Post Tagged with: "Boston Globe"

Bad timing, bro – Fare Jumper Caught Red Handed By Boston MBTA General Manager

December 9, 2010 at 6:14 pm

(Source: Boston Globe)

Boston MBTA’s General Manager Richard Davey was headed to Ashmont on the T’s Red Line for the unveiling of banners created by youth artists from Dorchester when he spotted the scofflaw attempting to climb over the fare gates at the lesser-used Winter Street entrance to Park Street.

He walked up the evader and confronted him for jumping over the turnstiles.  Caught by surprise and enveloped in shame, the  scofflaw retreats back. This is where it gets better.

“He kind of fumbled around, and he did not have the CharlieCard (aka the fare card) and had just a couple of bucks on him, so I actually offered to pay for him,” Davey said. “He declined and said he would get his own ticket.”

Oh well, at least the young man had the pride to pay for his own ticket after getting caught red handed.  Good job, Richard Davey.  MBTA should be proud to have a vigilant man at the top running the show.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Read more 1

Tech savvy teenager takes Lexington transit into (un)chartered territory

March 30, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Danny Moraff (above), a 17-year-old member of Lexington's transit advisory board, has been a transportation buff for a long time. When he was in preschool, Moraff dressed as the D-Line for Halloween (below).

Danny Moraff dressed as the D-Line for Halloween.

(Source: Boston Globe via Bernie Wagenglast)

The town of Lexington’s transit service is fairly informal. The stops are pretty much wherever you happen to be standing when you see a bus.

But in one regard, the scrappy Lexpress and its six bus routes are ahead of the MBTA and its sophisticated network of boat, bus, light rail, heavy rail, commuter rail, bus rapid transit, and trackless trolley service.

Thanks to a local teenager, it was one of the smallest of pioneer transit agencies to integrate its route maps and schedules into Google Transit, a feature of Google Maps that reminds users seeking driving directions that they can also take buses and trains. Google Transit, launched in its current form in fall 2007, also helps users figure out how much time they’ll need for their trip and where and when to show up for a bus or subway so they don’t get left behind.

Danny Moraff, now 17, decided when he was 15 that he liked the idea of Google Transit – then in a developmental stage on the Web – and its ability to draw more people out of their cars. So he joined Lexington’s transit advisory board, convinced officials it was a worthwhile project, and volunteered to do all the legwork himself.

“I’m not a techie,” said Gail Wagner, transportation services coordinator for Lexpress, which has a $450,000 annual budget. “This is a shoestring operation.”

For Moraff, that meant spending all his free time riding six bus routes to plot the longitude, latitude, and typical arrival times on every block in the system. It meant logging every intersection in town and figuring out the computer coding that suited Google’s engineering needs. Moraff estimates it took him 60 to 100 hours over a period of 18 months, in between internships and schoolwork.

Click here toread the entire story. 

Read more Comments Off

Stimulus rules may stymie transportation projects; State recipients worry

March 26, 2009 at 6:10 pm

(Source: Boston Globe)

Mass. officials say public works that would have the biggest impact – and create the most jobs – may be left out

Governor Deval Patrick’s administration has determined that dozens of worthy projects are not eligible for federal stimulus money because the US government has dictated that only certain types of public improvements can be funded, even if they have limited economic potential.

That means the initial round of stimulus spending may generate fewer jobs than Massachusetts officials had expected.

When it approved the stimulus package, Congress restricted the use of about $800 million of transportation funds to projects that have been included on a list of public improvements states put together annually. It often takes years for a project to work its way onto that list.

In Massachusetts, many of those projects are simple jobs – paving roads or fixing sidewalks – and usually do not trigger another round of associated development that would employ a larger number of people. The congressional restriction prevents Patrick from using the money for some larger highway and transit upgrades that aren’t on the list but that would spur development of homes, office parks, and retail stores.

Click here to read the entire article.

Read more Comments Off