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sheeplewatcher t1_j46ipjt wrote

Boston’s street traffic is compounded by the streets matching the contours of the original waters edge and then the harbor/rivers subsequently filled in and more streets added. On top of that, Boston is made up of annexed towns that each have their own street layout now combined into one city.

The highway system in Mass is half-assed. There should be at least 3 more highways going into/through Boston (Rt2/US 3, I-95, I-695). Not saying they should have been built but the current highways were designed with more in mind.

When they converted the highway funds to transit, The extension of the Red and Orange lines in the 70/80s could have helped, but again the effort was half assed. The red line extension stopped at Alewife instead of going out to Lexington and the Orange line stopped at Forest hills/Oak Grove instead of 128 Canton and Reading respectively.

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Frunk2 t1_j47ulu5 wrote

If boston had 5-6 highways going into the city there wouldn't be a city center it would just be highways and parking lots. If you dream of cities like this you can visit literally anywhere in middle america of the west coast that isn't chicago

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3720-To-One t1_j47sryf wrote

You can thank NIMBYs for preventing the red line extension.

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UltravioletClearance t1_j46q44s wrote

In fairness, the it didn't make sense to extend the Red Line into a wealthy rural town filled with single family homes on massive lots. They should have considered the Waltham route for the Red Line Extension. At least Downtown Waltham and the South Side are built up enough to justify rapid transit service, and the line could've served two college canpuses - Brandeis and Bentley University

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