Tushar ChauhanBoston public transit is broken. I've been waiting for almost an hour now in Cambridge. Five scheduled bus runs didn't show up (CT2 and 1). How does such a dysfunctional city even emerge in the middle of all this prosperity and technology ? I suppose the assumption is that people who have to depend on public transportation are probably not important enough.
knizer@tchauhan You sound super frustrated - and I'm not sure if you're looking for answers/solutions or are just venting.
I can absolutely relate, having lived here long enough to remember the pre-app days of waiting for a bus, tied to little paper schedules of times that your bus should theoretically come...
@knizer A bit of venting mixed in with some observations I'd say. I am not sure how your life has changed post-app, but do tell. I use the mbta app as well as google maps and the schedules on there seem more like suggested guidelines than anything else.
What do you know about the #BigDig MegaProject that ran from 1982-2007 in #Boston which gave us a bridge, a couple of tunnels, & a park, but also dropped pollution numbers downtown by double digit percentages & fixed nightmare-level traffic problems on the Central Artery of 93?
I'm not sure what the final number will be for cost, but with interest its well more than $20 billion USD?
The state will continue to pay >$100 million USD on this debt annually through 2038. Thats where your fares go, not world class service.
One can draw a direct line between the debt & service failures you see today - the #MBTA has been cutting corners for decades since they don't have sufficient funding to thrive.
Solution: fund the T absurdly well over the next 5 years.
We must hire, & retain, smart, dedicated people to manage this incredibly complex system.
We must fix root causes, not patch problems.
We must over-staff front line workers who are well compensated & do a great job providing rider-facing services.
Its an exercise for the reader how to fund this change. I don't think it should be the average low-income bus rider.
Rather, the MBTA must stop relying on rider fares & instead tax the rich/corporations/landowners.
#MAPoli #Massachusetts
DemonHusky@knizer This was very informative and quite the opposite of a rant. Thank you!
HTTP 1.1/418 Old Teapot Typewriter Font@knizer @tchauhan @jima Also, a big part of the infrastructure money it has gotten has been spent to expand/upgrade the commuter rail network. Possibly because the areas served by that are more R-leaning and we’ve had a series of R governors but it might just be a general case of “let’s improve things for the car-owning folks in the suburbs who have a lot of money rather than those ‘undeserving’ folks in the cities.”
!JDA HAS MOVED!