the MBTA

An Assignment
I have received an assignment for school in which I am to write from my personal perspective about my blog’s topic. I am happy living in the Hub, but I will admit there are times I feel frustration, and casually wonder about greener grass.
Closing the Zoo? Few BPS high schools offer sports? Sick call abuse by firefighters?
But consider extensive public transportation; imagine world class restaurants and shopping close to nature preserves and beaches; think of living amid history.

People can spout hundreds of benefits to living in or visiting Boston, and no matter how extensive, the next person will have a different list.

And it goes the same way if one were to enumerate the frustrations of this town. The grievances are many, and varied.

The interesting thing to me is that so much would appear under both headings.
Like the T.

In My Opinion…
When I hear the screeches, booms and putt-putts of a bus coming, I don’t mind so much: that’s my ride – but for so many others, the sound of a city bus is the slurpy, swirly, sucking sound of money gurgling down a drain.

From my personal perspective, as a part-time student, single mother, and working woman, the T is to me an indispensable element of a large, diverse city. I don’t always have the income to support a car and high insurance rates, I seldom have a job that offers (free) parking anyway, and I love to use the T to get to the many places my daughter loves to go: a park, the beach, a museum, a friend’s house, a school event.

Controversy
The Boston Globe today describes a “Transportation Standoff". The article is fuel for those who like to stoke fires of controversy and contention. In the competition for state dollars, suburban drivers and urban rail riders both have legitimate needs, while the state has limited aid.
The MBTA has suggested that, even with the influx of a large chunk of revenue from the upcoming sales tax increase, it may need to raise fares or cut services. The proposed fare increases, nearing an average of 20%, and applied across all branches of the system, still won't come close to eliminating debt estimated at as much as $5 billion.

The T has been steadily improving over the last decade. The improvements and additions made to some stations are outstanding. For example, the Silver Line has brought life to the Waterfront and helped reinvigorate the South End. Buses can carry bikes and some stations have or are getting bike cages. Renovations at many stations, including Kenmore, Ashmont, the Airport, and Arlington have improved ease of use and aesthetics.

But take a look at the Orange Line platform at Haymarket or try to cross from the #39 bus stop into the station at Forest Hills on a rainy day without getting your feet damp. (If you've not passed through this area on such a day, I will vouch that it is near impossible – only those who plan each step strategically can enter the station with dry toes. OK, unless, you’re wearing your Wellies.)

The T obviously needs more money:

• they transport hundreds of thousands of people daily.


• the t police are important presence in the more than 100 towns in the T’s service area


• the environmental benefit is obvious


• our roads and parking facilities cannot bear many more cars
  

But there is, too, evidence of mismanagement within the T. As one of those agencies subject to little oversight, and full of union employees, it is naturally known for excesses like double dippers, excess overtime, and piggy pensions.

Conclusion???
We need the T to stay cheap and run often because it is depended on by students, tourists, the poor, and ever so many businesses that that cannot afford to offer parking to employees. Think of the school students who ride daily with student passes – imagine that many more buses on the road at 7 AM, or a bunch of newly licensed teens clogging the left turn lanes in their jalopies? Maybe the image of thousands of Red Sox fans circling Kenmore Square in their SUV’s, vying for parking spots on game days is more affecting …

But I fear the T actually needs both more injections from the state or the feds AND a fare hike. What it may need most of all is severe housecleaning to exterminate its unneccessaries, inefficiencies, and underperformers.

The T is integral to enjoying the benefits of our amazing city. Everyone may need to sacrifice for what some would consider the greater good, what I would consider the common good.