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PainLain
| 9.25.2004
Anyone who uses the Mass Pike enough knows that The Fast Lane should be renamed “The Pain Lane”. This joins other public works blunders such as “The Big Ditch” and The MBTA (Mass Bay Tunnel (not transit) Authority). Maybe I’m over expecting but I thought the idea behind an “express or fast lane” was just that, fast and simple. Not so. The concept is great but Massachusetts’s execution is embarrassing. Let me explain how it should work.
Go to Denver, NYC, LA and their version of “The Fast Lane” is truly an efficient, time saving event. Maybe I’m gently retarded when it comes to Public Works process and strategy but isn’t the main idea to keep traffic moving at full speed in a dedicated lane? In Boston, your regular travel lane automatically turns into a “Fast Lane” 100 yards prior with no early signage systems. The result is hundreds of cars cutting each other off in a lane jockeying frenzy. Cash-only cars getting out of fast pass lanes and visa-versa. To add insult to injury, you must slow down to 5 MPH when going through the detectors only to once again, jockey again on the other side of the toll to get back into the correct lane.
The whole prepayment process is screwed up as well. One would think that giving a debit or credit card number and having your tolls deducted would be simple enough. We all have auto deduction transactions such as health club fees, student loans, etc. Why is it that Turnpike Authority wants you to send in a check and have you work toward deducting from it rather than just pulling from a debit or credit card every month. Then there wouldn’t be a need to keep sending in checks, usage would probably go up and there wouldn’t be a need for that annoying yellow light that says “low balance.”
The subway authority is even stranger. Boston’s idea of an “Express Train” is a train that is does not to stop for 4-5 continuous stops but slows down to 2 MPH while passing through those stops (slow enough for even a grandmother to jump on/off safely if they opened the doors). And did I mention that it’s not on a dedicated track? So the train is still in traffic (behind 6-10 non-express trains), and often stands by at non-designated stations for several minutes but won’t open the doors. So people on the platform don’t understand why there is this train sitting there that won’t let people on or off. So they start thinking there is something wrong and looking for emergency personnel…
posted at 10:32 AM
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