General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

Riverside said:
"used to work in the system", as in... has zero idea what's actually happening today?

Anyway, if you have such a good insider connection, and if you really believe what you say is true, then you should go to the Globe with your information, or to some official body like the FTA or MassDOT. Your allegations are so explosive that I'd say you'd be irresponsible for not reporting them (and your friend too).
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They all know this is happening! It’s how we got here and it’s how we’ll stay here.
 
They're just getting a kick out of your reactions, on this thread and every other thread. Last week this was all Eng's fault that "nothing's fixed." Now this week there's a former inside source claiming it's all been a conspiracy to not do any work all along.
 
Riverside said:
"used to work in the system", as in... has zero idea what's actually happening today?

Anyway, if you have such a good insider connection, and if you really believe what you say is true, then you should go to the Globe with your information, or to some official body like the FTA or MassDOT. Your allegations are so explosive that I'd say you'd be irresponsible for not reporting them (and your friend too).
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Because it's much more fun to fling out the most banal hottakes on this site over and over again like the troll flavor of the month.
 
stefal said:
They're just getting a kick out of your reactions, on this thread and every other thread. Last week this was all Eng's fault that "nothing's fixed." Now this week there's a former inside source claiming it's all been a conspiracy to not do any work all along.
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They’re both true: Eng is here to do nothing but sop up free money for a few years then he’ll cruise back to New York. The “conspiracy” not do work is an entirely common phenomenon, and I can’t say I blame them. If there were no expectations, no consequences, no deadlines, and no benchmarks, I wouldn’t work either.
 
king_vibe said:
They’re both true: Eng is here to do nothing but sop up free money for a few years then he’ll cruise back to New York. The “conspiracy” not do work is an entirely common phenomenon, and I can’t say I blame them. If there were no expectations, no consequences, no deadlines, and no benchmarks, I wouldn’t work either.
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Oh look: the entire GLX is a walking pace for the indefinite future. I feel bad for the rubes buying in Union Square thinking that they have a rapid transit connection.
 
People who retire from an executive-level role in their early 60s after working for 40-years do not need to work in order to have an extremely comfortable life, and certainly do not need to relocate to another city to take on the World's Shittiest Job. Most of us don't buy your hottake for a second that Eng is an exploiter here. Anyone who's worked on anything remotely as close to as complex to what Eng is taking on did not expect results in 5 months. My continually growing sadness about the MBTA is fully in regards to our continual discovery of how bad what Eng inherited was.
 
king_vibe said:
I feel bad for the rubes buying in Union Square thinking that they have a rapid transit connection.
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If you truly "felt bad" for them, you wouldn't be mocking them as "rubes".

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The reality is Eng won't succeed because the problems are so systemic with the T they're effectively outside his control.

He might make some impact but 3-5 years from now he'll be gone and the T will not be one bit better than it is today.
 
393b40 said:
The reality is Eng won't succeed because the problems are so systemic with the T they're effectively outside his control.

He might make some impact but 3-5 years from now he'll be gone and the T will not be one bit better than it is today.
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Of course he'll be gone in 3-5 years, he's in his 60s and is here for his experience; that's the going-in plan. I agree with your "systemic" assessment, but do not have the same binary pessimism. The more salient point, IMO, is that as important as Eng's role is, he cannot do it alone. The governor's administration, MaDOT, the stakeholder cities, advocacy groups, and even the Feds, need to join forces to fix this. The question is whether the rest of the stakeholders care enough, and whether Eng is capable of being an orchestrator. It is an extraordinary challenge, but not a forgone conclusion it will fail. To me, an even more important lynchpin is the Healey administration; that's where the resources ultimately come from, and that's where the leverage to influence components of the constituency come from. More of this frustration should be directed that way, IMO.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Of course he'll be gone in 3-5 years, he's in his 60s and is here for his experience; that's the going-in plan. I agree with your "systemic" assessment, but do not have the same binary pessimism. The more salient point, IMO, is that as important as Eng's role is, he cannot do it alone. The governor's administration, MaDOT, the stakeholder cities, advocacy groups, and even the Feds, need to join forces to fix this. The question is whether the rest of the stakeholders care enough, and whether Eng is capable of being an orchestrator. It is an extraordinary challenge, but not a forgone conclusion it will fail. To me, an even more important lynchpin is the Healey administration; that's where the resources ultimately come from, and that's where the leverage to influence components of the constituency come from. More of this frustration should be directed that way, IMO.
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Honestly I feel like the conditions for MBTA riders just feels like it's gonna worsen for the next 2 or 3 years before things start to change, if it ever starts changes for the better.

Like how can there be widespread public support for public transit? If, in the 4.5 million area zone of Greater Boston, over 90% of trips are made by car. 80% is by car in the MPO area. Extending to statewide level is probably over 90% car modal share. Most people in Massachusetts would probably want it to be easier to drive. Most people don't watch Not Just Bikes, CityNerd, compain about the MBTA on twitter and r/boston; let alone follow lemmy,world's F cars forum or this boston urbanist forum.

Show up to public meetings and it's the same old, same old who have the influence.

jklo said:
I do find it very strange they've had to make slow zones on GLX.
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15 - 20 minutes of slow zones on the GLX in one direction is insane. All of that work, and now it's walking pace, can't keep pace with the cycling path right next door to it.
 
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jklo said:
I do find it very strange they've had to make slow zones on GLX.
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I do too. But sh*t tends to happen to two types of systems: those that are new (latent issue/bugs/glitches that need to be caught), and those that are old and neglected. A good system should cruise through its middle years.

I agree we need to see these resolved quickly and for them to stay resolved.
 
Delvin4519 said:
Most people in Massachusetts would probably want it to be easier to drive. Most people don't watch Not Just Bikes, CityNerd, compain about the MBTA on twitter and r/boston; let alone follow lemmy,world's F cars forum or this boston urbanist forum.
Show up to public meetings and it's the same old, same old who have the influence.
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Most people definitely don't watch those things. Most people want their lives to be easier, first and foremost. Some people are obsessed with cars, but many just want things to be convenient, fast, easy, and cheap. I guarantee you that if everyone had access to a free, invisible bullet train that arrived in front of their door and whisked them to any desired destination in 60-seconds, they would support that thing. But your average voter doesn't have vision beyond near-term personal ease. So that is why I am saying this is bigger than Eng, and why I am calling on the Healey admin. Hold your leaders accountable; don't waste your ire on random Schmoes who likes their cars.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Most people definitely don't watch those things. Most people want their lives to be easier, first and foremost. Some people are obsessed with cars, but many just want things to be convenient, fast, easy, and cheap. I guarantee you that if everyone had access to a free, invisible bullet train that arrived in front of their door and whisked them to any desired destination in 60-seconds, they would support that thing. But your average voter doesn't have vision beyond near-term personal ease. So that is why I am saying this is bigger than Eng, and why I am calling on the Healey admin. Hold your leaders accountable; don't waste your ire on random Schmoes who likes their cars.
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Yea, it's basically the thing I wanted to refer to. It is more than Eng. However, my concern is that there isn't enough political will, with how so little of the population is a regular or dependent public transit rider or bike lane user, <10%. So it would be asking the state to cater to fixing the deteriorating situation faced by the < 10% in the hopes of trying to hopefully increase that percentage. The rest of the other 90%+ of the population meanwhile will complain of the roads getting filled with more traffic, less parking, and filled with more and more potholes and crumbling bridges (this percentage needs to drop).

bigpicture7 said:
I do too. But sh*t tends to happen to two types of systems: those that are new (latent issue/bugs/glitches that need to be caught), and those that are old and neglected. A good system should cruise through its middle years.

I agree we need to see these resolved quickly and for them to stay resolved.
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The GLX tracks were laid in early 2022, the timeline would suggest they shouldn't be either in the early phase (< year), or late age, so about middle age or close to it at the current time (about 1.2 - 1.7 year old track).
 
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Delvin4519 said:
Yea, it's basically the thing I wanted to refer to. It is more than Eng. However, my concern is that there isn't enough political will, with how so little of the population is a regular or dependent public transit rider or bike lane user, <10%. So it would be asking the state to cater to fixing the deteriorating situation faced by the < 10% in the hopes of trying to hopefully increase that percentage. The rest of the other 90%+ of the population meanwhile will complain of the roads getting filled with more traffic, less parking, and filled with more and more potholes and crumbling bridges (this percentage needs to drop).



The GLX tracks were laid in early 2022, the timeline would suggest they shouldn't be either in the early phase (< year), or late age, so about middle age or close to it at the current time (about 1.2 - 1.7 year old track).
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I don’t know man, traffic around here is beyond insane. Drove thru NYC last week twice and was shocked at how comparably less awful the traffic was. This whole fucking city is gridlock wherever you go from 230pm on. It’s awful, it’s unliveable and it’s worse and worse and worse. I agree that the problem isn’t Eng, it’s the media who should be ashamed for handling the governor with kid gloves and for basically totally being AWOL on any semblance of critical reporting on the state legislature which is where the evil really lies on this and many other state level issues. But Healy ought to be on a goddam bully pulpit every day about this and she’s not. Screw her, she seemed like a hack all along, I wasn’t enthusiastic about her and I’m incredibly disappointed in her near total lack of concern about this and her politician bullshitting over any real substantive statements on the T. But, given how awful it all is, surely something will change soon. I just don’t see people tolerating such horribly crippling traffic and commutes much longer.
 
FK4 said:
I don’t know man, traffic around here is beyond insane. Drove thru NYC last week twice and was shocked at how comparably less awful the traffic was. This whole fucking city is gridlock wherever you go from 230pm on. It’s awful, it’s unliveable and it’s worse and worse and worse. I agree that the problem isn’t Eng, it’s the media who should be ashamed for handling the governor with kid gloves and for basically totally being AWOL on any semblance of critical reporting on the state legislature which is where the evil really lies on this and many other state level issues. But Healy ought to be on a goddam bully pulpit every day about this and she’s not. Screw her, she seemed like a hack all along, I wasn’t enthusiastic about her and I’m incredibly disappointed in her near total lack of concern about this and her politician bullshitting over any real substantive statements on the T. But, given how awful it all is, surely something will change soon. I just don’t see people tolerating such horribly crippling traffic and commutes much longer.
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Rush hour starts at 1:30 p.m. on I-93, on Thursdays and Fridays it's much earlier like maybe 12:30 or all day long.
 
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My buddy who owns a house that is a two minute walk from Davis just got a new job in Kendall. He gave up on the Red Line after three days and put his companies $300 transportation benefit towards a parking spot in Kendall. Now drives his pickup truck down to Kendall every day because it's faster and more reliable than the Red Line for three miles of travel.

Good fucking job MBTA.
 
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