The T

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to support the MBTA. As a casual rider, I’m coming close to just giving up on it.

I try to do the eco-friendly thing and take public transportation, but the T is making it really, really hard.

Take yesterday for example. I was meeting a friend for sushi in Back Bay. I figured I’d take the bus there and then take the commuter rail home. There’s a bus that goes from 2 blocks to my house and drops off by the Back Bay station. It only takes about 25 minutes, so it’s a nice bus ride…in theory.

Except, yesterday it simply NEVER CAME. After waiting at the bus stop for over 20 minutes in cold weather, I stormed home to take my car. I drove to Back Bay, and got there in 20 minutes. The sushi place validated parking in a garage, so parking only cost me $5.

The bus to Back Bay costs $3.50 because it’s an express bus. The commuter rail home costs $4.75. That comes to $8.25.

To drive to Back Bay and park in said garage? $5 plus $2.50 in round trip tolls. That comes to $7.50. And the added benefit of driving in my car versus taking the T is that I can sing at the top of my lungs without people staring at me like a crazy person.

The T simply isn’t doing anything to entice the casual rider such as myself. It’s expensive and unreliable.

Here’s another example. Matt and I enjoy going to dim sum in Chinatown on the weekends. If we take the commuter rail, it costs $19 for us round trip. If we drive, can park in a lot for $10-$15. AND we don’t run the risk of getting stranded at South Station for hours on end if we happen to miss our commuter rail train going home.

And yes, I do live off the D (Green) Line, but while a lot cheaper (round trip for $2.50) it is not a viable solution. It takes over an hour to go from Woodland to Park Street. According to Google Maps, it’s only 11 miles from Woodland to Park Street. WHY oh WHY does it take over an hour? And as I’ve written before, the rickety old Green Line trains give me motion sickness. A few years ago I threw up in Boston Common because I got sick on the Green Line.

There’s also an express bus that stops right outside of where I work. Coworkers have told me that it’s also unreliable; sometimes it just fails to show up. And this is a FIVE DOLLAR BUS. Why on earth should someone pay that much for a bus that can’t even show up when it’s supposed to? I get that express buses are more expensive, and I’d have little qualms paying extra for the added convenience of getting to my destination quickly, but I can’t bring myself to pay that much money for a sub-par riding experience (i.e, the bus failing to show up).

I think I’m close to giving up on my casual ridership of the T. My “green guilt” and desire to support public transportation caused me to repeatedly take the T for leisure, but I think I’m done. Gas is cheap now, parking garages are less expensive than taking the T from where I live (aside from the green line, but I like to avoid the prospect of vomiting whenever possible), I can get to my destination when I want to, and I don’t have to run the risk of waiting for a bus that may never even arrive.

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Go on and hate me!

There’s a group on Facebook called “I hate the Toyota Prius, and the liberal tree-huggers that drive them!” There are about 300 members.

Yes, I am liberal and I appreciate the existence of trees. These anti-Prius people have me allll figured out.

The group itself is hilarious. It’s mostly high school kids who are not only anti-Prius, but anti-Toyota and anti-non-American cars in general.

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