[bscb-l] How do you navigate the green line with the noisy fans?

[Alison]

Alice is apparently still angry after over a year simply because I have a different opinion than hers.  Note that although making stop announcements doesn't cost money, it does in fact cost a lot of money to make sure all the intercom systems are working so you can hear the announcements (maintenance costs money).  Since Alice assumes the MBTA to be some malicious organization that is simply refusing to announce stops out of laziness or whatever, Alice is demonstrating the problem here: many of us are unwilling even to listen to the MBTA's real problems because we are too busy complaining about things we want and railing against paper dragons in our minds (not to mention refusing to do our part financially to keep the MBTA in business).  Let's all take a moment to stop hating the MBTA so much and start finding ways to contribute to a service that does a lot of good for us.

PS:  The loudest fans at Park Street are the ones that run the A.C. on the trains, not the big floor fans in the station.



----- Original Message -----
From: "alice dampman humel" <alicedh at verizon.net>
To: "Bay state (Massachusetts) discussion list" <bscb-l at acb.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 7:05:54 AM
Subject: Re: [bscb-l] How do you navigate the green line with the noisy fans?

Alison,
    Stilll on this hobby horse, eh?
    Whether or not blind people ride for free or not is 
completely immaterial. Making stop announcements doesn't cost 
anything. Announcing when the green line trains are arriving or 
departing on a different track does not cost a penny. Not running 
those loud, obnoxious fans that, as far as I can tell, do nothing 
but circulate hot air would actually save a few pennies.
    The T is in a budget crisis because they waste and squander 
millions of dollars on nonessential things like the whole 
ridiculously expensive, inefficient and unnecessarily convaluted 
Charlie card system.
    Additionally, we live in a society that does not value mass 
transit, nor does it adequately fund it. If the general 
transportation authority would siphon off some nice chunk of the 
money it spends on accommodations for private automobiles and 
drivers, the T would be in much better shape. To illustrate this 
point, I show you Europe and most of the rest of the world that 
runs mass transit and does recognize its value, funds it, and 
makes it a viable, efficient and even attractive alternative to 
the private automobile.
    And, furthermore, the T's accommodations for other 
disabilities also leave much to be desired, and they are, 
according to you, paying a fare. So why has the T consistently 
been so half-assed about the accommodations it provides?
    So while we will never agree about this fare issue, and I, at 
least, accept that, I really can't sit idly by and allow you to 
slip this issue in the back door as some kind of bogus 
explanation for why the bus drivers can't make stop 
announcements. But while we're on the disputed issue, I suggest 
that you pay two fares, one for yourself and one for one of us 
who gratefully accept this financial accommodation the T has 
freely granted blind people. As far as BSCB making a contribution 
to the T, well, IMO, that's just plain silly. But I repeat, 
that's just my opinion.
alice
alicedh at verizon.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alison" <alison2911 at comcast.net>
To: "Bay state (Massachusetts) discussion list" <bscb-l at acb.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 11:10 PM
Subject: Re: [bscb-l] How do you navigate the green line with the 
noisy fans?


...and they also still pull up the trains wherever they want 
(often not in the right place) at Park Street and they don't 
always announce when they're doing this, so it's very easy to get 
on the wrong westbound green line train at park street even if 
there are no fans running. And all of the MBTA buses and trains 
still only announce stops sporadically, so you can't rely on the 
announcements the way you should anyway.

The MBTA's accommodations for visually impaired people are just 
for show--they're not consistently available enough to be 
reliable.  But as long as blind people insist on paying 
absolutely nothing to ride the MBTA (even though all other 
disabled people do have to pay at least something), then we 
cannot expect any better from the MBTA because how are they going 
to pay to fix the problem of stop announcements if we're not 
willing to contribute even fifteen cents per ride?

The MBTA needs money very badly because their budget is being 
raided every year to pay for the Big Dig, etc.  We need to stop 
just complaining and start contributing.  Why can't BSCB make a 
donation to the MBTA?  We have plenty of money and the MBTA is a 
very valuable service for many of our members.

--Alison
----- Original Message -----
From: Nina Kagan <nina at littlebreezes.com>
To: bscb-l at acb.org
Sent: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:31:53 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: [bscb-l] How do you navigate the green line with the 
noisy fans?

Do others feel that the Boylston Street and Park Street subway 
stations
are extremely noisy and difficult to hear the train 
announcements?  In
the warm weather with the fans it is almost impossible to 
discriminate
between the different trains .  How do you hear the announcements 
if you
are not in the front of the station and not near the fans?  This 
is a
safety concern of mine and I want toknow if there is anything 
that BSCS
can do to alert the transportation board of this concern.



All th Best,

Nina Kagane


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