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MBTA subsidy is $2.07 per rider. over the entire system. Most of the students would ride daytime busses, which are subsidized less ($1.43). Using the higher number, the true cost of an adult charlie card is $3.13 ($2.28 for a child). Plenty of room to make that work.

The trick for making public transportation pay for itself is increasing paid ridership. The students would immediately increase ridership about 10% and start them on a life-long path of being customers. So, this even helps out MBTA even if you don't ask the schools to pay above retail price.

Last year, more than 30,000 students rode 650 buses to 230 schools at a cost of $120 million

That doesn't sound right. $120 million over 30,000 students is $4000 per student-year. If there are 200 school days in a year, that's $20 per student per day, or $10 per student per trip. A savings of $5 million only reduces this to $9.58 per student per trip.

A monthly MBTA bus pass is $55/mo, which at 21 school days per month would work out to $1.31 per student per trip. So the school buses are 7.6x more expensive.

A little of the price difference I can understand due to school buses running fewer trips (a school bus usually services 2-4 schools on staggered schedules, with a few hours lull around lunch). So the purchase cost of the bus is amortized over fewer trips. Utilization of public buses is also higher. 392,413 riders on a weekday over 7200 round trips = 54.5 riders per circuit, which is close to or over 100% capacity per circuit (obviously not everyone is on the bus at the same time, but we're looking at fares per circuit). School buses OTOH run at about 51% capacity per circuit.

But if you figure these are both 2:1 factors, then that would bring up the MBTA bus cost to just $5.24 per student per trip. Still about half that of operating the school buses. Maybe that's the solution. In other countries I've visited, schoolkids ride the public bus and subway.

Last year, more than 30,000 students rode 650 buses to 230 schools at a cost of $120 million

That doesn't sound right. $120 million over 30,000 students is $4000 per student-year. If there are 200 school days in a year, that's $20 per student per day, or $10 per student per trip. A savings of $5 million only reduces this to $9.58 per student per trip.

A monthly MBTA bus pass is $55/mo, which at 21 school days per month would work out to $1.31 per student per trip. So the school buses are 7.6x more expensive.

A little of the price difference I can understand due to school buses running fewer trips (a school bus usually services 2-4 schools on staggered schedules, with a few hours lull around lunch). So the purchase cost of the bus is amortized over fewer trips. Utilization of public buses is also higher. 392,413 riders on a weekday over 7200 round trips = 54.5 riders per circuit, which is close to or over 100% capacity per circuit (obviously not everyone is on the bus at the same time, but we're looking at fares per circuit). School buses OTOH run at about 51% capacity per circuit.

But if you figure these are both 2:1 factors, then that would bring up the MBTA bus cost to just $5.24 per student per trip. Still about half that of operating the school buses. Maybe that's the solution. In other countries I've visited, schoolkids ride the public bus and subway.

In the Boston area, Massachusetts also has a fleet of cab-sized and small-bus sized vehicles that it uses to transport disabled and elderly persons (The Ride) which seems to be directly competing with disablity-accomodating taxi services already.

Boston apparently has no potholes that need to be repaired and they have surplus transit money to spend on curbside campsites....other cities can learn.

Your sarcasm may be closer to target, than you realized: MBTA fees are going up (again) tomorrow.

"The bench has a USB outlet, and also collects and shares a wide range of data, including location-based information, as well as air quality and noise-levels"

But what wouldn't a benevolent progressive government pay for the ability to collect more data? Especially from the phones voluntarily plugged-in by unsuspecting residents?

Problem solved, except for your whiny victim-of-liberals attitude: http://www.mbta.com/riding_the_t/accessible_services/?id=7108

How about the sign posted at the entrance to the subway when inspections are in progress.

"A passenger may choose not to be inspected but then is prohibited from riding on the MBTA."

I had no idea that Frank Oglesby was an android.

I am not sure the assumptions are "false", or rather, you yourself are making assumptions. If the alternative to a bus, is to drive a car (your assumption), then yes, you need more roads, and (as you say) more cars. But if the alternative is something somewhat smaller than a car (electric scooter, or a bicycle), then you don't need more roads (depends -- a completely full bus is more compact than the same number of people on bicycles, but the bicycles have the option of spreading themselves out a bit in time and across alternate routes).

Around here (Boston), the really disabled, don't always take the big city bus, since they cannot even walk to the stop; there are instead smaller vans that go point to point.

One of the advantages of phones over netbooks is precisely that they aren't "real" computers. No one writes an app for Windows or stock Linux that helps you find the nearest T-station. Why would they?

Indeed, why would they.
Boston's Metro authority has a website that provides the exact functionality you're talking about.

There's nothing special about an app when it's just a fancy way to bookmark an existing web service.

Use the commercial services for exceptions. Pay extra for when you need that. It will be cheaper than your monthly car payment.

I drive a $1900 truck I bought of Craigslist that I maintain myself. I pay another $410 yearly for insurance and about $100/month in gas. For this pittance of a sum, I have the power to drive wherever I want, whenever I want, hauling all manner my gear. Oh, and since it's an inline 4, I get 25-28mpg on the highway (depending on whether I'm going 85MPH or 55MPH). Heck, how the hell do you even expect me to get my groceries home when I live 5 blocks from the nearest bus stop? It snows here too, ya know.

Meanwhile, just to get all-access rail pass to the MBTA here costs $150/month = $1800 a year, or almost as much per year as it cost me to buy my truck once (been going for over 3 years now, for an annual capital cost under $600). Oh, and the MBTA makes a bit over a quarter of its operating revenue from fares, meaning that as a taxpayer I'm paying another $5000 a year towards it that pass. And the MBTA sucks -- it's frequently late and stops at 1AM, so if I want to take transit out to the city to socialize, I have to pay $50 for a cab ride back.

So your statement about it being less that the cost of my private transportation is just blatantly false. The public transit option is massively subsidized (70% of its budget) and still costs nearly twice as much. And that's before I pay extra for commercial services for shit I can already do whenever I want. No sale.

Citations:
http://www.mbta.com/fares_and_passes/rail/ I live in Zone #2. They folks living out in the farther out suburbs pay a whopping $250/month for their rail passes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Transportation_Authority#Budget $400M in fares, $1400 budget. It's gotten much worse since 2008 too.

Look, the guy's at Harvard, so it's more likely that it's a play on the MBTA Subway Map than a London Tube Map.

The CharlieCard (other poster is talking about the paper mag-stripe CharlieTicket) says on the back, and I'll quote:

• DO NOT PUNCH HOLES IN THIS CARD.
• Subject to applicable tariff regulations and conditions of use.
• May be confiscated for misuse.

Schedule & Fare Information: 617-222-3200 www.mbta.com ©MBTA

And that's it. Nothing about them owning the card, although that very vague "subject to ... conditions of use" does seem to imply that they think they do. (What are the "conditions of use?" Who knows!)

But whatever you do, do not punch holes in this card. To understand why, you can read this presentation by MIT students that shows what the inside of the card looks like...

What if this is used by some terrorist organization to mount an attack?

What kind of terrorist organization is that - one that can't afford to buy its own fare cards? That's the only kind of group which would be affected by the ruling. You can buy a fare card for cash in every bus/train/subway system that I've been on, including the T.

1. Make solar energy affordable - Done
2. Provide energy from fusion - This is something I don't know anything about.
3. Develop carbon sequestration methods - More information
4. Manage the nitrogen cycle - More information. I feel like on a basic, local level this can already be accomplished easily. On an advanced/global level though... Manage it? In the next 100 years maybe we can gather some data points so we can UNDERSTAND it. Until then, any attempts to "manage" it would be foolish
5. Provide access to clean water - Tried and true method and 1, 2, 3 Orgs doing it.
6. Restore and improve urban infrastructure - And run on-time and build more parks - but who will fund it?
7. Advance health informatics - This "engineering goal" is too general to discuss. It's like, make it easier to get useful data on our health. Duh!
8. Engineer better medicines - I think "Engineer better robots" would be a more worthwhile engineering goal... but that's just me.
9. Reverse-engineer the brain - Teaching it, and studying it
10. Prevent nuclear terror - This is a political bombshell that I won't go near, but from what I see the strategy is (a) deterrence, and (b) threaten anybody with a nuclear project.
11. Secure cyberspace - Ha!
12. Enhance virtual reality - In a practical way or just enough so that my brain can be tricked into thinking that an incredibly hot women is going down on me?
13. Advance personalized learning - Not sure what this is...
14. Engineer the tools for scientific discovery - Another overly general one, but I'd like to think "discovery" is a misspelling of "exploration". Lately I've been thinking that our satellites are similar to the Triremes of Greece times (which are bound to stay close to our shores), the Apollo/Space Shuttle is like Viking ships (which couldn't (or weren't) be used to setup a new settlement), and then this would be the equivalent of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria (except they will be called Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Lincoln).

I am going to be fair... this is really a list of things that can be completed in the next 25 years. These are not "100 year" goals. They are simply to generalized, for the most part. A real engineer knows that goals should be Specific, Measurable, and ARTistic. These goals don't qualify.

I beg to differ. If Google Maps has no alternative, how does the MBTA use that feature to create a map showing all subway lines and stations?

Check it here: http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/ and go to the Interactive Street Map.

As for the questions, I have had limited experience with both, but the Google API was much easier for me to work with. Also, the Google Maps API is now much more mature. Honestly, if you don't care about the API's maturity, try both and see which is prefered.

Actually, you're right, and Boston's MBTA just went through a multi-million dollar renovation (and rate hike, of course!) to ditch turnstyles for the Washington DC style "puny plastic flippy things":

http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/?id=8704

The Boston MBTA already has a site that does this here.

Since both mapquest and maps.google.com are incapable of providing decent driving maps of the Boston Metro area, this is the best site for trip planning. It will even give you two or more options with each trip, and takes into account things like the time of day and day of week, thus integrating with the actual bus schedules.

Given what I know about working for Mass, I strongly suspect that's the case.

Back in my last job, I did some consulting for the MBTA. There was no problem with traveling within the state on project business. However, traveling out of the state on project business was a big deal, requiring several levels of approval. At one point we needed to fly to Colorado to conduct some testing - it would have cost several $million to test locally, and several $thousand to test in CO. I think it took something like 2 months for the approval to come through. Since the testing wasn't too time-critical, we just waited for the T to give us approval.

Given my experience working for the state, and my experience going to conferences, I don't find it hard to believe that Mr. Quinn may have been running against conference registration deadlines, hotel room deadlines, and airfare deadlines - I suspect that he followed proper procedures when he could, but if there was a time crunch (maybe it took too long for a gov't bean counter to approve the first of 12 forms), he may have just asked his boss (and council as TFA noted) for verbal approval.

Frankly, as a Mass taxpayer, I'm happy that state workers are going to conferences. Of course if it was a golfing junket, it would be a different matter. But (IMNSHO) technical people need to go to conferences to expose themselves to news ideas, to meet contacts, and, yes, to schmooze with vendors.

I want to know what the governor is doing about this.

The original reason behind the song having been long forgotten as the new system will make fare increases easier and no doubt more frequent.

The MBTA in Bostonhas instituted a search policy on the commuter rail and subway. They say the station I come into in the morning (North Station) has about 25000 people come in during rush hours in the AM, making it impracticel tosearch everyone. Ithink "random" searches are never random -- people gettargetted.

The ACLU has a detailed page describing how to deal with a search request. One of the primary differences in the US and UK is clearly illustrated -- I don't mean this as a slam on the UK, merely pointing out a difference. In the US every ctizen is supposed to be immune from unreasonable search. Of course the definition of reasonable is opem to debate. But it's only by people pushing against crazy things like these train searches that we are able to defend indivual freedoms.

With the recent supreme court ruling in the Hiibel case it's more important than ever that citzens defend the right that are given to them. I hope other Bostonians will print out a copy of the ACLU's advice page ann keep it with them when they travel on the T. If you are an American and live in a place that has unreasonable searches, contact your local ACLU and see what they advise.

Regretting that you can't do something in the war on terror? Here's your opportunity. Defend civil liberties at home.

You do not need to be privatized to have crap like that happen. Far from it.

They're called trains.

MBTA Trip Planning gives you the public transit options between two addresses.

Indeed. Even in someplace like Boston where'd you think they might have their act together the subway website's facilities are lacking. There's a minimal trip planner but it sucks, and it's difficult if not impossible to find the addresses of stations so you can get a real map somewhere else.

They did scale back the creepy voice lately, but for many months I would hear the message 3-4 times during my half hour commute on the Red Line. Now the more frequent message seems to be the "no smoking on the T" lady reminding us to report unattended packages "to a uniformed MBTA eployee."

I don't know what goes on on the other lines, but on the red this stuff's kinda hard to miss. This brochure has their basic "eye and mouth" logo - when that thing is plastered all over the inside of a train car (they like to do that sometimes - take the same poster and fill every single ad spot in the car with it), it's quite unsettling.

Oh and the "creepy voice" (I think it belongs to Michael Mulhern, MBTA general manager; I am not sure), really is quite creepy.

See link here: MBTA's website

They run this message in the Park Street Station.

During the DNC, most people are taking their vacation. IMHO, a forced vacation. With the decreased in traffic, it just gives the supporters a chance to gloat about the lack of problems.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

Had anyone actually read the article (that includes the OP)it's spelled out there.

Of particular amusement are the 2 posters that posted "corrections" that were incorrect.

visit them at http://www.mbta.com/

sheesh!

(rant over)

I have to agree. These cameras are no more intrusive than having police officers sitting in their place, watching everything. They have the added benefits of possessing an impartial memory (assuming they are tamper-proof), being cheaper and being more patient than police officers would be.

If you want to worry about rights being violated in Boston, consider the upcoming implementation of bag searches on public transportation. They will be banning the use of large bags on the Orange Line during the convention (won't a bomb fit into a purse or a briefcase, or on a shoe perhaps?), and will be searching all large bags coming into the system at certain specific T stops, which have been apparently announced ahead of time (at least through the rumor mill). If I were a terrorist, I'd probably walk along the T line until I found a stop where they weren't checking bags, and board there. Apparently the bag searches are supposed to continue after the convention is over. The public in public transportation is becoming less apt as time goes on.

Of course, this will encourage more people to drive to work, which is exactly what Boston needs.

The what what? Oh, you mean the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.

And this is old news. Those of us in Boston have been dealing with the implications of this for months now. From cameras, to random "Papers, please!" ID checks on the subway, or not carrying anything larger than a loaf of bread on the Orange Line during the convention, to closing an entire Interstate highway from 4PM until late in the evening for an entire week.

Nothing special about these cameras. There's no face recognition software, there's no "do not walk on sidewalk" list. Nothing to see here folks.

Actually, it's Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. Almost noone gets it right, even native Bostonians...

Except the Green Line isn't a subway- it's a surface line...and there's no such thing as a subway conductor.

And yes, there is such thing as a subway conductor, though it's usually more commonly referred to as just an operator. On the green line specifically, the guy's job does resemble more of a train conductor than of a subway operator since on the sections where the train is on the surface, he collects fares and announces stops.

Furthermore, MBTA employees cannot be understood by anyone, have a circumference at least their height, and have no sense of humor. The man was clearly an impostor.

The guy's pretty funny and cracks jokes every now and then. The most hilarious incident was at the Park Street station. It was rush hour and the platform was pretty crowded. He stopped the train a little earlier than he was supposed to, but everyone outside was still crowding around the door waiting for it to open. Then he announced, "See what happens when I inch the train forward." Everyone outside started shuffling as the door moved forward. "See that? Lemmings... all of them..." The people inside the train were all laughing as the door opened.

I've heard other friends talk about him and it does seem he reuses his jokes. The conductor joke was heard by one of my friends when he boarded another time.

Engineering!=CAD

I am an engineer. I've worked on many engineering studies over the past few years. I run a engineering company now. The number of times I've had to use a propriety CAD package I can count on my right hand.

Thanks to all of the open source packages out there, there are plenty of engineerng apps available for Mac OS X.

There is geeky history , other geeks,fun tours, funner tours and of course 100k college students 7/13ths of whom are female.

And if you want to stay, make sure to stop buy one of the millions of awesome high tech firms in the area.

And, if you do manage to get here by September, you might be able to get on a Big Dig Tour, and see the tunnel and bridge close up before they let the cars on the southbound portion. It's a lot of fun - I just did one. Bring a camera and some high-speed film.

And, while you're in Boston, you can see America's First Subway, the T.

MYP is a sort of adult comic store and by "adult" I don't mean pornographic, though they do have some titles that I'm sure could be found in the private stashes of our current Senate. Lots of graphic novels, a little bit of anime, oddities such as Gregory (Marc Hempel, I think) and Squee, etc, etc. A great place to go if you want local zines, too.

And if you ever run into a very strange guy with a beard and a dog, he's harmless. His name is "Cush." And he'll bark if you don't pet him. The dog, not the guy.

If you like what you see a much, MUCH better one is right at Harvard. Harvard Square stop on the MBTA Subway Red Line. Dirt simple to get to. Once you exit the station you could probably face south, throw a piece of baklavah and hit the place.

And, while I'm on a tear, don't forget the first MIT Flea Market is happening this weekend (third Sunday of every month, April through October inclusive). Some people think the first one of the year is the best one because all the crap has gathered up all winter and the last one sucks. The other camp thinks the last one is the best because people are motivated to get rid of the stuff At All Costs. *shrug Anyway, that's the Kendall Stop on the aforementioned Red Line.

I'll shut up now. =)

Boston has buses, subways, and commuter rail, all run by the T. For opposing viewpoints, take a look at ne.transportation[NNTP] [HTTP].

-- Rest of my .sig: "be the majority of voters"

With the exception of the big three citys (ie NY, LA, Chicago), the mass transit system collectively sucks.

Note: You might spell it as "LA", but it's pronounced "Boston".

1. Reverse-commute on the Logan Express bus from the airport out to a short distance from the cinema. Indeed before the trees leaf out you can see the two buildings from each other; later just ask directions from the station staff, it's a trivial 5 minute walk. To catch Logan Express go to the lower level of the Airport and watch for a large red coach-style bus, the one you'll want is the hourly Framingham one.
2. Take the Commuter Rail out to Framingham station. There are buses that connect from there around Framingham but I've never seen a good map or schedule of them, Google or ask on ne.transportaion for current status. Personally I'd just catch a cab over.
3. Look into getting a ZipCar or just convincing a friend to drive you out. The cinema is a hop-skip-&-jump from the Framingham exit on the Mass Pike. Offering tickets & popcorn is good incentive.

...this is faster than the MBTA during rush hour.

you must therefore be mistaken about the public transit being better over there.

The T is way cleaner and more reliable than the Tube. Still, that's not difficult.

Now there is one that isn't dead, but certainly coughing up blood. These are still in use in MA with the MBTA for the 71 line and a few others to Watertown, MA.

It's too bad these are dying out, because for the most part they aren't that bad. They're quiet, don't stink, and for the most part seemed to be every bit as reliable as regular busses. The only downside I saw was that oddly enough they seemed to get hotter than normal busses in the summer. But IMHO that's not too bad if you can at least hear yourself think if you're riding one.

Now there is one that isn't dead, but certainly coughing up blood. These are still in use in MA with the MBTA for the 71 line and a few others to Watertown, MA.

It's too bad these are dying out, because for the most part they aren't that bad. They're quiet, don't stink, and for the most part seemed to be every bit as reliable as regular busses. The only downside I saw was that oddly enough they seemed to get hotter than normal busses in the summer. But IMHO that's not too bad if you can at least hear yourself think if you're riding one.

Speaking of results from average programmers, take a look at MBTA Bus Schedules. View an individual schedule. You'll notice the title bar says "Schedule for #routenumber#", clearly the result of a programmer error re. CF syntax. Just because some of the syntax looks like HTML doesn't mean Cold Fusion is really simpler than other languages.

It's unlikely that such an error would have been made had the MBTA used a truly simple language like BRL.

One option is to take a taxi from the airport to the Providence MBTA station, and take the train into Boston. This may be significantly cheaper than renting a car (and also possible for those under the age of 25) - you also avoid driving on I-95. check http://www.mbta.com for the cost of that train ticket... I can't help on the cab fare.