A few ambitious Germans created an amazing red slide as an alternate way to get into the depths of a Berlin subway station. We (well, one of us) had two words: Porter Square. [via CTA Tattler]
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Results tagged “publictransportation”
Having cowritten an amazing semi-rap song called "Where the F*** Is the Motherf***ing Bus?" during an hourlong bus wait in college, this Bostonist can relate to the need to know where the effing bus is. After years of long (cold) waits and confusion, the MBTA has committed to providing real-time bus tracking data sometime this summer. Tomorrow night, MassDOT developers will meet with regular folks to discuss how data is made available to external developers for the creation of useful applications and services. Held at the Microsoft NERD Center near Kendall, the event starts at 6pm and will feature tech types talking about data and its uses. Only a few spots are left, so sign up now to get informed.
If you decided to take the T in the rash of fatal (and MBTA bus–involving) and non-fatal (and non-MBTA involving) bike accidents recently, you may be not all that surprised to hear that the T isn't so safe either. A man was killed by an orange line train early this morning after apparently falling or otherwise ending up on the tracks at Sullivan Square. The accident remains under investigation. Be careful when transporting yourself from place to place, folks, especially if the MBTA is involved. [WBZ]
Here's a flashy comparison of public transit systems around the country. How does the MBTA stack up to transit in New York City, Chicago, Washington, and San Francisco? Well, we have the fewest miles per trip (3.58), slowest speed (14.38 mph—everyone else travels at least 4mph faster), and second-lowest percentage of vehicles (78.43%) operating at once. Golf clap, MBTA. At least we got included on the graphic? [Good]
We've sucked at recycling in the past, and for all those green commuters, there still seem to be plenty of cars on the road. However, we do have some green colleges in New England; maybe these grads will come to town and keep the green commuting rate high. What do you think of Boston's transit footprint? Good and green, or not so much?
We went to the first of those MBTA fare increase workshops yesterday, and tweeted a little about it. As Dan Grabauskas alleges his opposition to fare hikes and Deval Patrick and Jim Aloisi rush to put the blame on the MBTA for the proposed fare increases, it's not clear whether any fare increase proposal will go forward anytime soon. But if you've been thinking of going to one of the workshops anyway, we have a couple of tips.
The proposed MBTA fare increases (view full details in PDF) of nearly 20% will be officially debated soon, in a series of public workshops leading up to the public hearing on August 27. If you can't attend a meeting, you can also submit your opinion in writing before September 4. Written comments can be directed to MBTA, Attention: Fare Proposal Committee, 10 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116, or to fareproposal@mbta.com. You can call 617-222-3200 (TTY 617-222-5146) to speak your mind as well. Interpretors will be in attendance at the public workshops as indicated. Information for the first Boston workshop is below; view all other workshops listed after the jump.
Texting drivers. Fires. Drivers who don't stop in emergencies. Deadly crashes. And now, power outages. The MBTA is one big failure. Accidents are obviously inevitable, but the T has shown a distinct inability to deal with them effectively. The organization left thousands of Bostonians stranded underground this morning when the system's power went out. A power failure in itself should not happen: there should be backup power available for the system. But when such an incident does occur, there must be a plan for getting riders out of the T effectively. What if someone had had a medical emergency? And not to be alarmist, but isn't the subway an amazing place for a terrorist attack? If the T can't deal with a power outage that its own workers caused, how can it deal with larger, more serious events? Richard Leary, the T's chief operating officer, told the Globe "We're going to put practices in place to make sure this never happens again" and admitted "Our process has to be reviewed for preventive maintenance." But that's just not good enough. The fallout from T failures hasn't been major yet, but it seems only a matter of time until disaster results from the T's consistent inability to handle crises quickly and effectively. Boston needs to better fund its public transportation system, and the system needs to create a better plan for dealing with emergencies. Failure to do so puts citizens in danger every day.
The American Public Transit Association (APTA) has ranked Boston first on its most recent list of cities where you can save money by taking public transportation. (We beat NYC by $5 per month--that'll buy a Guinness!) The APTA compiles the list regularly, based on the cost of a monthly transit pass, local parking prices, current gas prices (in this study, $3.678 per gallon, assuming an average 23.4 mpg and 15,000 miles of driving per year), and car maintenance costs. The aggravation of waiting for public transportation and the opportunity cost of a longer commute (where applicable) do not seem to be taken into account. Here are the ten cities where you can save the most by busin' (or subwayin') it:
We just read Boston.com's update on our developing snow situation, and, honestly? We're more confused than we had been before.
Meet more of Bostonist's new writers! Dale Cruse, of Drinks Are On Me, is launching a weekly drinks column for Bostonist that will appear on Wednesdays. Bostonist loves his site, which tracks food and wine trends, and is thrilled that he's joining the team.
When it snows in Boston, the rule is clear--you don't park in a spot that another person has shoveled out. The Mayor's Office backs this up:
Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just...
As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice...
--In the middle of a card game at an old folks' home in Jamaica Plain, someone let loose pepper spray, and three residents went to the hospital. That must have been a high-stakes game of pokeno! Police questioned one 66-year-old man, Robert Kane, because he had pepper spray in the past, but he denied it. One resident referred to "troublemakers" in the home and suggested that some people in the home were beefing. Aren't they...
There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and...
Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom...
The US Census reported that Bostonians love to walk to work. This week, Census data revealed that 12.5% of Boston workers walk, which puts them at the top of the list for American cities with the largest number of workers.
Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti...
Thank you for your responses to our last call for writers! We're hoping you'll see some Foodie Debuts soon. As we have looked through the submissions, we realize that we have another slot on our Bostonist Blogger Wish List – a public transportation blogger. We'd ask Mac Daniel, but he's taken.
Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed. For LAist, strong winds attacked LA on the same day the Feds raided the Crips. Not to fear, though: the Japanese version...
We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick...
We were thinking about how clever presidential candidate Barack Obama must have been to find parking in Cambridge, tickets be dammed. And then we saw the latest in ridiculous rates in this city. The Globe reports, "At least seven garages are charging for parking in 20-minute rather than 30-minute increments, and many of them are collecting their all-day rates for periods of less than two hours." Many places are charging $6 for 20 minutes or...
We're guessing most of you are hungover from St. Patrick's Day. We are too. But still, we're going to muddle on through our green haze and give you (drum roll please...) this Week In -ists. We start with SFist which broke the -ist record for comments with nearly 500 comments on a post about our Mayor's girlfriend. She responded back on charges that she's not a "girl's girl" and, whoo boy-- the floodgates? They...
With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? Bostonist dug deep to uncover Barack Obama's unpaid parking tickets, their Governor's latest ethical lapse, and a plagarizing sports writer. Chicagoist had everything in twos: two views on having the Olympics, losing two members of their Super Bowl team, and two music festivals. DCist put their noses in legal books as...
We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,...
Nothing really seems to change on the T because most of the people riding it are ordinary schlubs like us. We "write to the top," and our letters escape into the void of transportation bureaucracy.
Three kids left alone in their Roxbury apartment yesterday started playing with matches and set the place on fire. The oldest of the children was six, which raises the question, "Where was Mom or Dad?" The good news is that firefighters and neighbors were able to rescue the children in time.
The emphasis on First Night has been as much on what you can't do as much as what you can do. So let's get what you can't do out of the way right now. Don't drive. Take public transportation. No excuses because the T will be free after 8 pm. The MBTA provides more details about the New Year's schedule here. And, as far as the law is concerned, the message is try not to...
Wonder why the lines have been so long at the automated ticket machines at T stations? Machines across the MBTA haven't been taking credit cards since Thursday night. The machines still accepted cash, so people who happened to have cash on them were able to get passes, but anyone with a credit or debit card received the message that the machine couldn't contact the related credit or debit card company.