Written by Christina Catucci
With the South Boston Waterfront becoming a livelier, tourist-rich location in the city, a transportation plan is being put together by some of the state’s most prominent authorities. The plan wants to increase transportation so as many people as possible can visit and enjoy the beauty of the waterfront, as well as improve accessibility for residents and even future residents of South Boston. ABC, or ‘A Better City,’ is the group organizing and managing the project. MassDot, Massport, and, obviously, the City of Boston, are on board. Now, all they ask for is you to jump on board, too.
A series of meetings are taking place to ensure the quality of these new programs—all of which have a goal of increasing and simplifying transportation to the waterfront—and allow citizens of Boston to voice their opinions. An organized meeting in May helped the state and the other organizations involved collect some useful information to reveal just what exactly residents wanted from the transportation plan.
Some of the suggestions included improving transit, traffic, and pedestrian issues. As a result of that last meeting, the plan committee released the following statement; “Beginning in September 2014, service will improve on the #7 bus with every other morning peak hour trip ending at South Station which will allow for a 10% increase in capacity.” The whole idea is to get as many people to the waterfront that would like to visit, all without sacrificing the peace and comfort of those who live there. Smart Parking, signal retiming, and real time departure and countdown arrival time for public transportation have already taken effect.
Yet, even more transportation improvement will be made. A new South Boston Waterfront Sustainable Transportation Meeting will occur on October 9th, 2014 at 6:00 PM at The Condon School, 200 D Street. This third community meeting aims to again reveal the opinions and suggestions of residents and parties that may wish to express their ideas to the committee. Judging by May’s great results, it is likely this next meeting will be equally fruitful for the committee in improving transportation ease. Furthering the progression of transportation on the South Boston Waterfront calls for the help of the many voices, each one equally important.
If you would like to know more about the program and find out where you can get involved, visit their website at http://www.sbwaterfrontmobility.org/default.asp. There you can view their mission statement, keep up to date on new meeting times in the community, and learn more about the improvements that are happening every day in South Boston as the waterfront project commences.
