More fun with the MBTA trip planner: Three hours from Roxbury to the Paradise
By adamg - Sat, 02/02/2008 - 8:05pm.
Miss von Schtoop is taking in a show at the Paradise tonight. Since she plans on having a drink or three, she wanted to take public transit from her home near Tremont St. and Mass. Ave. And while she would normally just take the 1 bus to connect with the Green Line at Hynes, she decided to see what the MBTA trip planner would say. And it said she would have to take a variety of buses that would take her three hours to get the three miles between her home and the club. She was eventually able to bargain the planner down to 90 minutes - via Harvard and Watertown squares.
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One thing we've discovered
One thing we've discovered about Ye Olde Trippe Planner is that it won't let you walk mid-trip. So if you have a trip where you could walk a couple blocks from a subway station to a bus stop, it doesn't recognize that as an option and will have you take an hour to make a twenty-minute trip.
Now, looking at the #1's "Interactive Street Map", it calls the Hynes bus stop "Massachusetts Ave and Newbury St", so I'm guessing it doesn't recognize it as the same as the Green Line Hynes stop, which is why it's taking Miss von Schtoop to Watertown.
None of this makes any sense, mind you.
T trip planner quirks
When I've used it, it has always assumed that I walk at only 1.5 miles per hour, rather than the 3 miles per hour that most humans actually walk. For instance, it tells me to walk for 20 minutes from the corner of Day and Orchard Streets (Somerville) to Porter Square. That's only a half-mile walk -- 10 minutes.
Also, it does not understand the Charlie system's free or reduced-cost transfers, and prices the trip as if you were paying full cash fare for each separate leg of the trip.
Why Porter when Davis is closer....
Why does the MBTA Trip Planner tell you to go to Porter Square when the Davis Square stop is much closer to the corner or Day and Orchard? The MBTA Trip Planner once again proves that we overpaid for it.
Because my final destination is Concord
so it makes more sense to walk to the commuter rail at Porter than to go first to Davis and take the Red Line one stop. Also, I think I told it to "Minimize Transfers". This part of the trip planner is correct.
von Schtoop is an idiot
Her problem wasn't what the MBTA was giving her...it's with her inability to realize it was sending her to the middle of Newton instead of Brighton.
The Paradise Rock Club is on Commonwealth Ave between Agganis Arena and Packard's Corner. She only told it to go to "969 Commonwealth Ave, MA". She's lucky it didn't send her to some Commonwealth Ave in Springfield. You have to tell it the city or it's going to take it's best guess. This time, it found Comm Ave in Newton and sent her there...thus the elaborate trip.
If you tell it to go from "Mass Ave and Tremont St, Roxbury MA" to "967 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA", then it sends you up the #1 to the B line at Hynes as expected.
I love to hate the MBTA when it sucks...but this wasn't one of those cases.
Not an idiot
She told it to go to "969 Commonwealth Ave", period. The trip planner added ", MA" to that request and then irrationally decided she meant Newton. It should have realized that if she specified the city in the origin, and not in the destination, that meant she was travelling within the same city. Google Maps is usually smart enough to do that. Why isn't the T's trip planner?
Yes, but...
No, she's not an idiot for only putting in "969 Commonwealth Ave". She's an idiot for complaining about the trip planner when it ended up sending her to Newton and she didn't then correct it by telling it she meant Boston.
Then she tries moving *her* address around to get it to give her information that fits her guess as to what she'd need to do...but doesn't do the same for her end address? She also has the knowledge that she needs to take the B line...but her endpoint is well past Boston College (the well known END of the line). Her picture's title is even "boston+to+bu.jpg" and yet her end point is in Newton! She typed in "boston" for her Tremont St...but not for Comm Ave. Come on, she's just not using the planner appropriately at all and I'm starting to think she was doing it just to complain.
She is either an idiot or playing dumb just to come up with a complaint for the planner. Look, it has enough problems without trumping up new ones. If you use it intelligently then it works pretty well considering what others point out here: there are multiple "neighborhoods" that it has to sift through, the same street changing names, other streets with the same name, and so on.
As someone pointed out in a
As someone pointed out in a comment on her blog, Miss was being routed to an address on Comm Ave in Newton, not Boston.
The reason for this, though it makes no sense to me, was that she left "Boston" out of her destination, and asked to go to "969 commonwealth ave, MA". Why that translates into Newton, I have no clue.
I messed with it and found that the punctuation seems to be critical. I think on my first try I left out the comma, and was told I couldn't get there from "here".
However! Yes, the Trip Planner is extremely screwed up in many ways too numerous to mention. On one recent occasion, it couldn't even find Harvard Square for me ...
Try this if you are so smart
How about 107 Washington St., Boston
There are several Washington Streets, all of which qualify as being in Boston. I'm not sure how sensitive the planner is to neighborhood designations - it has ignored Charlestown when I've tried it before - some times, not others.
Give it a Zip Code and street number
If you give it a zip code, you can differentiate between multiple streets. For example, you can do "1 Washington St, 02135" and end up at the Brookline/Brighton border near Summit Ave. You can do "1 Washington St, 02215" and end up at the NE corner of Franklin Park instead.
The street number places you on the right part of the street in those zip codes (especially useful when streets get interrupted like Franklin St near the Pike in Allston, search for "30 Franklin St Boston, MA 02134", then try 46 instead of 30).
Finally, you can sometimes get a suggested set of addresses. If you search for "30 Franklin St, Allston, MA" then it suggests Franklin in Boston 02134 (right) and Franklin in Newton 02458.
It sometimes gives you address options
If you just type in the address. But not always, and if you leave out the town or zip code the trip planner chooses one at random (and often nowhere near what you want).
My favorite trip planner moment was when it told me to get on a bus and then get off and get on another one at the exact same stop. And I really really wished it allowed users to choose a "no commuter rail" option.
More fun!
I just tried 1010 Mass Ave, Boston as the starting address for the same trip. In spite of putting "Boston" in the address, the trip planner has my trip starting between Central and Harvard Squares!
Shuttles. Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center
What corporate or medical centers' or other shuttles travel near the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center?... that if you have an affiliation or connection with that company or institution running a shuttle you might get aboard and dropped off near the Jewish Community Center. MBTA buses and Green Line transport connections are difficult.
see also
http://www.lsjcc.org/home/leventhal_abo.html
Directions
BY 'T':
Green D (Riverside) Line to Newton Center and then take the 52 bus. The bus leaves Centre Street in Newton Center every hour on the half hour from 6:30am to 6:30pm. It takes approximately 20 minutes to get to the JCC. You can also catch the 52 bus at Newton Highlands by coming out of the T station and walking 2 blocks to Centre Street or by taking the 59 bus to Newton Highlands
http://www.lsjcc.org/home/leventhal_abo.html