Friday, December 5, 2008

Thought Today was Saturday

It was worth driving into work yesterday. The Dan Band was AWESOME, a super fun show. If you know anything about the Dan Band, you'll know that the choreography makes the show. Good times!

Not so awesome, not so super fun, waking up the following day. I really thought today was Saturday. After shutting my alarm off a few times, I realized it was Friday and I needed to haul some butt to get to the train. The P508 was on time today, we arrived into South Station around 8:22 a.m.

Three weeks after the fact, the increased parking rate story is one that just will not die. Today's MetroWest Daily News contained an article about commuters on the Worcester line who are upset about the new fees. Regardless of what the MBTA officially says, it does seem like more and more commuters are finding ways to avoid paying $4 to park their cars at the local commuter rail lots. People are getting dropped off if they can or they're finding other places to park. Why not - it beats handing over your money to the T. Kudos to businesses that abut the commuter rail for joining the market economy and providing an opportunity for people to park at the business for less than it costs to park at a T lot. The owner of the Fitzgerald General Store near the Southborough MBTA lot is planning to offer a monthly parking plan that costs less than the T's rates. I'm sure this will also be easier than shoving $4 into the little pay box.

Picking up from The Boston Herald's story published yesterday, Boston.com has a photo of the "seatless" Red Line train.

On to some road news.

It looks like the State of Rhode Island is exploring ways to generate tolls at their state lines (a la New Hampshire). Thinking of the Rhode Island-Massachusetts I-95 border, how the F would this work? When you cross into our out of RI to Massachusetts on I-95, that's a treacherous piece of road. Its all curvy because they didn't want to totally cut into Pawtucket. You have some really groovy curves. Yeah, putting a toll booth there would be so logical.

If Rhode Island starts charging tolls at the state lines, Massachusetts better do the same to NH and RI drivers. They may as well contribute towards the Big Dig.

Here are articles from The Providence Journal and Forbes.com.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Putting toll booths on 95 in Pawtucket is an utterly stupid idea. Can you imagine the resulting massive traffic jams? I predict it will never see the light of day. But the truth is that our highway infrastructure here in RI is in bad shape (as also in MA) and so some additional tax revenue will have to be raised to address that.

BAM

Anonymous said...

Is it really bad for the MBTA if people are figuring out other ways to get to the train station other than parking or if private business is now offering more space?

Many MBTA parking lots were at or near capacity, and it can cost a lot to expand a parking lot and even more so to build a deck. The people who are now walking, getting a ride to/from the station, or using a private lot are now creating room for new people who could not find spaces before at crowded MBTA lots. And since the MBTA is now getting twice as much money per space, they don't need the lots to be as full as they were before to still be earning more revenue.

I don't think stories like these are going to make the MBTA change back the rates, especially since it looks like ridership has not gone down.

Anonymous said...

Add the Patriot Parking facility in Sullivan Square to the private lots competing with the T.

They lowered their price to $4.00 after 1PM weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday.

We park their for Celtics and Bruins games now!