... because that was the color used to denote roads under construction.  In fact, when plans for the I-476 Mid-County Expressway were being drawn up, there were several route plans considered.  One identified by blue tape on a map was selected over three other choices: the Red Route, the Yellow Route, and the Green Route.  A complete article on the 21 mile connector can be found here complete with actual chronology of the construction effort.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Obviously, I should have been more specific. I MEANT "crossing the river not at the downtown junction".

Sure, if you live in Alewife/Somerville/Cambridge you can head downtown real fast (I used to love my Alewife to South Station commute, even pre-iPod). The Red Line is underground and awesome (except for those rare instances when it, you know, shuts down for no reason for about half an hour and the conductor doesn't tell you what's going on and you start to think some "Lord of the Flies" sort of thoughts). You can even make it to Braintree if you have an hour (but... WHY!?!?). However, try and get to Fenway, Boston University, Northeastern/MFA, Boston College in half an hour or less. That is what I meant by North/South (not the South East/North West route that the Red Line runs).

My complaint comes from living on Comm Ave in Brighton/Allston (in order to get to school) for three years, and having friends that lived in, say, Davis Square. That's about 4.3 miles, or 10 minutes by car (which we didn't often have), sans traffic of course.

We tried a cab once and it cost $30 (see traffic, supra). That is absurd. And when we did have a car, we'd be able to make it in about 15-20 minutes, but when we got home we'd search for parking sometimes for up to an hour (depending on the time, day of the week and season... as Brighton is completely overrun with the college kiddies Friday and Saturday nights from August to May each year). And I'd have bought a parking spot, but I don't have a trust fund, and I like all my organs.

We could take the above-ground monstrosity that is the Green Line, stopping at every light and then again at every other block to pick up lazy and/or drunk college kids, heading (slooooowly) all the way downtown, only to have to wait (often up to 30 minutes) to switch trains and take the ten minute trip to Davis. Overall, we clocked it multiple times taking us more than an hour and a half to get 4.3 miles.

And please don't even mention the busses. They're a joke in Boston. If they aren't half an hour late they're half an hour early and two busses are doing some sort of gas-wasting, traffic-inducing caravan of inefficiency.

Put it this way: I live in a different state now, and have a parking space of my own, so now I have a car. When I visit my friends in Boston it only takes me about 45 minutes to get there door-to-door, sometimes even stopping for gas/snacks. That is about half the time it used to take WHEN I LIVED IN THE SAME CITY!!! I live 54.3 miles away from them now. That's an additional 50 miles! In half the time! (Note: I also pay less than half in rent, my parking is free, my utilities are paid for, and everything else (groceries, gas) are about 10% less - plus the people are super-nice(r)).

{ k }

We tried a cab once and it cost $30

Fortunately, the T is planning yet another fare hike.  They'll close this price gap soon, I'm sure.

</snark>

Bike is definitely the best way around Boston.  A decent bike will run you like $350, way less than the insurance bill for a car in Boston.

The 57 bus up and down Comm Ave beats the green line by about 10 minutes, and then you can switch at Kenmore where you have a 66% chance of catching a C or D line train instead of the B you passed in the bus (you did have a combo pass, right?) and get to Park street then wait for the red line.

I used to do this all the time, going from the Harvard Ave./Comm ave area (you know, near Blanchards) to Porter Square.  

When I wanted to go to Harvard Square, the 66 bus could get me there in the same time as a car, since my waiting time for the bus equalled or was less than trying to park. I often walked, as it was only a couple miles. The 66 also took me to work in the Longwood Medical area.

I actually can't imagine complaining about the public transit in Boston.  I've never seen better.  Moving out to the 'burbs might work for you.  Fine.  Density means moving a little slower, and as long as I'm not stuck behind the wheel of a car, that's OK with me.  

I moved to Seattle recently.  I like walking to the super market, a dozen restaurants, being within three miles of 5 nice playgrounds for my daughter, plus the zoo.

...Dwayne was hoping that he would pay exactly the right amount of attention to Francine's clitoris.

1. I bought a skateboard (hybrid length) instead of a bike. It was a little easier to fit in my locker than a Schwinn. Plus, a skateboard is "cool" and "punk rock" (I had always wanted to learn how to use one, and it was really my last chance to act like a twelve year old).

2. Of course, neither a bike nor a skateboard was useful in the long, slushy New England winter - particularly because Boston drivers drive like they are on crack laced with more crack, and the sidewalks aren't cleared off for seven months of the year, so I'd walk to school and make my friends drive to visit me on the weekends (I'm a dick, I guess). Or, most often, we'd meet up downtown.

3. As for complaining about the T... I HATE HATE HATE the Green Line, and any rational person who is forced to use it does, too. Particularly when you have to stand out in the snow and rain under absolutely NO COVERAGE to catch a disease-infested, screeching, crawl-mobile. I've used RIPTA, the NY Subway and the DC Metro, and with the exception of the Red Line, the MBTA system isn't the best of anything compared to each of those systems. So, yes, 1/4 of the MBTA rocks, but that only really helps 1/4 of the Boston public (or, alternatively, 100% of the public, but only 1/4 of the time).

4. The 57 (or the old A Line, as I remember it), is good for getting to where the A Line went, but not really for people who live past Packard's Corner (the Super 88) on Comm Ave. For instance,  I couldn't pick it up until I had already walked half-way to school, and I wasn't going to pay $1.50 for the rest of the walk. The only good North/South bus in the area I lived in was the 66 (or the 666, as my wife called it). Its sporadic-osity (sporadic-ness?) knew no bounds, often taking up to an hour and a half to show up, despite its alleged "every ten minutes" schedule.

5. The only time I ever bought a combo pass was the year I lived on route 9 and had to take a bus (the 69, I think) to Kenmore to take the Green Line to Park to take the Red Line to South Station to walk a mile to work. That SUCKED.

6. I too love walking around my new hometown (of Providence). A mile each way to work and I've gotten through the whole city! And every once in a while I'll come home and be sitting on the sofa, reading a comic book or watching a movie (at a reasonable volume!), and it'll occur to me that I won't ever be accosted by the evil screeching of the wheels of the T again. And I smile, and sigh contentedly, like a little girl in love.

Going South on the Redline is the fastest trip on the T.  On my bike I could get around downtown, and the north and West suburbs faster than the T most of the time.  In fact, at rush hour the bike was faster than driving.  But the redline into the south suburbs covers a lot of ground very fast, it's tough to beat.

Though parking a car in Dorchester was a lot easier than parking in Allston, and you're less likely to get randomly vandalized there.

...Dwayne was hoping that he would pay exactly the right amount of attention to Francine's clitoris.

koos, relax. I was just riffing on David's digression. Woefully inaccurate statistics I'll cop to -- but that won't stop my weird sense of humor from considering setting up BigDigBodyCount.net.

If you do it, don't forget the "stickers" with realtime update counters... you never know when another 12 ton concrete ceiling will fall on someone, and your legions of fans will want to know immediately.  I'd put one in my LJ info.

Humorless. Cretinous. What'd you expect?

AWE INSPIRING.

{ k }

PS:: you still want that CD?

koos, I most certainly do want that CD. And now that my own PC woes are over (stupid faulty motherboard), I can get one to you in return. I'll look for you in chat, and we can trade mailing info there.

Side note to Ozymandias: I should have the CD I promised you in the mail tomorrow, 7/20.

I think there's a bug in TnT that causes lame private messages to show up in threads...

"Look, I'm drafting in the middle of the peleton for three hours!"

And yet, my father-in-law can watch, rapt and excited, every damn night.

AND HE DOESN'T EVEN OWN A BIKE!!!

{ k }

well, the tour is not really the place to look for bike punks (although today's ride by landis was a thing to behold). you gotta go to the source: bike messengers. and if you still want to throw in the competitive racing factor, there is the beauty that is the alleycat (which is a race that relies on the skills of the bike messenger and could be described as a no-holds-barred scavenger hunt on a bike). boston had a big one this past weekend (results here), as did central connecticut, the weekend long "kings of new england alleycat" (i might add that i came in 5th and had an enormous amount of fun).

the artist formerly known as debutante

Congrats.

I would have loved to do a Boston Allycat, but I wasn't hooked up into the scene so much when I was there.  I don't know how out-of-towners even compete, given the peculiarities of Boston's streets.

Now I have a child, and fear death or maiming a lot more.  Plus I live in Seattle which has many more hills.

...Dwayne was hoping that he would pay exactly the right amount of attention to Francine's clitoris.