A Better City releases "Building Massachusetts' Economy through Transportation Investment", an executive summary prepared by Cambridge Systematics. Click here to read the Executive Summary.
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A Better City releases its Transportation Finance Plan to create a sound future for both our transportation system and the Commonwealth’s economy. Click here to read it online.
A Better City attends high-speed rail conference
On February 1st, ABC staff attended the Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility conference held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The meeting focused on the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) recent announcement to begin construction on high-speed rail corridors. Moving forward, ABC will continue to collaborate with the Northeast Business Alliance and advocate for improved Amtrack service throughout the region. To learn more about how the investments will be distributed, please view this synopsis on the FRA's funding.
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What's New...
ABC is pleased to announce that Rick Dimino has been asked by Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Thomas Menino to join the Convention Partnership as part of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority’s T5 initiative. T5 is a long-term strategic initiative launched to make Massachusetts and Boston more competitive in the convention industry for the purpose of increasing the amount of economic impact generated in the region, inspiring more economic development, and creating more jobs.
Over the next year, the Convention Partnership will drive the public dialogue on the potential expansion of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center and conclude with a report of their findings in December 2010.
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On Tuesday, January 5th, ABC TMA released their annual report to the TMA membership. This past year the TMA has continued to move towards an improved air quality for regional Boston through their transportation demand management work. We encourage you to view an electronic copy of the report to see what sort of projects and efforts the TMA has been involved with. Please direct any questions regarding the report to ABC TMA Executive Director, David Straus.
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On November 4th, the ABC Urban Ring and Institutional Business Committee meet to discuss agreements between the Commonwealth and the rail shipping company, the CSX Corporation. CSX Co. operates rail lines in Massachusetts that also overlap with MBTA Commute Rail service areas.
ABC is especially interested in the outcome of this agreement as it will impact the future alignment of the Urban Ring corridor. A representative from MassDOT, Jamey Tesler, presented summary points regarding the agreements; this can be viewed here.
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ABC and ABCTMA are working with Boston Bikes to increase on-street, bicycle parking options around the city. The City is currently compiling a list of installation locations that will begin in Spring 2010. In preparation of this, we are reaching out to the membership for assistance in identifying public accessible locations that can serve the transportation needs of the business community, consumers and visitors. The City will manage all instillation and maintenance of the racks including removing abandoned bicycles.
Access to reliable parking is important as an increasing amount of commuters switch to transit, bicycling and waking for trips to work. In addition, bicycling can be a convenient mode for consumers and visitors to access the services in the Downtown neighborhoods. Lastly, access to public parking is a useful resource for buildings lacking suitable options or looking to augment current availability so as to better meet demand.
We encourage members to contact dfennell@abettercity.org if you would like assistance in working with the City to increase bike parking around your building.
