A Boston Commuter Speaks

Taken from the Alliance for Climate Protection:

Transit is good for business. Companies linked in to public transportation have fewer problems with absenteeism and keeping employees. Transit also reduces congestion, allowing for more on-time deliveries and lower transportation costs for goods.

If you build it they will come. Transit investment, particularly rail stations, creates an attractive investment environment. In Kenosha, Wisconsin, a 2 mile streetcar line was built connecting its downtown to the waterfront at a cost of $6.2 million. The business community responded by investing $150 million.Public transportation puts money in the pockets of you and your neighbors. 19¢ out of every dollar is spent on transportation, and almost entirely on automobiles. Families who live far from transit spend an average of 25% of their household budget on transportation, while families near transit spend just 9%. Transit users can save anywhere from $200 to $4500 on fuel costs alone. If riders can ditch a car altogether, they can save another $6000 to $11,400.

MOST IMPORTANTLY,

Among our American climate heroes is the mass transit user. Public transportation riders in the US save 855 million gallons of gasoline per year, for an 8.5 million ton reduction in CO₂ emissions compared to if they drove. In America’s 85 largest urban areas, public transportation prevented 1.1 billion hours in time lost to traffic jams. The riders themselves can save even more — hundreds or even thousands of dollars in driving and parking costs, and for some even the cost of an entire car. For their commitment to public transit they get precious extra time each day to read, doze, or chat with other fine commuters.

If Americans could use transit for just 10% of our travel, we could cut emissions by 82 million tons. That would take us a valuable part of the way toward the reductions needed to solve the climate crisis. Transit also encourages more compact development, which will pay increasing dividends of greenhouse gas savings for decades to come.

I was out of the office 3 days this week. So I can only report on Monday 3/24 and today 3/28.

Go ahead, guess…

That’s right. BOTH days late. Close to 15 minutes on each morning rush hour train. A woman next to me who had to attend an important meeting said, “Of all the days, this is not the one for the MBTA to be late.”

I said, “Are you kidding, they are always late.”

She said, “Yeah, but there are a group of people waiting for me to be at a meeting that starts promptly at 9:00 and I won’t make it.”

Like I said, there was a time before the rate hike, where I was in the office every single day at 8:55. NEVER late. Now, a chronic condition.

What I want to know is now that the contract has been signed with the managing agency, what leverage does Governor Deval Patrick have with them? Probably none. And that is a travesty. I will post later about this. In my view, in private business, when people don’t perform or miss benchmarks, they can be held to pay. And I’m not talking the ridiculous price of a ticket which you only get if the train is a half hour late. But more later. Back to work.

Late and Jammed, A Typical Day on the Boston MBTA and “T”

How is your train’s performance?

On time?

Late?

Leave early and leave you behind?

Share your stories. Please!

Tell us which MBTA line, train and date.

Let’s get this train service back on track!!!

There are some good bloggers out there I will start to add links on this site who are in this together!

Photo Credit: Jammed, by MichaelChaos, Flickr.com

http://flickr.com/photos/chaosfactor/192767534/