MBTA Winter 2015: Failure and Recovery

Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

BREAKING NEWS!

The MBTA is experiencing system-wide delays this morning - with the most massive ones occuring on the Red Line! They are asking that you try to avoid it like the plague, because the delays are pretty long.

The Orange Blue & Green Lines, as well as some of the Commuter Rail Lines are also experiencing delays. Their advice is to bundle up before you come out, because you might be waiting for extensive periods before you can board a train or a bus pretty much everywhere.

The problems are being blamed on aging equipment, especially on the Red & Orange Lines, where, as we already know, the equipment there is 45 & 35 years old respectively. They DID however, mention that they ARE in the process of replacing the extensively old equipment, and that they DO have new cars on order for the Red & Orange Lines. That the deal was sealed just before the end of last year.

Also, the amount of snow that has been dumped on the cities & state has severely crippled the city, bringing public transportation practically to a standstill.

Even some of the MBTA's bus lines were stuck in the snow. It is just a great big mess out there. At Logan Airport, travelers are pretty much frustrated & stuck there, saying that the airlines should've put them up into hotels until things return to normal there. :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
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Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Defer essential maintenance for as many years as the state has on the MBTA and this is what happens. Write your state and federal reps.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Jahvon09, You might! want to! pull back! on using! so many! exclamation points!, as there! isn't that! degree of! warranted excitement! on many! of your! posts/statements! Just a! friendly suggestion!
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Arlington said:
Law requires cars be no more than 12 inches from the curb (that's a standard drivers license test matter).

I'm entirely opposed to treating car parking as a free entitlement, and in favor of re-allocating thr streets in favor of walk, bike, and bus, but I find it impractical to pick this fight in the snow, if only because we lack the impound lot capacity (probably reduced by snow and filled with plenty of more egregious safety violators)
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The problem is the cars are blocking active travel lanes. If you cant fit within the lines, then you should be towed
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Boston is still in Snow Emergency Tuesday morning, which I totally agree with. There is so much snow out there that traffic is still quite a mess with NO parked cars on the major streets. They should just keep the Snow Emergency until the snow melts!
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

jass said:
If you cant fit within the lines, then you should be towed
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Towed to where, exactly?

Please identify a spot large, flat, accessible and clear of snow, with capacity to hold all cars in the Metro area that've been pushed into earstwhile travel lanes by uncleared snow. Please also identify truck drivers who already haven't worked too many hours (are sleep-deprived).

Politically, you can't devote plows and crews to creating the world's largest impound lot, nor devote the tow trucks to perp-walk all the cars there, when a better use is actually clearing snow from higher-value places.

That's how cities like Evanston IL and Montreal decide that the better use of the same resources (plows and tow trucks) is the tow-parade-clear-replace method, described above. When they get to that "tow-'em-all" moment, they realize that it just "works" better to do it friendly rather than angry.

Think of it as penalty-free impounding-in-place, except that there's no shame and great benefits.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Arlington said:
Towed to where, exactly?

Please identify a spot large, flat, accessible and clear of snow, with capacity to hold all cars in the Metro area that've been pushed into earstwhile travel lanes by uncleared snow.
.
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Kmart parking lot

In all seriousness, $500 tickets would be a good incentive for people not to park there at all, if towing is not possible.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

jass said:
Kmart parking lot
In all seriousness, $500 tickets would be a good incentive for people not to park there at all, if towing is not possible.
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In all seriousness, charge everyone $1000 for a "resident" sticker and discourage parking all year.

Meanwhile, if [your town] is going to improvise a solution, the one that uses and cleans the public ways in the best one.

Kmart is not going to accept the cars for fear that in the next snow they won't be able to clear their lot effectively (particularly pre-Christmas, so you can't make a good all-season plan).

Snow in Jan/Feb they might accept since it can be pushed around without damage, but not cars.

This is also a good moment to reflect on how we do use all the extra parking spaces not for cars, but for piling snow at times like this. If we lower parking minimums (and we should), we will have to leave space for piling snow (probably on scruffy grass or gravel), or allow more in the city budgets for moving it out of tight "walkable" spaces.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Build a snow melting plant. A sarlaac pit. Anything.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Arlington said:
This is also a good moment to reflect on how we do use all the extra parking spaces not for cars, but for piling snow at times like this. If we lower parking minimums (and we should), we will have to leave space for piling snow (probably on scruffy grass or gravel), or allow more in the city budgets for moving it out of tight "walkable" spaces.
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By your reasoning, underground or structured parking has the same problem.

Unless you are advocating for dropping snow in underground garages (hey, it will melt! maybe), you just made an argument for covering our land with surface parking because it doubles as snow storage.

BTW, I noticed that in Chicago neighborhoods, all of the sidewalks are set back at least 6' from the curb line. I suspect that's used as a snow dumping ground.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Arlington, the joke is that the kmart parking lot is empty year round
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

I'm so glad that I'M not parked on a main street. ;)
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

jass said:
Arlington, the joke is that the kmart parking lot is empty year round
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Not sure which one this is, but even so, imagine that the city had leased it.
The best use is still probably piling snow, not impounding cars.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Matthew said:
By your reasoning, underground or structured parking has the same problem.

Unless you are advocating for dropping snow in underground garages (hey, it will melt! maybe), you just made an argument for covering our land with surface parking because it doubles as snow storage.
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I think we agree that underground/structured parking is different (and because it is expensive and well-located, we'd hope that it could be filled if the right market forces were at work).

My point was about that surface parking that mostly existed to meet parking minimums, such as at retail sites (though the offices by Burlington Mall apply too). We complain that it wastes land (it does) and mostly sits empty *of cars* (seems true, but recent study proving it seemed flawed)

But surplus surface lots sure come in handy for:
- Farmer's markets..which are "trucked" in and hard to do on grass lots
- Piling snow.

I'm not saying that this alone justifies keeping surface parking, but I am saying that one of the hidden benefits of too much surface parking is that it can be used for these two (and a hidden cost of removing surface parking will be that we'll have to think of other ways of accommodating some uses)

Matthew said:
BTW, I noticed that in Chicago neighborhoods, all of the sidewalks are set back at least 6' from the curb line. I suspect that's used as a snow dumping ground.
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It is. One of the luxuries of a later-built (1880s) area is that it had the prosperity and machinery to account for that extra margin for snow.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

^ I think all it says is that the city needs to be smart and forward thinking about snow-removal policies as it (rightly) develops land for better uses.

There have to be more innovative ways to remove snow than what we do (not that we do it wrong). Research this with other cold-winter cities, review existing policies (like the harbor dump ban) and see if they can be changed.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

I always use public transportation to get into work. However, last Thursday (1/29) I drove into the city as I was planning on leaving work a few hours early and heading north to go skiing for the weekend. As an infrequent car commuter, I fully planned on paying a premium to park in a garage. However, when I drove by my office (Gov't Center area), I saw a metered spot open almost right in front of the door and said "screw it, I'll take a ticket and just leave it there instead of walking through this crap." I felt that the $25 ticket would absolutely be worth it given the nature of the sidewalks.

I parked at around 8:30 a.m. I left at 2:30 p.m. ready to take my ticket and leave. When I got out there, no ticket. I checked the ground around my car just to be sure. No ticket. I was shocked. How do you not ticket someone who left a meter unpaid for so long?

Furthermore, parking IS too cheap if people like me would consider it worthwhile to park illegally and just take a ticket vs. parking in a garage or avoiding the car. How does someone get away with parking from 8:30-2:30 for free in downtown Boston during the work week? It worked out in my favor this time, but I was almost annoyed at how easy it was.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Lrfox said:
I always use public transportation to get into work. However, last Thursday (1/29) I drove into the city as I was planning on leaving work a few hours early and heading north to go skiing for the weekend. As an infrequent car commuter, I fully planned on paying a premium to park in a garage. However, when I drove by my office (Gov't Center area), I saw a metered spot open almost right in front of the door and said "screw it, I'll take a ticket and just leave it there instead of walking through this crap." I felt that the $25 ticket would absolutely be worth it given the nature of the sidewalks.

I parked at around 8:30 a.m. I left at 2:30 p.m. ready to take my ticket and leave. When I got out there, no ticket. I checked the ground around my car just to be sure. No ticket. I was shocked. How do you not ticket someone who left a meter unpaid for so long?

Furthermore, parking IS too cheap if people like me would consider it worthwhile to park illegally and just take a ticket vs. parking in a garage or avoiding the car. How does someone get away with parking from 8:30-2:30 for free in downtown Boston during the work week? It worked out in my favor this time, but I was almost annoyed at how easy it was.
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I don't believe they were ticketing meters very aggressively last week because enforcement officers can't reach all of the meters on their routes. Collectors can't even access many of them to retrieve the money. If it was a normal day I guarantee you would have gotten a ticket. I assume that since they needed so much overtime to clear the emergency routes, many couldn't continue to work their normal shifts without taking some time to rest.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

sm89 said:
I don't believe they were ticketing meters very aggressively last week because enforcement officers can't reach all of the meters on their routes. Collectors can't even access many of them to retrieve the money. If it was a normal day I guarantee you would have gotten a ticket. I assume that since they needed so much overtime to clear the emergency routes, many couldn't continue to work their normal shifts without taking some time to rest.
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I'm sure I would have. I've been ticketed before in Boston. I figured that was the case (my meter was practically buried and not easy to get to... I didn't even attempt to pay). Frankly, I was surprised metered parking was allowed at all.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Matthew said:
BTW, I noticed that in Chicago neighborhoods, all of the sidewalks are set back at least 6' from the curb line. I suspect that's used as a snow dumping ground.
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The giant grassy medians along Comm Ave separating the carriage road in Newton serve as very effective snow dumping ground. I've never been sure if it was accidental or great planning.
 
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