Sunday, February 11, 2007

Back to the Future on T bus #502



Teddy blogs about being advanced in time by the T to the year 2026
After a mad sprint over the Charles River Bridge and across Nonantum Road, I made it onto the 502 bus just before it was time for it to pull away from the Bus Stop. Little did I know that by catching that bus I was going to be traveling nineteen years into the future as the display on the front of the bus promptly informed me that the year was 2026. I am happy to report that in the year 2026 the Moonites have yet to destroy Boston.
meanwhile "Single Girl in the City" had a Charlie like experience where she couldn't get off of her train
I'm not sure what angers me more. The fact that the train so arbitrarily decided not to stop at my stop, or the fact that "driver" of the second car made no attempt to apologize or offer explanation. Instead, we were told "Ain't my problem, I'm not the one drivin' the train."


Tonight I was on a #66 bus that blew through Coolidge Corner without stopping because the driver said "I'm running late, there is another bus behind me." When I got off just before Harvard Square I grabbed a coffee at Dunkin Donuts on JFK St and watched to see how soon the next bus would arrive. It was 24 minutes.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When the new Breda trains first returned to the B line, I had a similar experience to the one detailed by single-girl-in-the-city, but had a much more pleasant driver. When I asked him why they skipped my stop despite the fact that I'd pushed the request, he told me that in the new trains, the driver of the first car isn't alerted to a stop request from the second car. At low-peak hours when they only stop as requested, this would mean they'd actually only stop if a passenger in the first car requested it.

I never followed up further to find out if this was really true and doubt the T would have confirmed it anyway, but I've always suspected it might be given how flawed those trains seem to be in all other ways.

Anonymous said...

It would be easy to test if that's the problem. Just ride with a friend, synchronize your watches, and plan for one of you to ring the bell in the second car at a certain time, while the other watches for it in the first car.

(Unless, of course, it just alerts the first driver without lighting up the passenger display.)

Ron Newman said...

or, since these are above-ground stops, forget the watches and just talk to each other on cellphones.