Boston Orange Line closure and responses including promoting biking

When various segments of Metrorail lines are shut down for months in the DC Metropolitan area for rehabilitation, I've suggested that a "corridor management" approach should be taken, and alternative modes promoted, like commuter rail and bus ("Transportation network interruptions as an opportunity: Part 2," 2016, "Washington Post letter to the editor on repair-related closure of Rockville and Shady Grove Stations and corridor management," 2021).  Too often that hasn't been done.

The Safetrack signage was kind of "half-a@#$%."

I do remember early on though when Metrorail promoted using bikes instead, with the addition of various yard signs with routing information.  

The signage promoted the "Safetrack" detour.  But there wasn't an active companion program helping people with the switch.

The Orange Line is a heavy rail line serving Boston and the inner ring suburbs of Malden, Medford and Somerville. Pre-covid it had more than 200,000 daily riders.

It's shut down for a month for repair.  Note that property interests are concerned about the decline in transit quality generally as a potential hindrance to their getting tenants ("The Orange Line shutdown puts developers building by the T in a tricky spot," Boston Globe).

-- Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said with the closure, other transit options should be free.  Some are, including shuttle buses.

-- MBTA produced a good guide on options, A Rider’s Guide to Planning Ahead: Upcoming Orange & Green Line Service Suspensions August – September 2022.

-- The City has a nice website laying out options, Orange Line Shutdown in Boston, with more detailed information for different rider groups like students, seniors and the disabled, etc.

-- One of the options are free passes to use the bike sharing system during the shutdown ("MassDOT Releases Bicyclist Guide Ahead of Orange Line Closure Beginning August 19")

-- The MBTA is allowing people with Charlie Card transit fare media cards to ride rail commuter lines for free ("MBTA Releases Travel Plan for Orange, Green Line Shutdowns: Read It Here," NBC10), although I don't know if that adequately serves the people left without the Orange Line.

Fortunately, the Haverhill MBTA Commuter rail line parallels the Orange Line and terminates at North Station.

-- The Globe has an article ("In Orange Line closure, bicyclists see silver lining") about the response by the Boston Cyclists Union.  And yes, these kinds of closures should really be seen as opportunities to promote biking.  From the article:

... The city’s cycling community sees the situation as the perfect opportunity to introduce, or reintroduce, people to biking and bike commuting.

That’s why the Boston Cyclists Union members were at Forest Hill station on Sunday morning. The group offered free tune-ups before leading a group on a practice commute along the Southwest Corridor and Columbus Avenue to downtown.

Under a pop-up tent, a cyclists union mechanic showed a rider how to adjust his brakes and check for bent spokes. On the other side of the tent, another cyclists union volunteer helped figure out what parts were needed to reattach a front wheel. About 30 people turned out in total.

The cyclists’ union has been in conversation daily with City Hall and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation about the closure, said Eliza Parad, the group’s director of organizing.

The additional traffic, shuttle buses, and the ever-present potholes could still be dangerous, especially on Columbus Avenue where cyclists must share the road with cars, Parad said. ...

Mayor Michelle Wu, a frequent Orange Line rider, has been publicly promoting bike commuting in recent days. She led two group cycle commutes from her Roslindale neighborhood to City Hall last week.

Patrick Snyder, 23, hopes the closure will lead to more bike safety infrastructure. He was injured in a bicycle crash in April 2021 in the Boston area and only started biking again after a stint in the cycle-friendly Netherlands. Now he will be among several Boston Cyclists Union members leading group commutes on weekday mornings from various locations along the Orange Line.

The Cyclist Union effort is a good one. 

But a lot more needs to be done than merely saying: ride a bike.

There need to be routes, secure bike parking, and opportunities to test out biking by borrowing a bike, lock, and helmet without having to buy them first.

-- "Revisiting assistance programs to get people biking: 18 programs," 2020
-- "May is National Bike Month too: Part 1 -- a good time to assess planning and programming," 2021
-- "World Bicycle Day is today: Ideas for making transportation cycling irresistible," 2021

That being said the various steps that MBTA, the City, the Cyclists Union, and other organizations have taken are quite remarkable compared to what I remember from the various rail shutdowns in the DC area.  The bicyclist guide, the Rider Guide by MBTA are quite good.

====

WRT developers concerned about the decline in transit quality as a hindrance, maybe that can get anti-transit developers like Larry Hogan of Maryland on board.  But I doubt it.  Note that Massachusetts has a tradition of Republican governors over the last 20 years, and they haven't ignored transit.  They haven't always done the right things.  But it hasn't been ignored.

That isn't the case in many other places.