Can't Have One Without the Other: Corporate America and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Association (MBTA)

My six month foray into the corporate world threw me headlong into a tumultuous relationship with the MBTA. That stands for Massachusetts Bay Transportation Association. I had heard of it before, but riding it every day was not at all what I expected. Even at peak commute times, there are drunks on the train, and if you're lucky, they won't try to talk to you. Most times though, they will.

The trains were not the ones I took into Sox games as a kid, and neither was the technology. Gone were the old, classic looking trains. The new trains were more metropolitan, and incidentally, more complicated. I was late for work on the first day, because I didn't have my CharlieCard properly loaded. The card, which works as a pass to let you board, has a set amount of money on it, and the fare is removed each time you scan it. Adding anything this complicated to an already volatile system seemed like a mistake to me. Why does no one take cash anymore?

I took the train in for a few months, and paid $5 to park my car everyday. Including my $4 round trip fare, I spent $9 a day to commute into corporate hell. One day I got fed up with the inconvenience, and purchased a monthly pass. This allowed me to forego cash when I gathered my things in the morning, and made life a lot easier for me. Then I broke my hand. It was not due to the MBTA.

Apparently, if you get in an accident while your hand is broken, its partially your fault. I started to take the express bus, and had to get a different monthly pass for that. This is where the story gets good. The times listed on the website don't take into account traffic. I don't speak of unforeseen traffic either, I am talking about traffic so consistent you know it will occur. It doesn't take into account when bus drivers call in sick either, so sometimes the bus just never came. Half the time I think the bus never came, I probably missed it because some drivers drive the bus like a racecar. These guys will stop in the middle of the street, and take off before you get both feet in. I'm not complaining though, I'm a thrill seeker. The one time my bus got into an accident, it wasn't because of this though. It was because of some woman who thought it would be good to stop in the middle of the road while a bus was coming.

The MBTA does have a very nice refund system, however, even it does take 6 to 8 weeks to be mailed the change the machine refused to give you. If turnover takes that long because it happens so often, maybe CharlieCards aren't such a bad idea after all.