Organizers of Boston's bid to host the '24 Summer Games are trying to "win over skeptics" by "developing a high-tech tool to forecast the effects of potential sports venues and proposed transportation improvements, years before they are built," according to Mark Arsenault of the BOSTON GLOBE. Persuading city residents that new sports venues "would not ruin their neighborhoods or lengthen commuting times after the games are over" might be "the toughest challenge" for the Boston '24 Executive Committee. To do so, they will use a computer model depicting "a 3-D, digitized version of Greater Boston, rendered in meticulous detail, linked to layer upon layer of data about the region, such as details of car and pedestrian traffic, public transit, and neighborhood demographics." When complete, the model "will allow planners and engineers to study how the city works now, and how Boston could work decades in the future, with some possible modifications to accommodate the Olympics." Suffolk Construction Chair & CEO John Fish, who is among the leaders of the Boston '24 group, said that the group is "developing the model at a cost" of about $1.5M and "plans to give the model to the public as a gift" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/8).
