{"id":114,"date":"2005-06-23T10:57:05","date_gmt":"2005-06-23T14:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2005\/06\/23\/dependabili-t\/"},"modified":"2005-06-23T10:57:05","modified_gmt":"2005-06-23T14:57:05","slug":"dependabili-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2005\/06\/23\/dependabili-t\/","title":{"rendered":"Dependabili-T"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I rarely write about the MBTA (the “T”), Boston’s public transit system. For the most part, I have no issues with it. Although there are pockets of areas where access is inconveneint, living downtown makes thing incredibly convenient for me. I’m within blocks of 2 Green-line stops, 2 Orange lines stops, the commuter rail, a major bus transfer hub and even the harbor ferries. Overall, I have little room to complain.<\/P>
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But I will. <\/P>
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I want to write about what happened to me last night. I was meeting a friend for dinner at the Cambridgeside Galleria. This place is a 30 minute or so walk from my place (just over the Charles River from my neighborhood). But as I left the house last night to meet my friend, it looked like rain so I figured I’d take public transit. Now, I was fully aware that green line service from North Station to Lechmere (where Cambridgeside Galleria is located) has been temporarily suspended while they complete a new tunnel and viaduct ramp. A shuttle bus service has been created in the meantime to continue getting passengers from Point A to Point B.<\/P>
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As I left my apartment it started to drizzle. Being the good scout that I am, I brought along an umbrella and by the time I got to where the subway would have been, it was pouring. There were no signs indicated the shuttle bus location, so I walked along the green painted line toward the corner of Merrimac and Causway Streets (3 or 4 blocks away) where the shuttle bus stop was the last I went to Cambridgeside. Of course, this convenient painted line disappeared after one block.<\/P>
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As I approached the corner, I saw one of the shuttle busses speed on by. “Oh well”, I thought, “I’ll catch the next one.” I arrived at the corner where the bus stop was and a bus was approaching. “Yay”, I thought. By this time, the rain was coming down in buckets and my sneakers were getting soaked through.<\/P>
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The bus was now stopped (because the traffic light was red and there were 3 or 4 cars in front of it). I waved my little subway pass indicating that I wanted to board the bus. But the fucker wouldn’t open the door. I got right to the door and showed him my pass again and he shook his head no and pointed in front of him. I thought he meant he would pick me up a few feet away by the curb so I backed away and walked toward the intersection. I couldn’t tell where I was supposed to go so I turned to him again and he ANGRILY kept pointing in this direction somewhere. Did I mention this bus was stopped at a stop-light and could just as easily have opened the door for me? Did I also mention that it was pouring rain and I was gettin soaked?<\/P>
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So, I look all around, hoping there would be some sort of sign saying “Green Line Shuttle Stop”…but none existed. There weren’t even the green painted lines on the sidewalk anymore. Then I thought maybe the stop was moved to the other side of the intersection.<\/P>
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Of course, being Boston, this really isn’t a normal intersection. Merrimac Street turns into Martha Road and to get there you have to cross Staniford\/Causeway Street, then two traffic islands, then along jersey barriers (installed after 9\/11 to protect the Tip O’Neill Federal Building). But by the time I navigated that crazy rush hour traffic mess (a la the video game, Frogger), the bus simply drove by me.<\/P>
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It then stopped yet another “block” away. Apparently, the “convenient” green line shuttle stop is now behind the Tip O’neill Federal Building and the Fleet Center (soon to be TD BankNorth Garden). Yeah – that’s logical. So from the actual subway stop, you have to know enough to walk (without any signage at street level) a few blocks one way, then around to the back side of a federal building – beyond the jersey barriers?<\/P>
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Anyway, I started running to catch up to the bus (he MUST have seen me)..yet by the time I was half way to the back of the building, he drove away. I took a mental note of the bus number and seriously considered calling the MBTA, but decided instead with my favorite AbFab mantra: in with anger, out with love.<\/P>
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Besides, I thought, it’s rush hour – another bus will come by within 5 minutes.<\/P>
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WRONG!<\/P>
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About 15 minutes later another bus arrived and I eventually made it to my destination. Needless to say, I was a bit cranky and probably not the most entertaining dining companion.<\/P>
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Oh, and while I’m at it – I will write about one more gripe with the T. Boston has two major transit hubs. South Station connects Amtrak, the Red line and the commuter rail lines going south. North Station connects Amtrak, the Green line, the Orange line, and commuter rail lines going north and west. Why, oh why, is it that more than half of all Green lines trains stop at Government Center and do not continue to North Station? People, this is a MAJOR transportation hub. ALL trains should go to North Station. Use that station as the turn around point instead of Government Center. It’s so inconvenient that everybody gets off at Gov’t Center, then crams into the few subway cars that go to North Station. I just don’t get it.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I rarely write about the MBTA (the “T”), Boston’s public transit system. For the most part, I have no issues with it. Although there are pockets of areas where access is inconveneint, living downtown makes thing incredibly convenient for me. I’m within blocks of 2 Green-line stops, 2 Orange lines stops, the commuter rail, a major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}