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Who knew? You're not supposed to eat on the T, and don't you dare uncover that Dunk's cup
By adamg on Mon, 05/08/2023 - 12:31pm
Back in the day, you could buy popcorn on the Green Line, but these days, with everybody on a hair trigger and their last nerve, the T now tells us you're not supposed to eat on the train or bus.
Gosh, why would they decide to tell us that today? It's certainly food for thought. In any case:
As a courtesy to your fellow riders & to help keep the T clean, please avoid eating or drinking while on vehicles & in stations. Keep your food & drinks in closed containers & dispose of any trash in the proper receptacles.
They then refer us to their list of Prohibited Activities and Items, which is online, so you know it's true, and which states in black and white:
Food and drink must remain in closed containers. Please be considerate and avoid eating or drinking on MBTA vehicles and in stations.
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Comments
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Why in the world would anyone WANT to eat on the T? Smarten up, folks.
Many reasons...
1. They're in a rush and don't have time to eat first.
2. They need water to stay hydrated (although common sense could make this an exception, but I don't know...)
3. The train is so borked up that they migth as well.
That being said, at least people shouold be kind enough to take their trash out with them, and THAT is what causes the messes...Along with being clumsy with coffee, of course.
Washington, DC's Metro (WMATA) used to have a strict policy on this. I say used to because when I visited them last October, they weren't enforcing it, either.
The MBTA doesn't have rules
At best they have suggestions.
No smoking
No eating
No fare Jumping
No sleeping
No blocking bus aisles
No parking in bus stops
No fighting
No shooting up
No smashing train windows
No Graffiti
No weapons
No walking on tracks
Since no one enforces the rules no one feels safe riding the T
Most of those are covered by
Most of those are covered by one-off laws, or are generally illegal whether or not you're on the T, such as breaking or spray painting things. A supposed ban on eating has nothing to back it up.
What about driving on the
What about driving on the tracks? Are we still allowed to do that. /s
eating on T
In some other states they will not even let you get on their public transportation with food. they make you throw it out!!
Where's Fawn Hall when you need her?
We need to launch a massive protest over this injustice, and I think that Fawn Hall is just the right person to lead it for us!
I’ll eat a banana on the Blue Line ….
…. in solidarity… if I can manage to squeeze on a car.
Back in the early 2000s
Back in the early 2000s I sueht more time in DC then I do now and it was surreal riding the trains down there. A big reason was the zero tolerance for food on the train. A kid got arrested for eating a french dry, in 2004 a woman got arrested for eating a candy bar. She was pregnant. She was approaching the turn style , was told to finish the bar before entering so she stuffed it in her mouth and came through but apparently since she was still chewing it they gave her a hard time, she talked back, they detained her for three hours. She wasn't even just some random person, she worked for the EPA.
It was very clean down there but something about kids getting arrested for eating a fry and pregnant ladies getting arrested for chewing a candy bar turns me off from wanting to go down that road.
Boy Scout Trip to DC
Our tour guide got a ticket for jaywalking.
Being from Boston, we had no idea what that was.
DC can be weird.
I can't imagine getting a
I can't imagine getting a ticket for jaywalking in DC. They have more than enough crime to keep themselves busy instead of harassing someone who crossed at the middle the road. Jaywalking is part of our daily commute here.
It was that way on the busses too.
Before they had a metro. Big signs posted behind the driver. No compassion for the hungry.
Not a social justice issue
I'm sorry, but people keep trying to turn this into some kind of social justice issue and it simply is not. "No compassion for the hungry", "poor oppressed people going from day job to night job with not one second or opportunity to eat any single other place except the T", etc, etc.
If you ride the T on a daily basis like me you will see that people are eating on the T simply because they feel like it and are satisfying their whims with little regard to fellow passengers, the same as the people who put on makeup, floss their teeth and cut their toenails on the T. These are not desperate people who just came upon an oasis in the desert after days of hunger. A little decorum is what is called for.
You're taking me back
In high school, I used to make a special trip to Government Center to grab some popcorn from the stand on the Green Line platform.
I don't see this really working. Unlike DC, people have been eating and drinking things on the T for decades. Unless they want to start fining people and dealing with the inevitable backlash, it's best to leave well enough alone.
it's best to leave well
Now that's a misbehavior combating strategy.
It's the broken windows strategy
And I'm going to leave it up to you to track down critiques of zero tolerance approaches to law enforcement.
I'd say that if the T wants to concentrate on things like fare evasion and smoking on T vehicles and in stations, that might be enough for people. Again, food is sold at train stations, so it's kind of entrapment.
Well said.
I’d love it if they could put an end to smoking on the T and T platforms. I can live with the rest.
That's always been true!
The most amusing thing here is that folks seem to think it's reasonable to eat, listen to music without headphones, smoke, and do all manner of things that are hostile to their fellow riders.
The key here? Absolute lack of enforcement of any of these long standing rules. Including directly in front of the T police.
I challenge you to find a moment in which someone is NOT smoking at Sullivan Square, for example.
If I had to guess
I'd say they want to discourage rodents from taking up residence in stations and tunnels.
Rodents
There was a rat on the Orange Line this morning. Could of been someone's escaped pet. White and brown, not the usual dark grey kind.
That might have been Scabbers
That might have been Scabbers!
Rodents on the T?
They have lived in the tunnels for decades. Spend some time at Park Street Under, looking at the Red Line tracks. At first, it will look like the track ballast is moving, but once your eyes focus, you'll see all manner of little critters crawling around down there.
That's crazy talk!
That's crazy talk!
Charlie had to live on sandwiches that his wife handed to him through the window. Eating on Boston mass transit is a tradition!
“Please” and “avoid”.
Not very strong words.
Phew! Charlie in the MTA can still eat his sandwich.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure
Meanwhile, the infrastructure is falling apart around us.
I had posted that photo a few months back of the orange line seat with Corn Pops and Natty Daddy with a side of tuna. I don't eat on the train but sometimes I have a can with me after work.
They also don't enforce fare evasion so how much can we expect from this?
As previously mentioned...
Are any of you UHub readers old enough to remember when there was a food vendor along the wall where the Green Line trolleys are, right where you go to walk from Park St. to Downtown Crossing stations? The vendor sold real hamburgers, cooked right there on site. Other hot foods as well. I don't recall if I ate there, it was 45 or so years ago, but I vividly remember a bottle of ketchup on the counter that attracted a poor indigent soul to it. The old guy picked up the bottle and started sucking out of it, getting a little relief, put the cap back on and placed it back on the counter.
Would've been better off just putting the bottle in his pocket and walking away. Yuck!
"Quik Lunch"
That was Quick Lunch. They had slices of pizza for 25 cents each, kept warm with heat lamps. It was probably awful, but as a 12 year old going to Boston Latin in the early 70s, I loved it.
Nah
I'm not going to eat my dinner on the T, but when they make me stand up on the bus for an hour in the blazing sun, I reserve the right to drink from my water bottle, and if they don't like it they can go pound sand.
Revenue Enhancement and Rat Control
We should study the cattle industry, specifically feeder breeder operations. There could be a Charlie's Rat on a Stick stand at every station. Hungry patrons could be allowed to eat sanctioned rat snacks only, while the T profits from a readily available free supply of meat, and controls the population.
No exception for medical necessity?
Most diabetics I know carry some glucose (candy, skittles, juice boxes) in case they have a low blood sugar. When a low occurs it's important to treat it right away. I would hope no T official would interfere.
Skittles are a type of candy.
Skittles are a type of candy.
Yes and many T1D people use
Yes and many T1D people use them for low blood sugars. The way they are processed makes their sugar readily absorbed quickly. They are cheap and portable.
When the MBTA can guarantee a reasonable ride from point A
to point B without being stuck on a defunct train car for 90 minutes, I'll promise not to sip some water or eat a granola bar.
They are in no position to post rules for the tax payer ridership, when their own senior staff making $200k + are walking away with millions of dollars of our money in the form of copper, etc.
It's gaslighting, and a way to distract the public from their own inability to police themselves!
I call BS on that!
A rule against drinking from
A rule against drinking from a water bottle or hot drink cup while waiting for the green line on an outdoor platform feels unreasonable.
I'm masking while on the bus or train, so won't be eating or drinking there anyway. But I'm not masking while I stand on a painted yellow stripe on Commonwealth Avenue, or a narrow platform with no seats and almost no shelter from the rain, wondering where the trolley is.
But don't they sell food in some stations?
There's a DD at Alewife and Harvard. Where do they think people eat especially when there are no tables to sit at?
Some stations have vendors that sell food
Park Street upper has a vendor who sells candy. So too, Government Station lower. Am I taking crazy pills?
More than candy
Empanadas and patties too, or at least they used to. The vendor at Alewife has full-on meals for sale (microwaved but still). Yeah you can argue that people get them when they're headed home, but come on.
(if they try to ban that vendor I will be angry. That woman is a real sweetheart)
Why should Mike's Donuts
Why should Mike's Donuts small hard working wonderful people suffer because slobs and temper tantrum jerks don't know to act with grace in public??
Mike's is the best
Daily routine for me.
What do they when it happens
What do they when it happens on an aircraft? Wow. Wait. I just had a thought that nightmares are made of. What if the MBTA had it's own "all new" airline ?
They do.
It's called Spirit.
Vendors
Well, what do we do about all the vendors who are STILL selling food and drink inside T stations and even on platforms?
Yes, the Dunks in the main lobby of Harvard station closed (quite suddenly) a few months ago. But there are others.
There is a vendor on the northbound Red Line platform who sells a variety of food, including Jamaican beef patties. He was still there as of a week or two ago.
There's also a Jamaican beef
There's also a Jamaican beef patty stand at Forest Hills.
A tweet is not an official regulation. Neither is polite language on a website. Transit systems that do things properly have codified regulations backed up by laws that allow them to be enforced.