T Riders Take on the Marathon

We’re almost positive that most days we can get from Harvard Station to Central Square faster than the Red Line can make it. We’re not even going to talk about where and how often you can beat the Green Line at its own game, inbound or outbound. We’ve proven on more than one occasion that we can travel faster than the 39 Bus between James’ Gate and Sweet Finnish in JP (it usually overtakes us about there). A light jog will get you from the Jackson Square Stop & Shop to the Egleston Square high rise faster than the 22 bus, but walking doesn’t cut it. With marathon Monday just around the corner the folks at Roxbury based Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE) are looking to a marathon of their own. Knowing what we know about the busses and subways we’ve taken they’re out to prove it, number bibs and everything. Next Tuesday when the busses are back on a ‘regular’ schedule the T Riders Union will be setting out to see how far the T will take you in the same time it takes the top finishers in the Boston Marathon to traverse the 26.2 miles of over the road racing.

They’re sending two teams of everyday bus riders along routes, 10 from Chelsea and 15 from Roxbury to see how far they’ll get in the time it takes a runner to do 26.2 miles. The T Riders Union website has some pretty good statistics of how the runners stack up to the MBTA reported bus route times. To be fair the marathon runners don’t have to stop at lights, pull over to let people on and off, or deal with masshole drivers – Dan Grabauskus pointed this out to the Globe when they inquired. This may all be an apples and oranges comparison but with the number of times Bostonist has just started walking because our bus never showed we applaud anything that will make the gubernatorial candidates and MBTA administration take note of what’s not working in their system. It’s important to note that more low-income neighborhoods are served by busses, and sub-standard bussing, than are more affluent neighborhoods. It’s part gentrification, part discrimination, and part institutional racism – which are all three kin.