New England’s Suburbs and Mass Transit
by Andrew Consigli

During this past election, we heard from both candidates, “we need to find alternatives to foreign oil”. Actually, didn’t we hear those same words 8 years ago? So what is the issue? China is building the worlds largest mass transit system in the world (and doing it in 10 years), and now we are borrowing billions of dollars from them, and handing it to the Middle East so we can drive our cars and heat our homes.

Over the past few decades we have been victim to bad planning which resulted in suburban sprawl. We all know the statistics. We pay for it every time we fill up our tanks. We are now seeing and breathing the effects on a larger scale with our environment.

Mass Transit has been proven to curb suburban sprawl and promote proper growth, while decreasing our dependence on the automobile. However, in the suburbs of New England, mass transit is still met with much opposition.

Most non-users of our passenger rail system do not see any benefit of having transit as part of their community unless they are taking the train everyday. Typically, only a small percentage of the community will support mass transit within their town. The opposition complains of noise from passing trains and horns at crossings, a rise in crime with the connection to more urbanized areas, and an increase in traffic from surrounding towns.

What non-users don’t always realize is that there are a host of benefits of being part of a community that has access to the Public Transportation Network. These include:

• Increased property values

In Massachusetts, the median price of a single family home nearly doubled in 19 communities after they gained MBTA commuter rail service. Brockton, MA for example, which gained three commuter rail stops in 1997, had one of the biggest increases in median family home price: from $71,503 in 1995 to $194,000 in 2002. That’s an increase of 171 percent.1

In Grafton, MA, home values increased as much as 76% in five years, while other communities that received MBTA service increased an average of 66%.2

• Reducing Automobile Traffic and Global Warming

For every 1% increase in ridership within New England’s existing transit lines, the region can expect to reduce global warming emissions by more than 19,000 metric tons-the equivalent of taking 3,500 vehicles off the road.3

A very effective solution to the spread of suburban sprawl has been the implementation of core principles of groups such as The Congress for the New Urbanism and Smart Growth America. A core principle of these movements is for communities to provide a variety of transportation choices. Communities seeking to encourage transit use to reduce air pollution and congestion recognize that minimum levels of density are required to make public transit networks viable.4

The town of Westwood, Massachusetts, a model for smart growth, recently approved a 135 acre development next to an already existing rail station. The developers are hoping the convenience of mass transit will drive the success of the retail component and businesses, while residents will have more alternatives to the car.

In the case of Westwood, the commuter rail station will be in close proximity to a core of offices, residences and shopping. However, many towns that wish to link to mass transit are struggling with where to locate the station. Is it really smart growth if everyone has to drive to board the train? This requires a large parking lot, and commuters are going directly from the train to the car. The town of Ashland, Massachusetts, like many New England towns, has the virtue of a great neighborhood structure. Many shops, offices and homes are located in walking distance to the downtown core where a rail line once passed through. In the early 1990’s, the town approved for the rail to pass through Ashland Center once again with the construction of the Worcester Commuter Rail extension from Boston. Residents saw home values increase, traffic decrease, no increase in crime, and suffer from few sounds of the train whistle. However, Ashland did not maximize the potential of having mass transit within an established neighborhood structure as they once did. The town ended up placing the station over a mile away from the downtown core; only accessible bay car (fig.1). By locating the station within walking distance to the downtown, retailers would have benefited from commuter traffic. Downtown offices would have much more of an expansive and diverse pool of talent to choose from. People would have strolled Main Street to do errands before jumping into their cars to go home or have a place to grab a coffee in the morning. Of course, having a large parking lot to support the needed ridership is an issue. We have to strategically think about the urban design of the parking in relationship to the neighborhood structure. Liner buildings with surface parking behind, as well as the more expensive option of structured parking have worked. The reality is parking is an issue for all types of development, not just transit, and we need solutions. The solution can not be to let the automobile take over urbanism. For over three decades the beloved Main Street has been taken hostage by car dependent malls. We need to put people back on Main Street and mass transit as part of the neighborhood structure is a proven model to do so.

Similar to Ashland, the town of Hopedale (adjacent to Milford/Upton) has been weighing the option of extending the commuter rail service from the Franklin line. Hopedale is a unique town, built from Utopian principles and is currently struggling over what to do with the abandoned Draper Mill Complex within the center of town. Every idea has been discussed for about as long as the government has been talking about alternative fuels. Last month the idea was proposed to connect to the Franklin commuter rail line. A connection would be relatively short, and parking would be abundant while maintaining the character of the historic downtown and the existing neighborhood structure (fig.2). The mill faces Hopedale Street with an existing field behind, ideal for parking. The idea was deemed by some officials as a “perfect fit, but the opposition is already fierce, before any studies on the benefits or feasibility have begun.

New England needs to start thinking hard about alternative transportation. We thought the solution was to make streets wider, add more highways, create larger parking lots, and produce bigger cars. We can not widen roads anymore; we can not depend on the car manufactures to bail us out of foreign oil dependence and can not rely on the government to push them. Passenger rail has been around for almost two centuries. It has been tested, used, and forgotten. Mass transit, along with compact development needs to be strongly considered to address the issue of suburban sprawl and the current state of our car dependent landscape.

1. "Rail Lines Boosting Home Values," by Thomas Grillo, The Boston Globe, January 12, 2003, p. H4
2. Environment Main Research & Policy Center. Natural resources Council of Maine. Cool Moves. Transit in New England and its Role in Curbing Global Warming Pollution, Fall 2007. Written by Tony Dutzik, Frontier Group
3. South County Commuter Rail. Transit Oriented Development: An Opportunity to Shape Regional Growth, April 1, 2005
4. Smart Growth Online. Sustainable Communities Network (SCN). www.smartgrowth.org/about/principles/principles

Andrew Consigli is an architect at Elkus-Manfredi in Boston, Massachusetts