I typed "ICA" into the "Service Nearby" option on the new MBTA site, and was surprised to find that not only did their option for the Institute of Contemporary Arts put me smack dab in the middle of a body of water, but when I zoomed out, I realized it was just off the coast of Africa. Oh, really, T? I mean, I know it's pretty far from any of your train lines, but I didn't think it was that far…

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I'm sure most of you already know about this, but we feel that it is imperative that we remind you to (if you're out of work by 4pm) to join the rally against the MBTA's proposed fair hike tomorrow at Copley Square. Mike's got the 411.

Technorati Tags: boston, mbta, protest

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Technorati Tags: boston, mbta, cartoon

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The MBTA is taking a ton of heat about the upcoming fare hike, so they needed to start working on a little PR to boost public perception of the
inept agency. We all know the T is bloated, unfriendly, and anything but ingenious. They love to waste our money and time. To the rescuse, however, comes this story:

Tom McHale is a hero at the MBTA, not for saving lives, but for saving a lot of money thanks to steak tips, electrical tape, and a 5-cent, fine-mesh hair cap.

A cute little anecdote about some thrifty genius at the T, and employees committed to bringing up better service at a fair fare. Yeah, right. After that Red Sox fluff piece the other day, we know the Globe isn't afraid to be on the take. (Can you really blame the dying newspaper industry for doing anything it can to make a buck these days?).

Technorati Tags: boston, mbta, globe

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From talksrealfast's Flickr:

Waiting at the Kendall/MIT stop. Never ceases to amaze me how close people stand to these trains that could totally rip a face off.

Technorati Tags: boston, mbta, photo

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The Globe brings us this report on the state of cellulite in Massachusetts this morning:

The survey found that 55 percent of Massachusetts adults are either overweight or obese.
The state study found that the burden of obesity is not shared evenly: Adults who failed to complete high school were more than twice as likely to be obese as college graduates, and obesity was more of a problem for African-Americans than it was for whites or Hispanics. And the central part of the state, where there are sizeable pockets of poverty, had an obesity rate twice as high as the neighboring, more affluent Metro West region.

We would tend think that affluence has less to do with overweight-ness than does, say, living in "The Walking City." We walk all the time: to the T, to the store, to the bar, up 5 flights to our apartment — how the hell could we really get dangerously overweight? And, trust us, we too have a sweet tooth. From ice wine to sugary pizza sauce (yes, that's right, and it's damn good), we eat our share of sugar and carbs, but what we don't do is get in the car everytime we have to travel 10 feet. And yes, we know, not everyone can afford to live in a city with public transportation and biped-friendly layout, so perhaps it is affluence. But let us now register our vote in favor of human-powered transportation.

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We spend a lot of time on the T. At least twice a day, and we assume that you probably do the same. At a minimum we're on the T (not the commuter rail) or waiting for it at a stop for at least 30 minutes a day — that's about 2% of our day, 3.36 hours a week, 12 hours a month, 161 hours a year, and over the course of, say, a 40-year T-riding lifespan, thats six thousand, four hundred and fifty one hours (almost an entire year) spent languishing in the underground pugatory known as the MBTA. And if you take into consideration the fact that this is a conservative estimate of average time on the T per day, you start to realize, like we did, that there's a whole lot of your life that you want back.

So, we'd like to know what is your favorite, and least favorite T stop?

For us, we'd have to say our favorite would have to be Haymarket, specifically the orange line part. Admittedly there is nothing incredible about it, but we don't need gimmicks. Haymarket is like a second home to us; hearing "next stop Haymarket; doors will open on the right" brings us a warm, inviting feeling inside. We're home.

On the other hand, you have the tourist-laden, gift-shop-having, confusing mess that is Park St. The green line scares us (it's too complicated), and Park St. is the worst part of it.

The obvious place for us to hurl this big wad of dripping public transportation love is over at T Rage, but he's on vacation in Florida. So instead let us tag Involuntary Slacker — what have you to say, Lyss?

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Ok, normally we do this whole "we" thing, but today, on the occasion of the best holiday of the year (perhaps even of the decade, since St. Patty's falls on a Friday this year), we're gonna break down the fourth wall for a minute here:

I'm all greened out today, in real life, just like on this here blog. But on my ride to work this morning I noticed a disturbing lack of green (I did get to stand next to a woman in a large orange coat, so it was like an Irish flag for a few stops there). What's the deal, people? Did you wear green today? You should! If you don't, St. Patrick will probably bring all the snakes back to Ireland, and you don't want that now, do you? Do you?

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We've been looking for something like this for a while; it's a Google Map of Boston, overlayed with an MBTA T line and station map. Very useful for those of us who don't drive, and it makes it very easy to get directions to and from various stations.

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Not only was the train over an hour late…it was ungrammatically late. The scrolly LCD above the platform said "All trains running up to an hour late account earlier signal problems". Jeebus. We couldn't even safely go back into the office and wait out the hour in warm, dry comfort because the sign said "up to an hour" late.

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