Shirley explains why it's the stretch from the Liberty Hotel to the Longfellow Bridge, where pedestrians have to battle with drivers coming out of Charles Circle, in particular, motorists coming off Cambridge and Charles streets:

... These people are hitting their gas pedal to accelerate on the on ramp onto any of the Storrow Drive entrances and being already frustrated by the long red lights, they are not letting any measly pedestrians stop them from where they need to be going. It is scary because most of them do not use their signals, or even if they do, a pedestrian cannot really tell which way the vehicle is heading. I urge Boston to please, reconsider pedestrianizing this intersection. ...

Fire at Charles Street causes Red Line disruption. Fire reported around 9 p.m., declared out in about 30 minutes.

It suddenly became more than an academic question for Psipsina yesterday when she had to figure out how to get to work while suffering some intense pain from a weekend hike:

... I could barely manage the stairs in my house. I had to decide between getting off at an elevated T station where I would have to take the stairs down (no down escalator! shame on the MBTA) and walk a half mile, or getting off at an underground T station that has no escalators at all and no elevators, and climbing two flights of stairs before walking a block. Neither appealed; I did the former. ...