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July 11, 2006
Digging In Deep
It’s a testament to just how useless I am before drinking coffee in the morning that I didn’t make the association between the insanely packed commuter rail and the Big Dig accident last night. Just never put two and two together. Just mostly focused on sipping my mug of goodness, prepared by The Girl without any prompting this morning(I think she knows the answer to her query of “Do you want me to make you some coffee?” is always a groggy grunt of assent). As far as perks of having a girlfriend go, “piping hot coffee ready and waiting when you get out of the shower” has to be Top 3.
Essentially, every commuter today said “Eff this!” and took public transportation rather than deal with traffic headache that is the secondary result to the tragedy of this woman’s death. Rather than seize the day, drum up support for more public transportation, and turn around a flagging system, the good folks at the MBTA decided to do very little out of the ordinary to provide extra transportation (aside from a few extra Silver Line and Blue Line cars).
I realize that they didn’t have time to truly mobilize, in that the Big Dig had the gall to partially collapse in the middle of the night, but still—imagine what could have happened if the MBTA had petitioned the state for an emergency fund to essentially get every worker they could in ASAP and run at rush hour plus for the majority of the day (at the very least during, you know, rush hour). Not only would the good press been a boon (and go maybe 15% towards justifying the ginormous fare increase they are going to shove down our throats), but those first-timers, getting away from their gas-guzzling SUVs, could have had a positive experience on public transportation, and, gee willkers, maybe tried it again, reducing traffic, helping pollution, and saving them money?
Instead, every first-timer on my commuter rail had this look of, “See, THIS is why I never do this!” The everyday riders resented the newbies, and the people collecting fares couldn’t even get through the cars to get money due to overcrowded cars. In short, the MBTA lost money and lost customers by maintaining the status quo. A woman lost her life due to cost-cutting procedures that were the result of inserting politics into construction.
Just another commuting day in Boston.
UPDATE, 6 pm: Well, better late than never.
Posted by Ryan McGee at July 11, 2006 10:39 AM