Christian MilNeil
Recent Posts
Amtrak Allows Bikes on More Trains Throughout New England
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Amtrak has added new in-car luggage racks to accommodate bicycles for more passengers on its Northeast Regional, Hartford Line, Valley Flyer and Downeaster routes. Several of these routes had previously not allowed bikes on their trains at all; the Downeaster had allowed bikes on its trains, but only if passengers were both boarding and disembarking […]
Why We Need the Walking Schoolbus During COVID-19
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Student transportation is one of the largest budget expenses for the Boston Public Schools – and the expense and logistics of busing students is likely to be even more daunting this year, with increased physical distancing requirements from the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, many students who traditionally take buses live within walking distance to their assigned […]
Boston’s Bluebikes Bucks National Trend of E-Bike Share
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Bikeshare systems across North America have been adding thousands of pedal-assist electric bikes to their fleets this summer, but the Bluebikes system of greater Boston won't be embracing this new technology anytime soon.
How Bike Counts Make for Better Bike Lanes
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Earlier this summer, the City of Boston published the results of its 2019 bike counts, an annual tally of bike traffic that’s conducted every June and September. And while the city is busy building new bike infrastructure in an effort to increase the number of bike trips people make across the city, the 2019 counts […]
E-Buses Won't Come Fast Enough to Save the Climate
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Massachusetts has signed a multi-state pact to make zero-emission vehicles at least 30 percent of new bus and truck sales by 2030, and 100 percent by 2050 – but there’s considerable uncertainty about whether the pledge is ambitious enough to help Massachusetts meet its latest climate goals.
How SF's "Safety Ambassador" Model Can De-Cop Transit
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While the Massachusetts State House ponders significant reforms to fare enforcement on the MBTA, and – in separate legislation – to policing in general, the MBTA’s in-house police force faces a reckoning. The Transit Police attracted intense criticism earlier this summer for their closures of downtown subway stations during Black Lives Matter protests and for […]
What It's Like to Bike With a Baby
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In the Netherlands, infants regularly ride in bikes. In the United States, there are mostly horror stories.
New Mass. Climate Bill Will Reduce Tailpipe Emissions
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The Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a significant new climate bill on Friday night that commits the state to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by “at least 50 percent below the 1990 level” within the next decade. The Senate passed a bill with similar goals at the end of January. The two chambers, which recently agreed […]
How Boston Drivers Stole a Public Playground
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Like many parking lots, the dead-end alleyway on Foster Street in the North End is easy to overlook. It’s the kind of place that few people care about: a dead-end alleyway with trash collecting in its corners and about 18 cars parked haphazardly among its potholes. But unlike most parking lots, this small plot of […]
How Massachusetts is Reforming Fare Enforcement
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In addition authorizing debt spending for hundreds of infrastructure projects across the Commonwealth, the multi-billion dollar bond package that the Massachusetts Senate passed earlier this month would also make significant reforms to how the MBTA enforces fare payments on its trains, buses, and ferries. The Commonwealth’s current fare evasion law sets large penalties for people […]
Car-Free Residents Struggle with Food Insecurity
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In Mid-March, community members had just planted beets and peas in GreenRoots Chelsea’s 1200-square-foot urban farm. Then the pandemic hit, and social distancing made collective farming impossible. For GreenRoots, a community-based organization striving to achieve environmental justice, the growing season had just begun. The organization immediately adapted to the increasing demands for food and shifted […]
This MA City Hauls Their Trash and Recycling By Bike
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Pedal People, a cooperative started by Alex Jarrett and Ruthy Woodring in 2002, uses bicycles and bike trailers to transport goods and provide services in the Pioneer Valley.