Assembled in the USA from 100% Chinese parts.

One irrational fear I have when passing under an elevated track is that something will fall on me.

I suppose perhaps it's not that irrational?

65th Street and Roosevelt Avenue, Woodside, Queens, underneath the 7 train, this afternoon:

Gothamist says it's scrap from earlier construction work.
From http://gothamist.com/2019/02/21/final_destination_7_train_queens.php:

Transit reporter Aaron Gordon noted on Twitter, "A source tells me the wood is from the girders that support the tracks, not the track or trackbed itself. The wood was probably scrap not properly secured. The tracks have been determined as safe for use."

Less than a week ago, another sizable piece of wood fell, narrowly missing someone, that time inside the Bedford Avenue station for the L train. From Gothamist again (http://gothamist.com/2019/02/15/what_the_l_falling_plywood_version.php?fbclid=IwAR2rw-dpn6QST8vZwZRctTMaScwYG_XV-RnokyXfo-3WOaJxgBSu00gLFTY#photo-1):

She added, "It looked like a pretty solid piece of plywood. It made a huge bang. We all started running because there was a big dust cloud from the plaster. When the dust settled I was talking to people around me and they said it was maybe five inches from hitting me. I’m pretty sure a piece of rebar hit me but I was wearing a winter jacket."

I'd have thought after that the MTA might be looking to secure things that might fall, but maybe they were just checking inside stations.

It's a big system. But I think maybe my fear isn't that irrational?

There is a car stuck at a level crossing on the Fitchburg Line between Porter Square and Belmont, so services on the line have stopped until the car can be towed off the track.

I went to the MBTA's public outreach meeting on the new fare collection system Tuesday. There were many details, some of which are being discussed on my earlier post.

One important detail is that cash will no longer be accepted on board any vehicles, either for fare payment or topping up the balance on a CharlieCard. The proposal includes a rollout of more ticket vending machines and more third-party vendors.

They offered a website for suggestions on where new machines should go. That site is: http://gisdev.massdot.state.ma.us/planning/proposedafclocations/

(The URL they gave at the meeting was actually www.mbta.com/AFC2-locations, but it redirects to the above.)

So if you want to tell the T you want a machine near you, this is a chance to say so.

Edit to add: Here is the text from the suggestion website.

"As part of the MBTA’s new Charlie fare collection system rolling out in 2020, we will be installing fare vending machines (kiosks) at some bus stops and partnering with businesses to vastly increase the locations where people can add money to their MBTA transit account. In addition to these locations you can add money online and then tap your new Charlie Card, smartphone or credit card to board. Riders won’t be able to add cash onboard buses and trains in the new system, so we want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to reload their account in convenient locations.

This feedback tool allows you to give input directly to the MBTA on where you think it’s most important to have the fare vending machines or retail locations. Zoom into the map to see the locations of our current fare vending machines (yellow flags). The new system will include all of these locations, in addition to hundreds of new locations. Please select “Propose New Fare Vending Location” to add a pin for the locations you propose. You can also agree with locations already proposed by selecting them from the list and clicking “I Agree”. For more information about the project please visit our website https://www.mbta.com/afc2"

I took a photo of the ticket so people would know what it looked like.
This weekend was the first weekend of the MBTA's new $10 weekend fare. For ten dollars you can ride Greater Boston's commuter rail network as much as you like.

This weekend we already had a commuter rail trip planned. This $10 weekend ticket was the price of a single one-way ticket to our destination at normal prices, so it really made sense for us to buy the unlimited-ride ticket.

The pictured ticket is the one you get if you buy one at the staffed ticket window at North, South, or Back Bay stations. You can also buy one on board the train, but that one is only valid for the weekend you buy it, whereas the pre-printed ticket can be bought in advance and validated on the weekend you want to use it. This ticket is also available through the MBTA commuter rail mobile app, but I don't know what the restrictions are for that ticket.

Some conductors on board the trains were being proactive and telling people about the weekend ticket, but not all of them. For some people the $10 weekend ticket was less than the normal one-way fare to their destination so it really would have been a no-brainer.

By the end of the weekend I'd taken five rides on commuter rail, which works out to $2 a ride. Less than a ride on the T's urban rail lines! Quite a good deal.

My favorite public transport app, Citymapper, added coverage of Moscow today.

After a brief bit of testing and poking at it on my Android device my only complaint so far is that while they have integrated metro, bus, trolleybus, tram, elektrichka, and even bikeshare data, they apparently have not included the Aeroexpress rail services to the three major airports.

Attention digitalemur. :)

Because our cities think bar and restaurant workers should take ride-sharing services, Washington DC joins Boston in ending late-night weekend service.

Unlike other nearby cities whose transit authorities provide overnight bus services when their rail transit stops, there are no replacement buses for this closure.

(Don't even talk to me about New York. They're clearly out of our league.)

Sad but true, not just for BART but for all the rapid transit systems in America.

(h/t Marcia)

I created a twitter account and followed 140 transit agency alert feeds from around the English-speaking world. On a winter day like today the tweets come thick and fast. Here are the tweets from the last half hour, as I cut and paste:
( lots of tweets )

Working in Pharamond's office must be like this.

To me it's sobering knowing that all these people in all these places are keeping all these systems running, all at the same time. These are just the English-speaking announcements in the piece of the planet which is currently at work--the British Isles, South Africa, and the Northeast of North America--Australia and Asia are off-peak, and the west coast of North America is just getting started. And it doesn't include the transit authorities who don't bother tweeting.

Back when that little scene with the travel god was written I'm guessing no one really thought what it would be like to amalgamate the alert feeds of all these transit providers. Now I can point and click and put together a feed in minutes.

It's strange living in the future.

From a great (but long) piece by Michael Pettis exhaustively discussing the economics behind transit fares and placing the question in the context of the Chinese development model:

For those who don’t know Beijing well, when I first moved here in 2002 the city was poorly served by its subway system. This huge and sprawling city only had two lines, one running along Chang’an jie, often called the “Champs-Elysées” of Beijing, which runs east-west through Tiananmen Square, and the other circling around the inner city where the old city walls used to be before they were knocked down – in the 1960s I think – below what is now the Second Ring Road.

Since then, and especially during the build-up to the Olympics in 2008, the city has exploded with subway lines so that Beijing has become, in my opinion, one of the best served cities in the world for its subway system. The outer districts of the city are not well-served by subway (although there are plenty of buses) but, within the city proper, getting around by subway is very easy and fairly quick, including all the way out to the Wudaokou District, where China’s two most famous universities, Peking University and Tsinghua University, as well as many famous and less famous schools, are located. I do most of my travel within the city by bicycle or taxi, but for longer trips I usually take the subway, from my home or office to the university, for example, because traffic in Beijing can be terrible and almost always takes a lot longer than the subway.

The real problem with driving I Beijing, by the way, is not just the traffic jams, but mainly the uncertainty about how long it can take to get anywhere. In Mexico, it seems to me, the traffic is horrible but predictable, so that you are pretty sure that you will be 45 minutes late for every meeting. In fact during my days as a Wall Street debt trader whenever I was in Mexico and arrived at a senior government official’s office fifteen minutes late, instead of apologizing profusely for being late I felt I had to apologize profusely for coming early. The secretary inevitably looked shocked and no one was prepared to meet me.

In Beijing, on the other hand, I have arrived at meetings anywhere from 20 minutes early to one hour late. It is really hard to predict how long a car trip might take. This makes the subway hugely valuable because you can usually time your trip to within 5-10 minutes.

As an aside, in Beijing someone as “important” as a PKU professor like me shouldn’t take the subway. It is low status. If you see a middle-aged well-dressed person on the subway (not that I am ever well-dressed) he is almost certain to be foreign. Two weeks ago for example I had been asked to join two very wealthy Chinese – one a billionaire, I think – for coffee. When I got up to leave to get to my class, one of them very kindly said he would have his chauffer pick me up immediately and take me to Peking University. When I thanked him and told him I didn’t really have time to take a car and would have to take the subway, both of them shot me shocked glances, and one of them even commented on my dedication.

This whole idea of transit being only for people who can't afford a car isn't just an American thing. It annoys me no end personally, but I get that this really is a popular sentiment in many parts of the world.

(earthling177, I thought of you when I read his article. Prof. Pettis goes into detail about many points we've talked about: who wins and who loses from a flat fare vs. fares by distance, what considerations go into a minimum fare, and so forth.)

It occurs to me that I haven't yet tried to put money on my card.

From @Ventrachicago:

With #Ventra's convenient vending machines you can check your balance, add value, or smash your head against the side until you pass out!

Ut-oh.