong or missed something! Thanks!
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