Overcrowd forces you to think about transit design in a different way

In 2015, a massive snowstorm — or, more precisely, a series of massive snowstorms — stranded nearly 50 commuters on a broken train in Boston. Plenty of others were stuck at knotted-up stations since many of the system’s old trains aren’t built to handle heavy snow. So when the storm hit, and kept hitting, the system broke. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) shut down the city’s trains for more than a day, with no real estimate on when full service would be resumed. To say the least, it was a problem.
Train stations are liminal spaces, places that serve as a transition between what was and what comes next. We may spend a lot of time there, but it’s always impermanent. There is always a departing train, a next stop, and…

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