Results tagged “transportation”

Transportation is a big problem in Massachusetts. Let's recap, shall we? We have traffic, of course, texting trolley drivers, tunnels that kill people, government officials more interested in a feud than what commuters pay for public transportation, near collisions at the airport, a rash of crashes with older drivers.

It was proposed months ago, but the House and Senate have now approved a bill that would eliminate the always-troubled Turnpike Authority. It's now up to Deval Patrick to pass it or not; given his previous stance on the issue, it seems likely that he will. Unions representing Pike employees are (obviously) opposed to the organization's elimination, as it would eliminate their cushy jobs and associated pensions. Trashing the Turnpike Authority seems like a potentially good move that could allow for greater standardization of transportation policy across the state. The utter lack of regard for unions in this case makes the drawn-out Globe drama all the more interesting. Is there something intrinsic about newspapers that make them seem worth saving? Or what if journalism were a government-funded endeavor? Would the Globe be losing even more than "$85 million" this year?

  

“How do you tell what’s going on in a city?” asked Assaf Biderman, associate director of MIT’s SENSEable City Lab. “You can wire every piece of pavement, but it’s not very sustainable, it’s not scalable, it’s expensive. We’re partnering with infrastructure managers, trying to get information from them that we can process and use. The information they collect from managing their own network can be used to figure out what’s going on in the space.”

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Folks certainly do a lot of complaining about the T, but New York is giving us a run for our money. Or something like that. The MTA has announced a staggering fare hike, raising monthly passes to $103 from the previous $81. Kind of makes $59 seem like a deal, huh? Of course, New York subways run 24 hours, actually go places you might want to go, and travel at more than 15 mph—although service cuts accompany the fare hike, making New Yorkers even happier. Is it a good time to be in Boston? Maybe, until the MBTA takes after the MTA and raises fares. Don't want to see that happen? Try attending the Rider Oversight Committee meeting coming up on Monday.

Budgets bite. Especially in this economy. Just in time for Friday the thirteen the MBTA's board of directors has approved the organization's 2010 budget of $1,627,000,000, just approved by its board of directors, contain some intense language: "The day of reckoning is here... Fiscal 2010 will again be an extremely difficult and challenging year."

A man was crushed between two cars today in the Coolidge Corner Trader Joe's parking lot. Someone, presumably distracted by cheap granola and tofu, didn't pay enough attention to the trajectory of his or her minivan, and slammed the victim against a Ford Explorer (c'mon, folks, shouldn't we drive our hybrids to TJ's? you know, for appearances). Firefighters untangled the man from the vehicle. We have no details on the man's injuries, but hope that only cage-free eggs, and not anybody's legs, were broken in the incident.

We've all seen it. The able-bodied college students slouching in their seats, scrolling through their iPods, oblivious to their surroundings. The able-bodied yuppie, sitting up straight, reading a book that's been turned into a movie, being distracted by a call from the spouse. What do these people have in common? They sit while others who need seats stand.

Know how it can cost like $200 to take Amtrak's Acela to New York? Know how that's crazy expensive, way costlier than flying? Well, apparently Amtrak got the memo, or noticed that nobody has $200 to go to New York in this economy, because it's lowered one-way (!) Acela fares from Boston to NYC to a mere $79 (though most fares were $89 when we tried to book a trip for this weekend, with a few $62 return trip options). Still doesn't beat the Fung Wah, but it's a slight improvement.

Planning to drive a mile? You may soon be charged $.0025 for it! Massachusetts is one of a few states considering a quarter-cent surcharge for every mile driven in a state. It's like a gas tax, but creepier (because based on actual mileage determined by Big-Brother-esque GPS) and crappier (because charging by mile reduces the incentive to get a fuel-efficient car). Deval Patrick says he prefers solutions that are "faster, cheaper, simpler"; this one doesn't appear to fit any of those criteria, as it'd cost time and money to implement, and create more data for the state to track. Oregon has a program that works something like ours would, but the state paid people to participate in it, charged a fee based on recorded mileage, and then reduced the gas tax to compensate for the fee charged. Doesn't sound cheap or simple. A similar system has been used in London, with one appealing feature: drivers have to pay more money to drive during rush hour. Incentive to use public transportation or just stay off the roads is always a plus, but this charge-by-mile thing has a lot of kinks to work out before it'll look useful in any way.

Tonight's the big night! The former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia (who we wrote about last week) is coming to the BPL to tell us how he took back his streets—and, hopefully, how we can do it, too.

So maybe you thought the poor MBTA was cash-strapped, and that's the reason it can't afford to keep people alive (except on the commuter rail, and only because that costs more). But it's not so! The agency is just using your fares to pay its employees six-figure salaries. T wages grew up to 14% last year due to overtime, union requirements, and other factors, an impressive amount in this economy. Granted, we want the T to keep running smoothly. We appreciate the service it provides, and the work its employees do. But at a certain point, throwing more money at workers doesn't fix bigger problems, like failure to collect fares, infrastructure issues, and just not having enough trains. Salaries aren't the only thing the T needs to pay for, and it should start acting accordingly.

Apparently it only takes two mishandled, near-death situations to spring the MBTA into action. Nearly seven years after James Allen died from a heart attack on a commuter train (thanks to MBTA drivers who kept the train chugging despite attempts to warn them of the medical emergency), the T has added defibrillators to commuter rail trains. Good news for long-distance commuters, but the rest of us local train folks will have to settle for being mistaken for drunkards by our own drivers while we are having heart attacks. [MBTA]

            

You already saw some pantsless folks; now, here are more pasty legs (captured by Flickr user ittoku) for your... erm... enjoyment?

Well, sorta. The Herald reports that Amtrak is increasing service from Boston (among other cities) to DC for Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20, and many airlines plan to offer additional flights to the capital for the festivities as well. So that makes it seem kind of like Obama has made us all reconsider our addiction to cars, but that isn't quite the case—plus the increased train and plane usage is probably not that great for the environment anyway. Regardless, increasing train service for the day is better than having thousands of folks drive their cars into DC, create massive traffic, and attempt to park in nonexistent spaces, so kudos to Amtrak for making at least one smart (and lucrative) decision in its history.

We thought Herald commenters were bad, but now it looks like some of their ranks may have shifted over to the Globe. In response to an article suggesting that the U.S. should follow in Europe's footsteps by raising gas taxes, multiple commenters theorize that Europe is the size of Texas; hence, raising gas taxes would never work, because we dearly need our gas-guzzlers to get around our great, giant nation. Never mind that France is nearly as big as Texas, that the continent covers much of our country, or that Canadians (whose country is, sorry to disappoint, bigger than the U.S.—if you don't take our inflated egos into account) pay more gas tax than we do yet still manage to get around their maple-leafed communist nation somehow. Europe will surely be interested to hear that it's now the Lone Star Continent.

Those of us who don't drive may not care, but the automobile aficionados among us are certainly interested in the issue of toll hikes on the pike. (Personally, we like the Universal Hub solution: sponsorship.) The financially troubled Turnpike Authority will be holding a series of public hearings on the topic in the coming weeks to allow citizens to voice their opinions on the matter. The schedule is as follows:

     

The MBTA officials must really be dreaming. Besides implementing a fantastical $1.2 billion "Little Dig" project, our public transportation system is also trying to get Bostonians to be nice. Say what now? Yes, it's true--the T thinks some adorable little signs will help us nasty Boston folk learn to ride the rails in a way that doesn't ruin everyone's day. Unfortunately, the MBTA marketing masterminds seem to have forgotten the #1 rule of public transportation: when someone makes your commute crappy, throw some bad behavior right back at 'em. There's the passive-aggressive bag bump, the oblivious failure to move into an empty car, the backpack-on-the-seat dis, the oops-I-spilled-my-Dunkin-on-you, and--our favorite--the perpetually perturbing stand-square-in-front-of-an-open-seat move. All of these tactics are based on one principle: being wholly indifferent to others' needs. It's not that we don't know what to do, it's that we just don't care.

Driving a cab can't be easy. Everyone complains about you, you get weirdos in the back seat, it's dangerous, and sometimes people jump without paying. Add the high gas prices into the mix, and you wonder why anyone would be a cab driver. Now, cab drivers say that the gas prices are taking a huge chunk out of their take-home pay, and they want higher fares.

Usually, when the infamous low-rent Fung Wah buses have an accident, it's funny. That's because no one has died.

An investigation of cell-phone records shows that the Green Line operator who died in the recent MBTA crash was not on her cell phone at the time of the crash.

At least it's a nice day out. Because you may as well not bother going into work if you commute by the red line. (Apologies to those of you who are already stuck on a train somewhere.)

--The Herald followed up on the story that New England Patriot Nick Kaczur allegedly turned informant after getting busted with oxy. They stated the obvious--being an informant can put one in a dangerous position. [Boston Herald]

How tall do you have to be to ride the Red Line again? Because you'll feel some thrills riding this particular MBTA line in the next few weeks.

--Investigators of the fatal Green Line D rear-end crash said they have not found evidence that driver Terrese Edmonds, who was killed, applied the brakes. [Boston Globe, Boston Herald]

At the moment, it isn't clear that the fatal trolley accident that killed Green Line driver Terrese Edmonds had anything to do with MBTA manager Dan Grabauskas. But the spotlight is on him after so many ugly Green Line incidents, producing an article from the Herald's Dave Wedge indicating that, if Governor Deval Patrick decided he wanted to replace Grabauskas--and he might--it wouldn't be easy:

--One of the survivors of the fatal rear-end Green Line D trolley collision is sharing her story of one passenger staying with her and helping her until rescuers could help free her from the train. [Boston Herald]

Update to the Update: After hours of attempting to remove her from the train, the operator of the car who was trapped, Terrese Edmonds, has died, according to the Globe, who spoke with her father.

We heard from several Bostonists and saw reports about the transportation mess that ensued after the fire that broke out, causing an evacuation at Park Street and Downtown Crossing. Charlie clearly didn't have his stuff together. Here's what LyetteAnn had to say:

You're going to have a long trip home tonight. Trains are stuck at stations because of an electrical fire that caused evacuations at Downtown Crossing and Park Street around 5:20 tonight.