Better Mobility Options Between Kendal Square and Logan

"Kendall Square in Cambridge is a thriving innovation center, complete with MIT and companies like Google and Microsoft and the many biomed and research centers that are essential to the region’s resilient economy," writes Jim Aloisi for the CommonWealth Beacon. "There is reasonably high demand for access to Logan Airport from Kendall Square, but today’s transit options leave much to be desired. The Red and Blue Lines do not connect, and travel from Kendall via Red and Silver Lines can be prohibitively time consuming. These barriers to taking transit mean most travelers in the Kendall/Logan loop choose to take a form of auto mobility (personal vehicle or ride-hailing), adding to urban traffic congestion and increasing emissions in the inner core and in environmental justice communities such as East Boston. It should not be acceptable that, in greater Boston in the 21st Century, a traveler cannot easily and conveniently connect by transit from one of the nation’s most important innovation and academic centers to the international airport, a mere three miles away. We can do better, and we must do better if we want to do more than just pretend that we live in a livable, sustainable region."

In the CommonWealth Beacon Aloisi shares the work of four of his students from his Urban Planning and Policy class, each offering "creative, practical, and achievable" plans to improve travel between Kendall Square and Logan. The student plans include the creation of an express bus service, connecting the existing Red and Blue MBTA lines, and an increased investment towards improving existing public transportation infrastructure to address barriers to greater ridership of the MBTA to Logan. 

Aloisi is DUSP's Lecturer of Transportation Policy and Planning, a former Massachusetts secretary of transportation, and the director of the  MIT Transit Research Consortium. Excerpts shared in the opinion piece include writing from Noah Kahan, Mena Mohamed, Phi Chang, and Michael Whelan. 

Read the full piece, "MIT students propose better ways to connect Kendall Sq. and Logan."