The MBTA Bake Sale

This took place today, in front of the State House.  I saw the story on the WBZ 5PM news, no video on the website that I could find, though.

Now, I can see these people being upset over potential T fare hikes.  But one of the people who was at this bake sale was shown on the news video saying that “Six cents is not enough!”  What she was referring to was Governor Deval Patrick’s proposal to raise the gasoline tax here in Massachusetts by 19 cents per gallon.  Six cents of that would go to the MBTA.

So what is it that people like that woman want?  Do they want more of the 19 cents per gallon to go to the T, so that THEY won’t have to pay more?  Or do they expect the governor to go for an even higher gas tax increase, just so they don’t have to deal with a fare increase?

I don’t know, but I don’t like it.

If they think that taxing drivers is going to make them leave their cars parked and ride the T instead, they are sadly mistaken, at least when it comes to us.  We’ve pretty much given up on riding the T anywhere, mostly due to the fact that they are forever shutting down the stations on the Oak Grove end of the Orange Line (Malden Center and Oak Grove), kicking people off at Wellington.  A few times, we’ve tried to circumvent this by parking at Wellington, only to find that they decided to kick people off at Haymarket and be bused tothe other stations.

The reason we were paying $3.50 to park at a T station is that neither one of us can stand the buses.  We park at the T to avoid riding the buses.  I feel ripped off when we paid that fee, and are forced to ride shuttle buses anyway.  And whatever work they are doing on that end of the Orange Line never seems to get finished, they’ve been doing the busing thing on and off for over a dozen years now.  Even checking the MBTA website for updates does no good, the info given is never accurate.  usually they don’t tell you anything, you think it’s safe to park at Oak Grove…and then they kick you off at Wellington, anyway.

We’ve gone so far as to let our membership at the Museum of Fine Arts lapse, because driving there is too much hassle and parking is expensive…and we hate riding the T so much that we haven’t been to the MFA in years.

As I’ve said before, NOT owning a car is not an option for us.  Mike needs it to get to work, so he can pay all of those taxes that support other people’s wants and needs.  There is no public transit near his job, and getting another job isn’t an option, either.

Damn, but I HATE people who expect money for what they want to come from people who don’t even use the crap that they want.  I don’t think that one red cent of the gas tax hike should go to the T.  We don’t use it, why should we pay for it?  I might ride the T once in a great while, and if they want to raise the fares, no skin off my butt.  Ditto with the toll hikes…we hardly use the Mass Pike, when we do, paying a higher fare is no biggie.

What the gas tax hike needs to be paying for is stuff like fixing all of the damned potholes.  You can’t drive anywhere around here without hitting one.  The pothole problem has gotten even worse this year, due to more cold and snow than usual this winter.  So if we drivers must be taxed, use the money for that…why tax us to pay for the  that we won’t use, and then make us pay for new tires because we hit potholes that had not been fixed in years?  It just isn’t right.

Even if the gas tax hike passes, and the T gets its six cents on the gallon, don’t look for any improvements any time soon.  The service will still suck, they will still be doing the never-ending work between Wellington and Oak Grove, the buses and trains will still be dirty and skeevy, and won’t run on time.

Perhaps the T would not be so deeply in debt if some rocket scientist hadn’t come along and decided to do away with the old tokens and put in those damned Charlie card things.  How the hell much did that all cost, anyway?  I say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, all this did was make it more broken.  When they first installed these things, most of them didn’t even work properly.  This has since improved, but I still don’t find the things very user-friendly.  I’ve missed many a train or bus due to fighting with those stupid machines.

The T has been promising that we’d soon be able to *top-up* Charlie Cards online, to save time at the station, and so far, this has not happened.  So we have no choice but to fight with the stupid machines.

Or just say the hell with it all, and drive.  If we don’t use the service, I don’t see why we should be forced to pay for it.  I am sick and tired of whiny people who are forever trying to stick their hands in our wallets, and take, take, take, without giving us anything useful in return.

I say that we go for Tim For Treasurer’s plan for slot machines.  People are gonna gamble anyway, so they’d may as well just stay in state and do it.  No one is putting a gun to anyone’s head to force them to go to these slot parlors.  If Tim wants to make money for the state off of the stupid and irresponsible, well, that is far preferable than picking the pockets of responsible taxpayers.  Go Tim, I say, and if he wants to run for governor, I might just vote for him!