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Irony on the Green Line
By adamg on Sun, 10/13/2024 - 5:04pm
Michael Burstein notes the irony in MBTA ads showing a person in a wheelchair during National Disability Employment Awareness Month at Boylston station, which is inaccessible to people who actually use wheelchairs.
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Comments
Not the only inaccessible Green Line stop
despite what the tweet says. Hynes is much busier than Boylston and is also inaccessible. The new Lyrik development will help fix this, but more work needs to be done on the other side of Mass. Ave.
Also Symphony, and a whole
Also Symphony, and a whole lot of surface trolley stops.
Not to mention just about every bus stop.
Not because of design but because of non enforcement on no parking in bus stops.
Thank our state legislature for that :(
Our state legislators need to undo their ban on automated ticketing that prevents the T from punishing the people who park in bus lanes and bus stops.
This is incorrect
Parking violation cameras are legal. Moving violation cameras are not.
Otherside of Mass Ave
When the finally build over parcel 13 (the other side of Mass Ave @ Boylston, next to TJMaxx), it will have two new headhouses. The plans do not note any elevators but they are basic conceptual drawings and I would be very, very surprised if the T missed this opportunity to fix the ADA issues with this station considering MassDOT & The T the lots in this plan.
From the plans:
Ugly building tho:
From Mass Ave:
From Boylston:
Full Plans (Presentation)
Parcel 13 BPDA Site
Would it have made sense and saved money/time...
...to do all the neighboring air-rights parcels consecutively, while the heavy equipment was in place for what became the Lyrik/CitizenM project? If they ever get to work on this one and the one across Boylston bordering Dalton, won't they need all that stuff again?
Buckets of Money
Its all different buckets O money. Where there's a different bucket, a new construction team and crew are allocated.
I see your point, I've seen countless projects... naming water and gas line replacement on my street.. where they spent the entire summer digging up my street, where they could have dug it up once and did both projects at the same time. Instead, it was a mud road for most of the summer.
But it happens all the time. Just look at what's going on with the Gov't Center garage. They had the cash to tear it down and build one tower (State Street). But now they don't have the cash to build the other tower (the hotel). So the site is being cleaned up (and recently Congress opened up to traffic again). Who knows how long it will sit like that now.
We have basically another "Menino's Hole", Haymarket Edition.
It's about awareness
not necessarily actually fixing things. Awareness: It's All We Need.
Nailed it.
Nailed it.
How to make the MBTA more aware
Require every exec who drives to work to complete one random commute starting within 1/4 mile of an MBTA bus or train or commuter rail stop each month.
One of these commutes a year will randomly require chair use.
Let's see them roll in in January or February. Things will change.
Well if you know any of us
Well if you know any of us office workers those people you are talking about are our bosses and they do not leave their driveway to come in up to two days a week But they have access to email there. I blew the whistle and said it.
This
Is something my husband has said for decades now. I'd add waiting for a bus in a snow storm.
You're too kind
I've always felt that every T worker, except those whose duties require them to commute outside of T operational hours, should be required to take the T to work every day, and to cover all expenses thus incurred out of pocket. No free pass, no free parking. Make them do it like everyone else and see things turn around.
Of course this wouldn't magically fix capital budget shortfalls -- but if T workers at every level had the problems of the T in their faces, twice a day, five days a week, I think we would see just how many problems can be solved with the application of a little effort and common sense.
Change it to "state legislator" and I'm on board with this idea
The T is ultimately constrained by the budget structure the legislature screwed them over with.
Up for an initiative petition?
Make them pay full retail price for their parking, pay mileage only to the nearest MBTA station, and give them the highest level T pass.
I'd love to see the the pretzel contortions they would go to to keep this off the ballot.
Like, instead of putting an
Like, instead of putting an “accessible” icon next to every stop on the maps, add a super/sub-script with just exactly how accessible it is with a legend of what to expect at that stop.
Even at some of the so-called
Even at some of the so-called “accessible” stations the journey to the elevator is arduous. I wouldn’t say Downtown Crossing is “reasonably accessible” if you're connecting Red to Orange southbound.
Plus there’s not really good directional materials for getting to your connection, or to the street.
Ha! Those token public service ads on the commercial system the broke ass MBTA allowed in to prey on their captive audience of riders. Faugh! Of course there’s no support, or mechanism to spare us from this type of irony.
Winter is coming and lets note the number of points on the snowflakes in the winter service interruption awareness ads. It’s not six! Here we are in a science mecca and our school children see snowflakes have eight points five days a week. Pah! It’s either ignorance, or an aversion to six-pointed objects. This is probably my cynicism, but I wouldn’t put it past an ad agency, or focus group looking at their six-pointed snowflake and say, “You know, those really look like Jewish stars, do you think our client, or some of their constituents will be offended? Hmmm. Let’s play it safe. Why don’t we go for an artistic interpretation of a snow flake?
tell me
tell me that you haven't been to downtown crossing recently without telling me you've haven't been to downtown crossing recently.
They added two new elevators that connect the alewife bound red line and oak grove right next to the fare gates to the northbound platform. The elevators on the red line platform are in the walkway between lines. This was done in the last 5-ish years, I think.
This is a vast improvement to DTX station. Now to exit you just have to go to the opposite end of the orange line platform and use the elevator that is in front of the Millenium Tower. (It was refurbished also so its nice now). You no longer have to use the arch street building's elevator.
I agree the T has ways to go on accessibility but they are trying at least. I have/had a friend who works for the consulting firm that designs many of the newer 'infill' retrofit elevators in stations. I am told it's alot of out of the box thinking, but technologies have gotten better so mechanics need less space, so elevators can go into tighter spaces. Especially 1-2 floor elevators such was the new ones at DTX.
Boylston will be tricky, as adding an elevator also will trigger a station wide renovation. That station is untouched from the 1920s and any changes will require it to be redone. I also suspect that at the time we'll find out the final fate of the Pleasant Street incline as I fear any station remodel will remove the ability for that tunnel to be used for service again. (imho)
They said Red Line southbound to ….
…: Orange Line direction Forest Hills.
Which does not even have an escalator much less elevator that does not require a long walk and actually exiting the station and re-entering at another entrance. This is about as ridiculous as the non connection of the Silver Lines at South Station.
They can build a giant ugly eyesore of a building over South Station but cannot make what should be simple close subway connections for the disabled and weary.
When I have a heavy case I get off at Park, use the elevator and then roll down the underground passage to DTX to the Orange Line to Forest Hills.
If I’m wrong about this, please set me straight. It’s probably the most depressing and somehow tiring connection I do.
So
So what's this next to the AT&T Store. An elevator to the orange line. Then there's another one inside
https://maps.app.goo.gl/C6mWh4aNepshNQfa8
Thanks Lee. That is my
Thanks Lee. That is my understanding as well.
As you said, no escalator either. I only took the journey to the southbound RL to OL once and it put me beyond the fare gate.
I'm just kicking myself for not knowing there was a northbound OL to RL elevator installed. It’s like right there I should have realized it had to go to the northbound RL walkway. I don’t know how I missed seeing it for… how long?
Thanks.
I found the northbound OL to RL elevator a month ago. I had no clue they installed one. It’s great.
But southbound RL to OL I have my fingers crossed still. I still hobble up the stairs with my cane instead of taking the journey to the elevator.
Frelmont ...
Use the hint Lee posted above. Get off at Park (left side of train), walk to the very front, take elevator, walk passage to OL southbound. It's a hike but no stairs. Did that for years.
Boylston Green Line station
Boylston Green Line station is not on the list of stations that will be made fully accessible as part of the MBTA's Green Line Transformation Initiative.
https://www.mbta.com/projects/green-line-program
Scroll down to Levels of Transformation, then click on enhanced accessibility.