transportation

In Revere, a mile-and-a-half stretch of the six-lane-wide Squire Road cuts past clusters of shops, a couple of grocery stores, and rows of residential streets. Hidden behind those six lanes, a shopping center and some broad asphalt parking lots is the Rumney Marsh Reservation, and, beyond it, the ocean. But the roadway, with its dark surfaces and extensive pavement, traps heat and makes it hard for anyone outside of a car to traverse from one end to the other or to get to the natural resources on the other side, said Tom Skwierawski, the city’s chief of planning and community development.

Beginning Aug. 1, subway and bus riders can ditch their Charlie Cards and paper tickets, if they choose, for a new contactless payment method, the agency announced July 9.

Dorchester residents living along the heavily trafficked Columbia Road met last week with city transportation planners and urban design specialists to begin plotting the future look of the key neighborhood connector.

The city’s chief of streets heard an earful from Hyde Park residents last week about dangers on the streets in their neighborhood.

The Red Line has the most extreme slowdowns in the MBTA’s system, according to data tracked by independent nonprofit TransitMatters.

The MBTA is planning to double the amount of shuttle bus service in the next five years at a cost of tens of millions of dollars, with the possibility of another complete rail line shutdown in the works — and a transit advocate thinks the Red Line could be next to be taken offline.

City officials say they are moving forward with plans for an ambitious redesign of one of the city’s, and the Commonwealth’s, most persistently dangerous roadways: the three-mile stretch of Blue Hill Avenue connecting Mattapan to Dorchester’s Grove Hall.

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley secured $20 million in federal funds for street improvements for Malcolm X Boulevard, Melnea Cass Boulevard and Warren Street. The funding for the three Roxbury thoroughfares will be targeted toward streetscape improvements aimed at improving climate resiliency, making sidewalks more accessible and streets more safe.

After a year-long stalemate between the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and Western Massachusetts legislators, transportation experts still see “no end in sight” for the creation of a high-speed commuter rail connecting Boston to the greater Western Massachusetts area, according to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.

Advocates, city councilors and state senators gathered last week to hear findings from Governor Charlie Baker’s commission on the future of transportation in Massachusetts, and to discuss ways to make their recommendations a reality.