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Urban Ring
What is the Urban Ring?
The Urban Ring project, managed by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation (EOT), is a phased set of transit improvements in a corridor around the downtown core. The corridor encompasses some of the area’s fastest growing districts, including Kendall Square and East Cambridge areas, Longwood Medical and Academic Area (LMA), and the South Boston Waterfront. The project corridor encompasses parts of Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Medford, Somerville, Cambridge, and Brookline.
Urban Ring Components
The Urban Ring project will provide new transit services connect existing radial transit lines (subway, commuter rail, and bus), lead to shorter transit trips, and cause fewer transfers. The current planning effort includes frequent bus rapid transit service, which will operate partly in exclusive bus lanes and tunnels and partly in mixed-use traffic.
Is There Demand?
An estimated 13,000 daily riders are expected to board the Urban Ring system at the Kendall Square station alone! The Sullivan Square – Kendall Square – Longwood Medical Area route has the largest potential ridership for a new transit system in the region. The EZ-Ride shuttle service (North Station to Cambridgeport via Kendall Square) demonstrates that there is growing demand. EZ-ride surpassed 1,000 daily ridership in January 2008, up from about 500 when the service begun in 2002.
Is Transit Investment Critical for This Corridor?
- New and expanded transit options are needed for Cambridge residents to reach work and make other trips.
- Economic development in our region is being constrained by traffic congestion and inadequate transit access. The existing rapid transit subway system is over capacity.
- Auto emissions contribute significantly to climate change.
- $100 million invested in public transit creates and supports roughly 4,000 jobs. Businesses often realize a gain in sales three times the public sector investment in transit capital.
Current Status
While the Urban Ring project has been in planning for many years, renewed planning efforts over the past two years have significantly advanced this project. The project is currently on the “Illustrative Projects” list of the current Regional Transportation Plan. The EOT has committed to continuing to the project with the goal of submitting an application for federal match funding. We expect this to occur within the next two years.
Resources
Go
to Urban
Ring web site.
Go
to Details
of Proposed Route and Stations. For
Cambridge-specific details, see and pages 17 to 22 for descriptive text and pages 54 to 55 for maps.This file is in PDF format and requires use of the free
Adobe Acrobat viewer.
Go
to Brochure
from April 18, 2008 Business Briefing (PDF, 478 KB).This file is in PDF format and requires use of the free
Adobe Acrobat viewer.
For More Information
For more information about the Urban Ring, contact Jeff Rosenblum at jrosenblum@cambridgema.gov, or 617/349-4615. The Community Development Department TTY line is 617/349-4621.
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