Better start learning the meaning of "closed door" in Grove Hall

The residents of Mattapan love the new 60 foot articulated buses on the Route 28 bus.  I rode them on the Route 39 when they first came out and they're really, really nice.

The residents of Grove Hall?  They do too, but not their so-called "community leaders" to bitch about not being "consulted."  One of the comments from the boston.com site is quite telling...

Yet despite all of this, these community groups act as though they're being victimized. Like the State is coming in to destroy their neighborhoods. They killed the #28X [Route 28X would have been a Silver Line-style BRT route running down the median of Blue Hill Avenue. -ed]. Now they're completely apoplectic over the fact the T didn't kiss their feet and beg them to allow larger buses to offer better service to what is arguably a community long-underserved by mass transit. This is literally the least the T can do to help them, and still the community groups are trying to fight them to do less. They'd rather see the rest of their community get nothing, than have their "authority" undermined.

It appears to be about ego, control and the need to assert both. 

What the T should do is introduce a neat little concept called "closed door" service.  Routes 14, 19, 23, 28 and 45 go through that area.  Since the "community leaders" are pissed they weren't able to extort all sorts of things from the T, the T should turn around and state that those route will not stop to discharge passengers nor to pick up passengers.  All routes will just go right through Grove Hall without stopping.  If it means a quarter mile to half mile walk to Grove Hall, in the blazing sun or during a hefty blizzard, that's the way it has to be.

They will, however, get more than an angry earful from passengers who rely on the T, who worked so hard for improvements, and now have to go out of their way just because the pigheaded, egotistical, hamfisted, loudmouthed control freaks killed service in their area, and the T will not lift a finger to return it to normal.  Then these so-called "community leaders" will be seen for who they truly are: obstructionists who are too selfish to let their residents have what they truly deserve, because improvements would dilute their power and ego to infinitesimally small irrelevance.

From Cleary Square to Kennedy Plaza, all in a day

I was on vacation this week and in contrast to the Route 240 trip was my trip to Providence via the Commuter Rail on Wednesday.

Every year since around 1998 or so, I make a point to go to Providence or Newport because I like Rhode Island. Ocean Staters aren't the milquetoasts and passive-aggressive fools that Bay Staters are - they have the balls to tell people they'll be glad to serve them once they complete their phone conversations - something Bay Staters fear will win them a trip to our finest emergency rooms.

If you do go, my suggestion is NOT to go through South Station OR to take the Peter Pan/Bonanza bus. The MBTA/MBCR WILL charge you $15.50 for a round trip - $7.75 each way. The Bonanza bus, even though it costs $15.95 round trip and is much quicker, has some pretty beasty traffic from Providence to Boston.

Rather, take the Orange Line to Forest Hills, and then the Route 32 bus to Cleary Square. The $9 interzone fare I paid on a round trip ticket from Hyde Park to Providence is more than worth it. I boarded the 12:28 train and got to Providence around 1:05; returning on the 5:10 train, I got back to Hyde Park around 6:04.

Rhode Islanders have their own idiosyncracies, including their own brand of lemonade ice, coffee syrup, "New York System" hot dogs, corruption (politicians and the like) and the feeling you're in the "sixth" borough of New York. But therein lies the difference; Bay Staters feel so entitled to their bounties in education and technology, you almost feel that arrogance and smug "ha ha, look what I can do and you can't!" once you step into the tourist sections of Boston. Ocean Staters will tell you what things are, what you can do with it if you don't like it, and take little guff from strangers.

Rhode Island's singleton Ivy League school, Brown University, isn't swarming with hipster doofuses, nutty conspiracy theorists, bums, and other poseurs. I walked up and down Thayer Street - Providence's equivalent of Harvard Square - without being accosted, jostled, harangued, or being passed by as if I weren't there. You felt as if you were part of the neighborhood, not as someone you though was going too freakin' slow and if you had the power, you'd lift the damn sidewalk.

If you want to ride a public transit system better than the MBTA, RIPTA is a good example on how Rhode Island legislators see the passengers who don't or can't drive - they treat them like passengers and not like revenue sources. On the two trolley rides and bus ride I took, the buses were not crowded, and the passengers got along well. Inside Kennedy Plaza, however, there were plenty of people waiting, but it was far more orderly and organized. Maybe Dan Graubauskas could take a trip down to Providence and take notes!

The kids themselves that mill around Kennedy Plaza from the various middle and high schools in Providence are the same as you would find in Boston. One huge difference: The Providence Police Department makes their presence duly known - patrol cars, horseback, bikes, foot patrols, etc. Back in 2003, I was down the Kennedy Plaza and a group of kids began fighting. As fast as you can say "Police Squad" at least 80 cops flew down there and broke up the fight. I was amazed at the quick response and the ability to get the situation under control from the Providence cops.

Finally, one thing I like about Rhode Island that it's close enough to Massachusetts without being Massachusetts. I looked forward to all the times I went to Club Baby Head over near Richmond Street with Rob and Bucky Avery, Jim Brackett, and other people from UMass Dartmouth. I was a college student back then, and getting from Dartmouth to Providence was near impossible without a car. Now, it's only a 36 mile/40 minute trip from Hyde Park. Progress!

Herd mentality on the MBTA

I sometimes work on Saturdays for three reasons. One, because there's no dearth of work, two, it's paid OT, and three, the MBTA operates at a much better rate than during the week. Where it's Christmas Week and school vacation week, however, the MBTA will be a lot less crowded, and I'll likely get to work somewhat earlier.

Tonight, however, I decided to make a trek to Anna's Taqueria in Central Square after work. Unbelievable burritos, and the generous amount of chips for 95 cents are well worth the journey. I also noticed that there's a Qdoba across the way; they're good too, especially for a chain restaurant, but Anna's Taqueria is worth the $7 I spent on dinner.

I took the Route 87 bus from behind Porter to Lechmere. Except for a small bottleneck in Union Square in Somerville, I got to Lechmere in pretty good time.

Then the fun started. (I plan on using heavy amounts of adult language here, so if you have young children reading this blog, be prepared to explain a lot. You also have permission to print this out and apply Wite-out to the naughty bits; otherwise, your sweet little child will repeat these words, likely to your pastor or Sunday School teacher.)

First, the white trash see-you-next-Tuesday who "threatened to smash the fucking fare gates" because her card wouldn't go through. My resolution: don't ride the train with that ultra-bitch and her boyfriend, because likely her criminal record rivaled the first ten chapters of War and Peace. This is a good time to stand way over to the side because I would like to keep certain body parts intact.

The larger problem was that the MBTA was quite a lot short on cars, and thanks to the proximity of the Cambridgeside Galleria, too many last-minute shoppers filling up the platforms. Unlike the weekdays, Green Line cars run double. Thanks to what I would call a nasty case of clusterfuck and upper managerial horseshit, there were no double cars, only single cars. No wonder the poor inspector at Lechmere was having constant conniptions and shitfits
because someone in the Green Line upper echelon figured, yeah, it's the end of the shopping season, everyone will be taking the T, we don't need those extra trains! Single cars will be more than enough!

Not only were single cars not enough, they were often overcrowded. No matter what car came forward, it was filled to capacity within seconds. And, like flies to a steaming pile of horseshit, whenever an empty car came forward, the sea of humanity followed, hoping to lay its maggot egg-like asses onto a seat. So after twenty minutes of watching the sea of idiocy try to hedge their bets on which car will get them out of this narrow platform, I figured it would be a good idea to seek out the Kendall/MIT shuttle.

Only one problem. My watch said 7:11. The last shuttle out was 6:20. Foiled - making me an idiot too for not reading the goddamn schedule.

After trying to get through the Cambridgeside Galleria, I stopped by the newsstand centered in the middle of the food court to buy lottery tickets. It was a good thing I had eaten beforehand, because the place was packed solid, and I see first hand why some people abhor Christmas and would like it banned: thanks to the psychology that commercialism and marketing offers, we turn from nice, civil people to animals without a shred of fucking courtesy or decorum. It was evident at the food court, the mall, and at Lechmere Station - the lure of deep bargains and the encouragement to empty wallets lower our defenses and our civility, and acting like some dominatrix who controls the horizontal, vertical and contrast. Outside of the city wouldn't have been better.

I finally left Cambridgeside and returned to Lechmere, which looked as if it were calming down. Nope - same large crowd, same harried inspector, same single-car trains. This time, I didn't wait too long; ten minutes and I was headed to North Station; single car, but nowhere nearly as crowded. When I arrived at North Station, the Orange Line train was coming into the station. Maximum waiting time: 90 seconds. Time at the station: 7:35pm. I was laughing out loud as I got to the train; a conversation between a group of African American girls revolved around a girl "wearing stockings."

Then I got to Forest Hills station and decided to take the Route 40/50. Normally, this would be a sleepy route, but that herd mentality of HOLY SHIT! IT'S THE LAST BUS OF THE FUCKING APOCALYPSE! GET ON THE FIRST GODDAMN BUS YOU SEE OR YOU'LL BE LEFT BEHIND TO DIE! reared its ugly head again, as the bus was packed solid. The good/bad thing is that between Roslindale Square and Forest Hills, NINE buses ply Washington Street. (Routes 30, 34, 34E, 35, 36, 37, 40, 50, 51, in case you're curious.) Most of the passengers too impatient/lazy/stupid to wait emptied out around Roslindale Square, with a few more at the Beech St projects. By the time the bus left Georgetowne and entered Cleary Square, the bus was empty. The driver stopped for some slices of pizza and returned to Forest Hills.

The herd mentality is a dangerous mentality, especially when your bus/train doesn't show up for twenty to thirty minutes. The busiest routes are the most notorious for bottlenecks. For example, Route 71 and 73 trackless trolleys run on Mount Auburn St, and if there's an accident at the Fresh Pond Parkway/Memorial Drive split, trolleys bunch up and delay, and in addition to arriving at Harvard late, it has to circle the Cambridge Common before returning to Waverley or Watertown. Also, Route 71 and Route 73 ply the same route between Harvard and the Belmont St/Watertown line, and both buses serve Mount Auburn Hospital. (What the T should do is introduce two diesel routes, e.g. Route 61 and Route 63, that run limited within that area and offer more seating and standing. At the Mt. Auburn Bridge, they can run their regular routes.)

No matter - if it's that late, riders who are legitimately late, or just like the thrill of pushing forward to display their selfish "me first" attitude, or fear that they'll be left out or left behind, rush right to any available bus and try to pile on. The opposite happens on Route 71 headed inbound from Watertown Square to Harvard. Maybe it's the residents or the suburban patina, but even when it gets crowded and packed, the herd mentality is nowhere near as bad. You'll have your odd person blocking the back door or running for the bus (to which the herd pleads with the bus driver to stop; some drivers have emptied entire buses because they would rather be on time or make up time than listen to a Greek chorus)

The first time there's an accident or a huge fight because of a delayed bus or train, no one will admit it's because they're too impatient to wait for a less crowded train, too lazy to take an earlier or later train, or too stupid to plan ahead or seek alternate routes.

Pay more to be stuck in a massive jam, or pay less for crappy transit

We read this post in the Universal Hub, regarding a soon-to-be-ex MBTA rider who will now choose to drive to Boston.

When we read that "they're raising my Subway pass from $44 to $59," we consulted our Fare Hike of 2007 worksheet. There's only one teensy-weensy problem with her statement.

First, the Subway Pass, Combo, and Combo Plus passes no longer exist, as the T is eliminating them in favor of the singular LinkPass. The three older passes, at $44, $71, and $79, will all be replaced by a Link Pass for $59 per month. The elimination of her Subway Pass, and herding her to the new LinkPass, does make her monthly purchase go up $15. Perhaps she didn't know about this, or perhaps wanted to make her statement more appealing to the anti-MBTA crowd, but we want to make sure this got cleared up. (This is why we do the research, kids!)

Moreover, riders who usually bought the Combo or Combo Plus pass will see their monthly rate go down by $12-20 - a huge savings. The $15 extra for the LinkPass also includes bus service, which would cost her $40 if she purchased a Bus pass seperately - so she would have saved money regardless.

The best and most accurate M(B)TA map

If you're a pre-MBTA transit buff, here's a blast from the past , courtesy of Thinking of a New Title. Back then, stations had different names - or no longer exist.

The lines back in the MTA were named as follows:

Green Line : Subway Surface to Arborway, Boston College, Cleveland Circle, Riverside, and Watertown
Orange Line: Main Line Elevated
Red Line: Cambridge - Dorchester Subway
Blue Line: East Boston Tunnel

There is also a black-and-white map here.