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Does the T seem a little less crowded these days?
By adamg on Tue, 03/11/2008 - 1:28pm
Statistics from the American Public Transportation Association show that while the use of public transit in the U.S. increased 2.1% last year, it decreased 2.9% in the region served by the MBTA. The change in subway usage was particularly striking: Down 7.8% here, compared with a 3.1% increase in other US cities with subways.
Via Robert David Sullivan, who wonders if our decrease is due to all the times last year subway service was replaced by shuttle buses. The fare increase might also have had something to do with it.
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Comments
another explanation
Fare jumping is mad easy with the new system. If they're getting their stats from turnstile records of fares paid (and how else would they get them?) they're missing a lot of bodies.
Anecdotally: I take the Mattapan trolley line every day, and I'd guess at least a quarter of the time, the fare box is out of commission entirely. That's usually a free transfer to the Red Line, so I doubt they're losing too much money on it, but still.
This is my suspicion as well
When the Green Line above ground is basically free in most cases, and you regularly have 2, 3, 4, and as many as SEVEN people going through gates at a time, you really can't trust statistics like this.
The new system is absolutely broken - but that's the price paid for using custom solutions that aren't properly tested, instead of proven, off-the-shelf hardware that other cities have no major issues with.
Custom solution?
Isn't this basically London's Oyster Card, transplanted to Boston?
I was referring to the
I was referring to the gates, which are absolutely useless. I don't believe they're used anywhere else (though it's funny you should mention London - the stadium at the end of the film 28 Weeks Later seemed to have similar gates)
i would pay to see 7 people
i would pay to see 7 people going through one pass of the doors. Is everyone grossly exaggerating? I take the T everyday and I could count on one hand the number of times I've seen a second person squeeze in behind another
That's because we are really
That's because we are really stealthy and smooth about it.
... not counting yesterday at Boylston, where the attendant was engaged in a deep conversation with a pally.. while slumped over one of the fare boxes and paying zero attention to everyone entering.
btw there are some not too hard ways to make the buzzer not buzz.
Oh, do tell
Not that it matters. ...
If you have a kid under 12, the kid can ride the rails for free. And the way you're supposed to get him or her in, we found out from an agent at Forest Hills, is to have the kid in front of you, you put one arm on his/her shoulder, then you wave your card (or insert your ticket) and go through.
EVERY SINGLE TIME we do that, the buzzer goes off. Not once has anybody ever come to investigate (maybe they see the kidlet and realize why the buzzer's buzzing ...). It's a tad annoying.
Three's a Crowd
But we do make it through!
#1 son, 5'0, 105lbs
#2 son, 4'10, 110 lbs
Mimo
Okay guys, ready (we all stack up front to back next to the gate), steady (shoots pass through slot) GO! GO! GO!
("Mimo, stop pushing me! You didn't have to push ...)
Of course the bell rings, but they just smile and wave.
You do it that way?
I thought the right way was for the adult to go through first, then hold the gate open while the kids came through behind.
Timing
If they are behind you, they sometimes balk. Much simpler for the adult to control the timing and railroad through.
It does get a little silly when the under 12 kids aren't that much under 12 and nearly as tall as the adult!
Who am I
To argue with a Forest Hills CSA?
If the kid is young enough
Why not just give 'em a shoulder ride as you walk thru the turnstile?
Just don't forget to duck under the directional signage.
My back hurts
Just thinking about doing that with 215 kidpounds. Not to mention the logistics of ten linear feet of kids.:-)
Back in the 5 and under days I used to have one in a back pack and one in arms coming through the turnstyle. Tricky with the old spin styles, but a little easier when they only added up to 60 lbs.
It takes a village to jump Charlie gates...
I always wondered if the gates would be foiled if you, say, cut up a cardboard refrigerator box so you had large rectangles to hold by your sides and block the gate sensors, creating your own little FARE EVADING AISLE OF CRIME.
I bet the gates would get cranky at being held open for so long, however. Plus you'd have to carry around two large pieces of cardboard wherever you went, which would definitely earn you a snarky headline on bpdnews.com when you finally got collared for it.
i would pay to see 7 people
Exaggerating? Nah. You could have seen it yourself at Green St. about three weeks ago.
Much more annoying is when someone throws you aside so they can force their way through the gate while you are trying to exit. (and the staff watching the whole thing ignores it)
Or the frequent loiterers at the platform-level gate at Back Bay who wait by the Charlie Card machines and push past you as you pay your fare and try to make your way through the gate.
If the commuter rail counts
If the commuter rail counts in this study, then the fare increase there is probably a big factor. I commute from Waltham to Cambridge. The cost breakdown for riding the T:
Parking in Waltham: $1
Commuter Rail: $4.75 x 2 = $9.50
Red Line: $1.70 x 2 = 3.40
Total: $13.90
versus
Parking in Cambridge: $14
Gas for 10mi commute: $1.50
Total: $15.50
Unless it's snowing during the day, that extra dollar or so buys me schedule flexibility, a nice warm place other than the freezing shade of the Waltham train stop, and a place to sit down (which I can't do on the train or subway). Before the fare increase, the price differential was much greater, and it made a lot more sense to take the T.
My observations, for what it is worth (maybe not much)
I've only seen two "jumpers" at a Green Line station since the new system began. I haven't been on the other lines in that time.
I ride the Riverside Line Mon-Fri. It does seem that there are fewer riders on the Newton half, but about the same on the Brookline half. Sometimes, people go in the side door without passing their card near the reader. This happened before the new system went into place, and I assume that isn't counted. These people aren't evaders, they don't always go to the front with their cards.
And then there's...
...North Station, where I board the Orange Line every morning. On those occasions when a T employee is actually present (and not busy helping tourists navigate the needlessly-confusing Charlie Ticket kiosks), they can sometimes be found standing at the right-hand fare gate, holding it open while hundreads of commuters stream through, flashing their monthly rail passes. How do they record fares this way? Does the attendant keep count of how many people go through? Something tells me the answer is "No".
Maybe if so many of the fare gates weren't chronically broken, they wouldn't have to wave people through. Then again, maybe the gates wouldn't break so often if they would convert commuter rail passes to the touchless Charlie Card, like they said they were going to do a year ago...