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Would-be jumper causes massive backup at Tobin Bridge
By adamg on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 7:12am
Inbound traffic on Rte. 1 over the Tobin Bridge was backed up ten miles this morning when police ordered the bridge shut so they could try to talk down a man threatening to jump. State Police crisis negotiators rushed to the scene and talked him out of it shortly after 7 a.m.
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Comments
Tobin Jumper & 3rd World Transit System
So I get out the house in plenty of time and arrive at Haymarket at 8:55 am. The rte 441/2 is supposed to leave at 9 am. I'll make it to Central Square in plenty of time for 10 a.m.
Excellent news--at first.
Then: tic-toc, tic-toc, the minutes slip by. A horde of rte 111s run through at a steady clip. The 450s and 426s, too.
9:30 comes and goes, but the 9:30 rte 441/442 doesn't appear.
The starter at Haymarket is humping all over the station tending to arriving and departing buses. When asked, all he can say is, "All the buses are late; that's all I know." Later he tells us that there is a jumper on the Tobin.
At 9:50 a bus rolls in, boards, and leaves.
Knowing that Haymarket is one of the busiest central MBTA bus depots, my questions are these:
1. Why do many of our fine citizens have smart phones with access to the GPS data spewing out of MBTA buses (e.g., via www.nextbus.com), while the hapless starter is clueless and has to call an internal MBTA employee who knows less than he does?
2. Why is it that MBTA buses know where they are so they can announce stops, but that the riding public doesn't? Will I die before the MBTA locates arrival boards at Haymarket, Ruggles, etc., that use the GPS data?
3. What is so hard about the starter standing in the middle of a crowd of expectant passengers and making an announcement? Such as: "If you are going to Central Square you'd best get on the next 426 or 450"? Why is this harder than the starter answering each question privately as increasingly anxious passengers approach him one-by-one?
4. Why do the towns and municipalities of the MBTA remain content with a 1980s-style 3rd World Transit System.
God forbid we put useful
God forbid we put useful money into a viable transit mode of the future, that's why. Lets just throw some billions at highways instead. Amazing how we clamp on to the 60s mentality still. I guess that's what happens when everyone is an entrenched dinosaur in our government.
Really!
I bummed around Europe a few years ago. Did the Eurail pass thing. As I cruised through the Italian Alps in a train car with panoramic windows and a Cohiba Robusto in my hand, I thought to myself; if we had this in America, I'd never drive again.
why? Because Boston is so
why? Because Boston is so wrapped up in it's fantastic history and super sports culture, there's no time to be concerned with being a modern city with trains that work and operate after bars close, laws not originating from puritan whackjobs, etc. Not to mention the vast curruption in government. I'm not saying it's better elsewhere (it is), but I really have come to determine Boston is THE most overrated city in the country. I'm no expert, however, just a Boston native.
Sorry to be negative, I'll be leaving town early next year.
P.S. I'm truly glad you didn't jump man. Sometime a change is necessary, call someone, talk to someone on the street. Move to a warmer climate, or somewhere where people are actually friendly. Obviously I don't know your situation, but I know there are ways to find peace and maybe happiness, other than death. People do care. The one's that act like they don't are just too wrapped up in their own problems/sucked dry by the immense pressures of keeping up in our fairly twisted modern society.
one of the radio talk shows
one of the radio talk shows (programs?) recently mentioned that on average, 36 (thirty-six) people jump off the Tobin bridge every year.
Also, I heard that people occasionally jump off the Prudential Tower.
Can any of this be true? I've never seen any of this in the paper/radio/TV news. Not a troll. Just wondering if such news is intentionally suppressed.