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Alewife station shut after driver slams into garage wall, dislodging slab that sent large window panes hurtling into the passenger area
By adamg on Sat, 02/04/2023 - 2:09pm
The MBTA reports Alewife station is closed "due to an auto accident with the building structure." The Cambridge Fire Department reports the driver of a car on the top garage level slammed into a wall - intentionally, Transit Police say.
The department adds one person was injured.
The Honda Civic crash sent see-through panels onto the station floor, according to Takuya, who was at the station when the crash happened:
The T says it's now running shuttle buses between Davis and Alewife as structural engineers head to the scene to assess the damage - which includes not only large see-through panels, but a slab of concrete from the garage now being held up by the metal frames where the panels used to be.
1:30pm this afternoon Alewife parking garage 5th level. The motorist’s actions were intentional. No further information to be released at this time. Station to remain closed and service between Alewife/Davis suspended. Buses will replace service until station reopens. pic.twitter.com/2avTxZCCbz
— MBTA Transit Police (@MBTATransitPD) February 4, 2023
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Comments
The T as a novel
As with any good mystery or thriller the tales of the T is hurtling toward a spectacular climax
Anyone? Anyone?
That is some Ferris Bueller stuff right there.
(Also by the grace of god no one was killed.)
Wow!
Very impressive!
Clearly, a Massachusetts
Clearly, a Massachusetts driver's license doesn't mean you have a clue how to drive.
It's been so, so long
since we had a good alewifing.
Said the driver
"It's too cold to wait for the train. I'll just drive."
The Globe is reporting the crash was intentional
The car broke off what looks to be a 2,000lb block of concrete which fell about 40' onto the glass and truss ceiling.
It's miraculous that people weren't walking through that area at the time as it's the main passage to the trains. It's also miraculous the truss didn't collapse and take down the expansive glass ceiling with it.
Had this happened during rush hour it likely would have been a mass casualty event.
The fact a car on the parking deck was able to dislodge the concrete siding like that is yet another example of how poorly that garage is built.
Terrorism
This is terrorism.
But ... car!
?
Weren't you an open advocate for using bike locks to destroy car mirrors at one point?
But...bikes!
Weren't you advocating murders of puppies and children?
I mean, I can say that and people will believe it I suppose.
Show me a single case where a cyclist has caused this much damage. I'll wait.
Show me a single case where a cyclist has paid
Their fair share for the roads. General taxes (income, sales, etc) don’t count because everyone pays them. I’ll wait.
Do the math including the exteranalities
Roads are paid for by a MIXTURE of taxes INCLUDING:
Property Taxes
Income taxes
Gasoline taxes.
Just because "everybody pays property and income taxes" doesn't mean that motorists pay the full costs of driving.
https://taxfoundation.org/states-road-funding-2019/
Factor in who does the damage to roads (cars, trucks - not bikes) and the health impacts of pollution, noise, forced inactivity due to community design for cars and roadway accidents and it works out that driving is rather subsidized.
That doesn't even account for your bizarroworld assumption that cycling and owning a motor vehicle are somehow mutually exclusive.
Perhaps I can suggest a few starter courses to help you with your inability to account for externalities and/or math challenges.
If general taxes don't count then show me
A driver who has paid their fair share. The driver specific taxes like gas tax and tolls and excise only pay for half. The rest is made up by general taxes that everyone pays.
Wow, you'll take any excuse, huh?
Someone tries to take their own life and endangers others lives in the process, but the real point is - how many taxes do cyclists pay?
What in the actual fuck are you talking about?
Trying to connect dots that don’t connect, but you’re going to connect them anyways. Seriously? Out of all of the comments on this thread you single me out?
Swirls said this was terrorism. Apparently that’s better than asking bikers to pay their fair share on a subthread she created.
Fair?
Tell us, what is the fair share for people who never use the roads at all? You know, people who use public transit, or just walk where they need to go? Seems like they should get a big exemption from their taxes, if you're going to be "fair." SG has drowned your argument with relevant data, but you keep digging.
These people never shop at Amazon
Or use any form of public services (trash, police, fire, EMT, etc) or grocery shop, right? If they use public transportation I assume they ride buses too. All these things require maintained roads. I have never and will never use a bike lane. It provides nothing to me or a society, in general. Sure, a few cyclists would be in cars if not on bikes, but the percentage of people that bike isn’t very large in comparison to the number of people that commute to work on a daily basis. They should take all the bike infrastructure monies that bikers don’t pay for and vector it to the MBTA.
I get the same health benefits in my Porsche Taycan Turbo as Swirls does on her e-bike.
Look at those goalposts go!
Why don't you just change the subject completely?
Robo does this bit from time to time
Its best to just skip to the end and let them stew:
https://www.universalhub.com/comment/904834#comment-904834
lol
lololol you're just incredibly stupid.
Where’s the outrage, Fungwah?
Oh, its your biker buddy so it’s fine.
https://www.universalhub.com/comment/920793#comment-920793
Terrorism requires a
Terrorism requires a political motive. So you yourself have discovered this motive which the police somehow haven't yet? What is it?
Alternatively
It's appalling that we allow basically anyone people to pilot 2000+ lb vehicles with almost no credentialing or training. In what other aspect of our lives do we have such leverage to cause mass destruction? I guess there's guns, too. Not much else.
My point here isn't so much "ban cars" as I'm not sure that the wall is supposed to stand up to an intentional attack by a large machine.
I agree with your sentiment
But if you're designing a parking garage for passenger cars, you should design such that a common passenger car hitting the wall adjacent to a parking spot doesn't result in catastrophic failure.
Should things be designed...
...to accommodate someone who accelerates into a wall, going (say) 60 mph at the time of impact? (Not sure THIS car was going that fast, however). Clearly not a case of simply bumping into a wall here.
Yes? Go look at tollbooth
Yes? Go look at tollbooth design. Cars traveling at 60+ miles an hour slamming into an occupied structure, by accident or otherwise, is a known safety engineering problem and something to design against.
Having seen how people drive
I am 95% certain that people bonk their cars into parking garage walls all the time and that there is not significant structural damage as a result.
My 5% uncertainty comes from 1) not having spent a lot of time in parking garages (maybe they are often doing repairs that I don't see?) and 2) not being sure how much the concrete blocks at the front of those spaces prevent collisions with the wall, or how common they even are.
The driver is the problem
Not the method or design of construction.
You got any depressed but creative individual, they’ll figure out a way to kill themselves for attention, no matter how you build anything.
Poorly maintained, not poorly
Poorly maintained, not poorly built. This station has been one of the most persistently neglected stations (and with the T turning deferred maintenance into an art form, that's saying something). Maybe as they investigate this they'll be forced to finally deal with it.
Talk about a bad driver...
Alewife is nowhere near Storrow Drive nor the Green Line...
EDIT: Ok, when the Green Line gets extended to 16, then it's kinda close to Alewife then...but otherwise my point stands.
There is video
100% certain, hence the cryptic “it was intentional.”
Or they talked to the driver
My guess is that this was an attempted suicide and they were able to determine that from talking with the driver. If it was an attempted terrorist act, as is suggested above, the driver would have been arrested and we would be hearing about nothing but this incident on the news.
Lite brites are a terrorist act
At least according to what happened with the mooninite scare.
I guess actual and very intentional damage at a transit station that could result in mass murder isn't seen as terrorism if it involves a car and a good story?
Oh come on
You seem to be under the impression that suicide by car is the only method of committing suicide that has the potential to harm others. Let me disabuse you of that notion. A pilot flew an entire plane full of people into a mountain. It was not "terrorism", it was suicide.