First seatless cars on Red Line roll out
By adamg - 12/8/08 - 12:12 pm
Jon Bryant reports he was on today's first Red Line car with no seats; posts this action photo. Looks like the T installed some poles for people to grab onto.
Comments
I know some people have been
I know some people have been critical of this (including the Herald) but as a daily Red Line rider I think it's a pretty good idea. Unless you're a senior citizen or disabled, you really don't need to sit down for the ride. Of course, the first time the train gets stuck between stations for a while and people have to stand for the duration, there might be a mutiny.
What can't they screw up
The Switchback blogs shows us how the T screwed up the announcement in the station when a Big Red arrived.
http://www.transit.stunningabsurdity.com/?p=199
sokay
this is from the same people who didn't realize that the general public wouldn't understand 'these doors do not recycle'
Wait, so
I can't throw the doors in my big blue bin?
Of course you can.
YOU can recycle.
Just be aware that the doors, if left to their own devices, will not be separating number 1 and 2 plastics from their regular trash.
And what if you can't even get
a blue recycling bin? It's so, so hard to get one in this city!
incredibly annoying recycling post
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
Maybe they put the sign on the doors
Because the snowflakes without bins were throwing newspapers through them.
Yes, the announcement needs
Yes, the announcement needs to be fixed....but a big plus for even having one.
speak for yourself there, kemo sabe
Unless you're a senior citizen or disabled, you really don't need to sit down for the ride.
Or if you've been working 8 hours at a job that requires you to be on your feet at all times.
Or if you've been shopping all day and have a buncha heavy bags to take home.
Or if you've been awake for 36 hours snarled in airport jams and delayed flights, and have reached the last leg of the journey -- just a few more Red Line stops from South Station to bed.
Or if you're wicked drunk (it's been known to happen) and couldn't stand up if God himself came down from the heavens with a never-empty mug of your favorite brew and promised it to you if only you'd stand on your own two feet without support for ten seconds.
Or if you've got three kids and one in the stroller and they are just out of control, man.
Or if you just plain don't like standing up on trains.
It's fine that you don't need to sit down for your ride. It's good of you to give up your seat for someone else who wants or needs it. But don't go imposing your own personal views on the entire system. It's attitudes like that what have made the MBTA the paragon of stellar customer service and care that it is today.
If you really want to sit down
Don't ride a train during rush hour. Also, 2/3 of the train will still have seats if you so badly need to sit down. Most of the time during rush hour, its impossible to find a seat anyways. If you REALLY need to sit, you could be a jerk and just bring along a collapsable chair...
Bringing your own chair
I've occasionally used a folding chair on a T platform or in a Red Line car, because I'm returning home with it from some place like the Boston Folk Festival or an Esplanade concert. It always brings smiles to my fellow riders.
Cheap Ikea folding stool
I'll have to remember it - it weighs about 2kg and fits easily in my courier bag.
2kg?
Do you routinely operate in the metric system?
Metric
With Ikea products, yes.
Scientific work runs on metric, and has for years, so I use the metric system at work.
My younger son speaks metric almost exclusively because he decided it makes more sense, and the house of nerds he lives in doesn't disagree. He told me it was -11 this morning.
Ahh Ikea
I forgot that cheap swedish garbage was specified in metric.
Actually, in the states they
Actually, in the states they do specify stuff in inches.
Does he at least know the
Does he at least know the method 99 percent of Americans use? I would just be concerned that while he would have an upper hand in science, he could actually have quite a few disasters elsewhere as people dont know what a kg, mg, or meter are. In a way its like speaking Latin, sure it makes sense and is a core language in our world, but who are you going to talk to?
Naw, more like speaking English...
Most of the freakin world uses metric. So if one were to only know one system, it would be the better one to know. Much like how English is a lingua franca in most of the world and is the language with the most conversant speakers in the world.
(Conveniently enough for us!)
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Even though I think French
Even though I think French is an inferior language (shameless dig at the French for no reason, get over it :P!) if I were to be living in France and had to choose one language I think I would choose French.
French is an apt analogy because their culture is also one that is very sensitive to cultural incursions from "foreign" (ie American, in this case) markets and seem to dislike it when American tourists expect English to be available all over. Americans are the same way with our systems of weight and measurements. If you ask the average American Im sure they would tell you that the Metric system is a better system, but if you walk into the same room and ask the same guy for a kg of anything hes gonna look at you like your insane and maybe get beligerant, expaining to him how your system is better is not going to calm him down at all either. This is the United States after all, not Europe so while its great that people know the metric system there is still an expectation by the immediate world around you that you be able to "speak" the language your neighbors are speaking.
Just because Reagan was a stupid old fart
Doesn't make the US system make sense. We would all be using metric if Reagan hadn't freaked out over the possibility, and it creates serious trade barriers that we are one of the final hold outs for a difficult system.
The kids do understand non-metric measures - like in cookbooks, but we all use the metric system for any number of other things.
As much as I blame everything on Reagan ...
Lots of people fought against the metric system, right down to Dave Barry.
Gov't uses metric
However, the government since 1975 actually uses metric as its standard. They just never had the balls to tell the nation that it was time to switch over yet.
1975 Metric Conversion Act
It's always funny driving into NH
And seeing the parenthetical metric traffic signs.
What is UP with those?
Why does NH have them?
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Probably
For the same people who need "Bienvenue au New Hampshire" signs. It's amazing how NH puts aside its bedrock American values when money's at stake.
Hmm
Pourquoi est-ce que tu n'aimes pas la liberte?
Je me souviens
Non, non, blague, j'ai oublie.
I dont think Reagan was
I dont think Reagan was acting in a vaccum, Im pretty sure there was across the aisle, across the country strong support for our current system. I dont see Obama trying to force the Metric System down our throats anytime soon...
Im not saying it makes any sense, Im just saying that it is what we use, and Americans are terrirtorial about our baseline assumptions. I have a water bottle in front of me with ml on the left and oz on the right, and while I know enough about the metric system to do without the oz side I would probaly not buy a bottle that was labeled only in ml.
I also realize that the world is a large large place, and we are only a part of it, but we are a very large part of that world. Our population and economy rival that of all of the European Union which is a conglomeration of many many countries, so we are perfectly capable of maintaining out own system indefinitly. It might not be logical but thats the way it is.
Wait, really?
I would probaly not buy a bottle that was labeled only in ml.
Does it need to be labeled at all? Can't you just, um, fill it up to about how thirsty you are? I'm currently drinking out of a glass, and I have no idea how big it is in any measurement system. I seem to stay hydrated though.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
It would bother me to see a
It would bother me to see a Nalgene type bottle sans the ozs so I dont think Id buy it with just mls running down the side. I may switch over to a Sigg bottle soon, which doesnt have any markings which is fine with me. Maybe its just nationalism rearing its ugly head.
Not a wine drinker, eh?
I buy about a case of bottles labled only in metric each month.
Ohhh is THAT the problem?
I keep buying these wine bottles that say some crazyass moonman measurement of "750mL," and I have no idea how many ounces that is, so I always just figure it's like 2 ounces or so, and I figure, hey, 2 ounces of wine, I should be totally fine to drive...
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Furrin conspiracy
to get you drunk, that's what it is.
now THAT'S a conspiracy
I can get behind!
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Don't you?
WarriorBabyGirl's bottle is a lot easier to accurately fill using the 150ml line (rather than the 5 oz on the other side of the measuring cup).
No, I don't.
Pretty much nothing in my field and American life in general is expressed in metric units.
huh
So you never fill up your 1-liter water bottle before you take part in a 2K fun run, where people take pictures with 35mm cameras before going out to party with some hookers and a couple grams of blow?
Quantities of hookers are
Quantities of hookers are measured in the metric system? Ive been doing it all wrong!~
No
I fill up my 20 oz water bottle, running is for the insane, but I measure my distances in miles, who doesn't use digital cameras these days? And I buy my coke in 8-balls...
But how do you count your hookers?
?
I hear
They come cheaper by the dozen.
Be sure to ask for the
Be sure to ask for the bakers dozen, its the best deal.
by volume, not quantity
2 gallons = 1 peck
9 gallons = 1 firkin
108 gallons = 1 butt
So 128 gallons of hooker = 1 butt, 2 firkins, and a peck.
English measures are obviously superior for hooker measurements.
Oh, perfect
Except we don't seem to have consensus as to the size of a butt. I've seen 132 gallons, 126 gallons, 450 gallons...
answers.google.com ... 511287.html
Big butts
It depends largely on the nationality of the butts in question, and sometimes what liquid they contain. American butts have more gallons than English butts, and beer butts are larger than wine butts.
So...
...would meth butts be really small?
Well, Actually...
... they probably don't come at all. That's just an act for the john.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
What kind of hookers are you using?
Doing it in the john? Damn, at least have an infested basement apartment or something.
What?
I thought she comes in colors everywhere ...
I usually can't keep track
Theres no units to apply to "I don't know"
When going through that many hookers in a short period of time..
...it's probably best to only apply your own unit to them.
Sometimes things get freaky
And the hookers will accept multiple units.
It all depends
on the met tricks.
Those things add up tho,
Those things add up tho, thats like carrying a small laptop with you.
Now, see
Now, see, I'm imagining bringing in a rolling office chair to a Big Red car and letting inertia and Newtonian physics have a field day.
On The Other Hand...
... you can just sprawl out on the floor completely, making it your own rolling bedroom. And don't think you won't see a few winos, homeless, and other types in need of heat and shelter, doing so.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Dirty Floor? No Problem.
Just use a hammock from the overhead bars. Crosswise if you like to swing one way, lenghtwise if you want to hog a whole bar.
Ride in style
Helps you on long trips. Here's what it looked like yesterday. Boa viagem, gente!
Ha!
I knew someone could illustrate that! String them up a certain way and you get a nice family seating area.
Next stop Praia da Lua
Continuing to Praia do Tupe
Even Better!
The T could really maximize capacity if they made each car with multiple floor levels. Let's say four per car. All you need is about 18 inches of crawlspace for someone to board. The doors would open, and you'd see something like this...
____________________________________________
__..____.._____oo_____..____oo_____..____..____
_____oo_____..__..__..__oo____..____..___.._____
___00____oo____..___00_____..___..____00__oo__
_oo oo_ 00_ .._ .._ .._ .. _oo__oo____00___.._____
(See, those are various pairs of eyes staring out at you, some wearing glasses, and... well, you get the idea. Probably long before this, too.)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
OMG
I think this is our first illustrated UH post. You win.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
(sitting here laughing)
What a riot, Ron!!
Note to MBTA, re: Revenue-enhancement ideas
Charge extra for a seat.
Each seat on a train/trolley/bus could be equipped with a CharlieCard reader - and an electrified cushion to provide an annoying, but less-than-lethal - shock to anybody who doesn't pay within, say, 30 seconds of sitting down.
you could be a jerk
By anon-a-mouse | Mon, 12/08/2008 - 3:33pm
Present company, namely Ron Newman and Srwrrly Girrly, excluded... of course.
umm
ok? What was the point other than using the petty tactic of pointing out another person's spelling mistakes on the internet? Pointin out that I am a jerk? I'm pretty sure I and others here already knew that, so congratulations captain obvious.
OH MY GOD
THE ANONYMI ARE FIGHTING WITH ONE ANOTHER
BRAIN WILL NOW IMPLODE
*squick*
Boston Herald recycles year-old story on groping
Margery Eagan writes in today's Boston Herald about riding one of these new, "high-capacity" red line trains with the seats removed.
In her story, Eagan seems to have borrowed significantly and directly from her own story, a year ago, about groping on the subway.
Since the Herald content disappears after seven days, you'll have to settle for a summary of Eagan's December 12, 2007 article -- along with criticism -- from Sue Katz.
What does Eagan recycle? Same incorrect definition of "frodage", and the example of commuting women ("of a certain age") who welcome groping on the subway.
Everyone is looking for a business model for news organizations. The Herald has found it: recycling its own archives.
Frodage?
Isn't that what Sam gets in slash fiction?
NYC plays catch-up
"Seatless" subway cars to be tested by MTA in NYC in the Spring
Mmmm, Boston envy.