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Hey, you don't know how lucky you are, boys / Back in the USSR
By adamg on Mon, 09/28/2015 - 8:24am
The T or MassDOT or somebody last week shifted the taxi stand at Forest Hills from in front of the station down Washington Street near Ukraine Way. The sign did not go unaltered for long.
Cab drivers are not happy about the shift, Jamaica Plain News reports.
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Comments
I see
They left the horrible apostrophe as is, though :(
(I guess it could be one taxi, in which case comment withdrawn)
Um...
Like,.... totally!
"Taxi's"
Do the school's teach correct use of apostrophe's to the student's any more?
Its MassDOT
Its not what you know, its who you know that matters...
No, they dont.
No, they dont.
They don't teach the past participle anymore either
I frequently come upon signs that say things like "please keep this door close", or "close until further notice". Unless the latter is a sign put up by a couple who see a divorce in their future the past participle seems to be a thing of the past.
I think the new philosophy of
I think the new philosophy of teaching is to not correct spelling, grammar or teach cursive handwriting. So strange! The 'new teaching' is 'not teaching.'
eh.
Well, I think a lot of current teaching is geared towards ensuring that students perform well on tests: MCAS, SATs, etc. I don't like that very much myself, since it just teaches kids to retain information long enough to select the correct multiple-choice question, but I don't exactly have an alternative solution. Additionally, penmanship is an obsolete art in today's world; most students I see (at a university, granted, not in primary or secondary school) tap up their notes on an iPad - but how many people do you know who still send handwritten letters? (I do, and I'm sure quite a few of us here do as well, but it's rarer and rarer.)
However, I'm not sure kids these days are doing any worse on spelling and grammar than any other Americans throughout history. Have you ever seen old people's posts on Facebook? Shocking stuff - between the antiquated ideas and the genuinely awful writing.
Working in an office I see
Working in an office I see cursive frequently -- I read other people's notes and write in cursive myself as do many when they are not emailing or writing Word docs. I send thank you notes in cursive. If you do any sort of non-computer / text research then good luck to you if you don't read cursive! As far as Facebook goes... I have no clue about users' spelling / grammar since I'm not on Facebook. Most adults I know make an effort to use proper English... I have no idea if this is the norm.
Totally agree that teaching to the test is ruining this younger generation's education. Good luck to them in grad school (if they major in non-tech fields), and esp. and the workforce -- there are plenty of professions in which you need to use proper sentence structure, grammar, punctuation and spelling in order to be taken seriously. No one is doing kids a favor by dumbing down their education. Kids aren't stupid -- in fact, they have an amazing capacity to learn.
Any more?
Uh ... this is likely the work of somebody over 40.
They didn't used to teach writing to anyone who wasn't annointed as college bound. People over 40 around here can't write for shite.
didn't you learn?
Apostrophes mean "look out, there's an 's' coming!"
That won't save you from..
That won't save you from illiterate roadsigns such as:
Take a break
Stay awake
For safety sake
apostrophies
Are actually pretty easy too. Possessive and contractions. That's it (example of a contraction). Don't (another example of a contraction) how people started just willy nilly inserting them into plurals.
Its not that simple.
Its not that simple.
Maybe if the taxis didn't constantly block Washington Street.
They wouldn't have been relocated. But every single time I've driven down Washington Street, there are taxis in the No Stopping Zone blocking the right lane. Screw 'em. Move.
I don't blame the taxis
Mind you, my streetside commute ends at Forest Hills, but the cabs are usually in a line, since after all they are queuing for fares.
Nope, I blame the people dropping off and waiting to pick people up, with the Coca Cola delivery truck being the wrist offender. To wit, leaving the station this afternoon, I saw 3 cars and a minibus sitting where the cabs used to be, in the travel lane.
Question
How do cab stands work? Who decides where they go? Do the cab companies rent them, or are they provided by the largesse of the city?
Commenting because I want to
Commenting because I want to know too
.
They are provider by the city, just like bus stops, handicapped spots, commercial only spots, and others. There are no "cab companies" in the form people think.
Significant Improvement
This move of the taxi stand has significantly improved the flow of traffic by upper Forest Hills going north towards JP. For years, these cabs have double parked and blocked the travel lane in the No Stopping area and caused delays in morning and evening rush hour. I have zero sympathy for them at all. I submitted a 311 request on the cab behavior here not long ago and received a response from BPD saying they were looking at more long-term solutions to this specific issue, so kudos to them if they helped influence this. The passenger pickup/dropoff area has also been moved out of the travel lane to prevent double parking and blocking. Overall very pleased with this.
agree with your first point, but the last thing you say...
I guess that would be true if there weren't now a line of orange plastic traffic barriers in that cut back (visible in second photo in the linked JPN story). So people dropping/picking up passengers still have to double-park in the travel lane!
My guess is that they were put there to keep the taxis from sneaking back in, but the result is rather a hollow victory.
Separate area
The passenger pickup/dropoff area is off the street now right next to where they moved the cabs, adjacent to the employee parking lot. It's a small turnaround you pull into and out of. It's marked off and I see people using it now.
thanks for the heads up Rob!
Don't know how I missed the new "kiss and ride" lot, but it's a much better pickup/dropoff solution for FH.
It'll be better for them
Once the bus riders head over that way, too.
On a semi-related note, have any of the commuters coming my way noticed that since they removed the "do not enter" signs from the busway that cars are driving in their frequently (as in, every time I'm at the busway I seem to see one)?
"Better" for them when...
When the project is complete, the cabs will have a front row seat adjacent to the new station-side plaza, plopped on the eastbound Arborway itself. Pickup/Dropoff lanes will be on both sides of the Arborway and along South Street: northbound opposite the Toole Square park and on both sides between the South/VFW hall light and Asticou.
"Do Not (Do This)" signage seems to have little impact on pedestrians crossing to or exiting from the station, so I have only moderate faith it will discourage the driver behavior you observe. But yes: there is significant confusion concerning what's allowed with the new temporary configuration.
The confusion, like the locations, is temporary
I don't think the kiss and ride (an odd phrase I learned when Forest Hills Station was being built) is hyped up as much as it should, and of course the "do not enter" signs are by the entrance along with, of course, the sign directing pick ups. I cannot comment on the pedestrians going north from the station (I stopped doing my corridor run until all this is done for that reason) but the loss of light at the Washington Street Arboretum entrance, while good for traffic, is scary for crossers.
I like having a kiss and ride upstairs, but I still don't like the new bus area design. But what do I know.
Kiss and Ride
I'd never heard that before but perfectly encapsulates the morning drop offs there. Love it.
Smooch
There was a temporary "Kiss and Ride" lane on a 114 ramp while the Salem MBTA garage was being built last year, complete with sencilled lipstick marks all over the pavement. They've taken down all the "Kiss and Ride" signs but the lips remain, for another winter or so, at least.
Would be nice if they did this at North Station
With the current median construction, Causeway St is down to 2 lanes, one of which is always blocked full of cabs parked right next to the giant flashing "NO CAB STAND" sign.
Not only did they move the
Not only did they move the location, they also seem to have banished the taxis to some time period prior to 1991!