Yesterday, not three hours after I’d received my response from Route 66 director John J. Houghton regarding the bus that nearly hit me on Monday, I was again waiting at a red light on Harvard Avenue to cross Cambridge Street. As the light for Cambridge Street became yellow I put my foot on my pedal, and made ready to move. As  I watched the light turn red, my body exhibiting the intent to scoot out into the intersection at a moment’s notice, I became aware of a growing roar from my left, west on Cambridge Street. And then a sharp honk. Route 66 Bus #2294 (or 2293, it was going over 30 MPH so it was difficult to catch the number) not only roared through the intersection against a red light, but gave me warning that it had ABSOLUTELY NO INTENTION OF SLOWING OR STOPPING.

I realized after this that the MBTA deserves not just our disdain and our everlasting disappointment, but also our FEAR. The drivers of these buses are blatantly neglecting the safety of the citizens of the Boston area, and breaking the trust that we put in them to hold our lives in their hands every day, whether we are their passengers or merely sharing the roads with them.  I am disgusted by this neglectful behavior, having witnessed it daily for over a year on my route to work; having been hit by an MBTA bus while on my bicycle and then told by the driver that she was in no way required to provide me her information; having watched the green line proceed through intersections against car traffic that obviously had a green signal; having watched buses stop in the middle of the lane the entire length of their route to meet passengers, even though it is policy that they pull into each stop completely so traffic can get by.

I call for the bus driver who ran that red light yesterday at 5:10PM on Route 66, number 2294 or 2293, to be removed from service completely. To run a red light at speeds of 30 MPH and give warning shows premeditated disregard for traffic law, and a comfort with such acts that cannot be tolerated.

[Grimlocke],

Thank you for your e-mail concerning the route 66.  I apologize for reckless driving exhibited by one of our employees. MBTA Bus operators must complete a comprehensive Defensive Drivers Course prior to being certified to operate an MBTA vehicle in passenger service. This operator has been identified and will be re-instructed on her duties and responsibilities as a professional driver. Any further violations of the MBTA’s Rules and Policies will subject her to more severe progressive discipline up to and including recommendation for discharge. Additionally, I have forwarded your correspondence to the Instruction Department in order for them to include the intersection of Cambridge Street and Harvard Avenue in the Safety Related Compliance Program. This intersection will be monitored by Safety and Instruction personnel to ensure all traffic rules are strictly followed. Again, I apologize for your unpleasant experience with the MBTA.

Sincerely,

John J. Houghton

Superintendent

Cabot Garage

We’ll see if this has any effect whatsoever on how the busses treat that intersection in the coming months. I’ll keep reporting my observations.

In other news, Boston Biker reports on a meeting tomorrow regarding upcoming work on the Western Ave/River Street Bridges. Wednesday, February 3, 2010. 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM, Honan-Allston Branch Library, 300 North Harvard Street, Allston MA. This is of immediate interest to me today of all days because this will be the first week.. well – EVER -  that it would behoove me to use the River Street bridge, since I’ll be going to yoga in Inman Square. However, as bikers ’round this way know, River Street and Prospect Street are death traps of the highest caliber, and therefore I avoid them with extreme prejudice. I will probably opt instead for the BU bridge and Brookline/Colombia to reach Inman – taking me a bit out of my way for sure, but reducing the possibility of me becoming road pizza. Now, if the meeting tomorrow were about this entire route I would be VERY excited indeed. Alas, that is not on the agenda. I will probably pop in on my way home, but not for long. Yoga again tomorrow, you see.

So I’ve been looking at this website SeeClickFix, and it goes a long way to providing that ’see something, say something’ form that I’ve been talking about. And as you can see, you can put a Widget on your site! It’s mostly being used for potholes, but there is a great range of uses for a site like this – people are reporting bad traffic light situations, graffiti, awkward intersections. You can even upload photos! The question I have yet to answer is; just who is looking at this page? Who, with the ability to get any of these issues handled, monitors these complaints? If our reps haven’t seen this yet, you can bet I’ll bring it to their attention!

On a side note: another bus ran the red light at Harvard Ave./Cambridge St. this morning. Route 66 #2218. I’m about to call and report it right now but I don’t expect there to be anything done about it. Not until someone (else) dies.

“I think you should write a formal letter of complaint to the Mayor.”

Uh..  ohkay.

I also tend to call the police ALOT; I have the numbers for Brookline, Boston District 14, Downtown Boston, Cambridge and Somerville Police Departments in my phone contacts. No, I’m not calling about the kids on my lawn. I call about double parked cars, people threatening my life, people parked in the bike lane, etc. I asked the gentleman I was speaking to today what the best number to call to get someone  on the scene in a NON emergency (see: person parked in the bike lane) is, and he said,

“Just call 911 and tell them its not an emergency. If you call the police station we’ll have to call them anyway to get to dispatch.”

So… yeah. I guess I’ll be calling 911 a bunch in the near future, and hoping I don’t get yelled at if the offender decides to take the hint and pull out of the bike lane and into the night, leaving me standing there holding the phone, so to speak.

Remember when Kelly Wallace died at the intersection of Cambridge Street and Harvard Ave in May, 2007? Well, that almost happened to me just now, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who has almost gotten creamed at this intersection in the past 3 years. MBTA Bus number 0721 was stopped at the bottom of the hill, letting passengers off, during the green light for Cambridge Street. I was waiting at the light facing the entrance to Harvard Ave. Just after the change, the instant the light turned red for Cambridge and an instant before it turned green for Harvard, I was about to kick off; my left side was facing the bus stop, so I couldn’t even SEE the bus as it jammed on it’s gas and roared through the intersection; THROUGH the red light. The only thing that saved me from being underneath it was probably the extra weight in my panniers and on my body (lunch, breakfast, and three extra layers because it’s 13f out there today!) My slow start brought me only within a nose-brush of the side of Bus 0721. This is not an uncommon sight. Red light running through the Cambridge/Harvard Ave. intersection is the norm, rather than the exception.

Since I do see this every day, and someone has indeed died at this intersection in the last few years, I am anxious to have something done about this. The sooner the better, considering my still hammering heart after my own brush with death.

I will be adding a transcription of my calls to the MBTA and the BPD later on today, as I am in a marketing meeting at the moment.

UPDATE: Ooh, watch as I create an infinite blog loop… don’t get sucked in!

I called the MBTA, left all my information and my complaint. Here is my response:

We appreciate your business and value your feedback.  A customer service
issue was logged on 2010-01-29 at 15:05:13

A tracking number of 02117797 has been assigned to this call.  Please
reference this number on any additional communications you may have
regarding this issue.

The information you provided has been forwarded to the appropriate group.
If additional actions are required, a member from that department will
follow up on your issue.

Should you have additional questions or concerns regarding this issue,
please contact the Customer Support Services at 617-222-3200 or
800-392-6100, Monday through Friday ,6:30 AM to 8:00 PM and Sat/Sun from 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM.

Many thanks to folk at UHub for correcting my Harvard Ave/Street confusion – I work at the end where it’s called “Street”

Many middle fingers to the people who read the repost of my blog and wanted to make this a ‘bikers don’t follow the law’ issue. I was waiting at MY red light. I’m not going to rant about this now because frankly, it’s not worth it. A) you’re wrong, B) you’re a stool sample. End of story.

Just called the City of Boston transportation department, told them about my situation and this ongoing problem. This was their response:

“The city does not have any authority over the MBTA or it’s operations.”

INTERESTING.

I have no idea why this happened… or if it’s supposed to happen…

This is my first attempt at growing my own tobacco, and unfortunately the light table really wasn’t big enough to house as many plants as I wanted or get them as big as they need to be harvested. This means I’m going to have to transplant them to the garden some time in April so they can mature fully. I didn’t expect them to start wanting to have sex first! The flowers are sticky and smell like… tar, kinda. Not that great. But not terrible, either.  I wonder if I’ll get viable seeds out of this. Exciting!

Back when CanCan Revolution was in heavy rotation, our lovely Kitty Fox decided that we should incorporate Karaoke into our acts – we would create a playlist of songs that members of the audience could choose from, and we would act as back up dancers while they butchered these tunes. After CCR stopped performing due to other responsibilities, the idea lost it’s urgency. Last week at the Slutcracker cast party, Sugar Dish and her minions performed a kickass version of  ZZ Top’s ‘Sharp Dressed Man’, and brought it all back to me full force. I still want to get this going, possibly with Kitty and Violet, maybe with a mish-mash of Sluts. I personally wanted us to have a specific act for each song, but if we have a selection of, say, the top 50 most sung Karaoke songs of all time, that’s a shitload of dances to learn! So right now I’m in the process of amassing a list of 15-20 hot songs that are also theatrical, and well known to Friday Night Hams everywhere, so I can create quick and dirty productions to each of them.

The list begins..

1. Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart – One of the best karaoke love songs, this track was also one of the best loved songs of the 80s and was a former #1 Billboard hit. Also, this is hilarious… Literal Eclipse of the Heart
2. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – I Love Rock n Roll
3. Journey – Don’t Stop Believing
   
4. Meatloaf – Paradise by the Dashboard Light
5. The Police- Roxanne
6. Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer
   
7. The B52’s – Rock Lobster
   
8. Sir Mix-a-Lot – Baby Got Back
9. Big and Rich – Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy
10. Madonna – Like a Virgin
11. Styx – Mr. Roboto
12. Cyndi Lauper – She Bop
    
13. The Village People – YMCA
14. Depeche Mode – John The Revelator – I only picked this one because we already have props and a dance for it.. don’t know if they even offer it karaoke style.
15. The Weathergirls – It’s Raining Men

Ok… I think that’s about enough for now. I linked them all mostly as a reference for myself once I start creating choreography for each. The question is;  is it impractical to imagine having different choreography/props for each song, or should we really stick to canned dance moves and basic burlesque style outfit setup? And will people really be satisfied with only 15-20 songs to choose from, even if they are these fuckmazing songs? If we do go with the canned costume and dance scenario, should we include more songs? Will people be bored by that?

I also imagine people being shyer than usual to approach the stage, since it would be more of a spectacle, so I expect one of the dancers to be singing a few of the songs.

The idea of this is very exciting to me… I hope it comes to fruition.

In January, that is. God I hate the cold. It’s not that I don’t find it manageable to ride in – I have only taken the bus once this winter, and that was to the Slutcracker cast party, because I fully expected to be too drunk to ride (which is a feat in itself) and I wasn’t off with my prediction. It’s just that everything is so sloooowed doown and extra complicated. In May you can just throw your shoes on, slap your lock under your belt and GOGOGO to wherever, when ever. In january you have to check your temp wiget, find extra socks, locate your thermal shirt, whine about the fact that your face muffler is still soaked with boogers, Cat-Crap your goggles. etc etc etc… so not necessary. I mean, necessary, but not in any way acceptable. Grumble.

Last night I rode to Coolidge to be a Tip Monster for the production SHOW – a film, burlesque/drag extravaganza and book signing with local photographer and long-time PRC supporter Henry Horenstein. Haven’t gotten around to unpacking my panniers yet, but I have the sneaking suspicion that a tub of silver glitter has exploded in there, because I was leaving a Tinkerbell trail all the way home.

I’ve finally linked all my hot hot cohort’s pages to my blaaargh so when I write about my exploits, you can follow the link and figure out just WTF I’m jibba-jabbin about. And ALSO, so you can check out all these fine performers and see what they’re up to on any given week, because if you haven’t yet you’re missing out, bigtime. So clicky! Go. DO IT.

According to Teh Weather Channel, today in the Greater Metro the air feels like one degree farenhizzle.  Everything that can possibly freeze is now frozen. Even the snow is extra frozen. Compared to my trip home last night, however, my outbound ride today was a stone-cold breeze. I dressed for 30 yesterday and got it in the morning, and then got… oh I think about 12, with 60mph wind, in the evening. I had to stop in to two different shops on the way home from work to warm up, lest I lose digits. Today I dressed for the Tundra, with socks x 3, pants x 2, shirts x 4 and the good old CLAW, and I only experienced a slight numbing of the toes before I made it to the office. The only problem I have with riding like this is what I call the Christmas Story Issue, i.e. ” I can’t put my arms down!! “. It’s so hard to get up to speed when you’ve got twelve layers on, not to mention the wind drag, please let me not mention the wind drag, because I’ll be bitching about it all day. So I won’t mention the wind drag. There, I didn’t mention it. Anyway, bundle up you bastards, but keep riding!

From your favorite third-class citizen.