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What hip Bostonians call Jamaica Plain
By adamg on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 11:37am
Last Sunday, the Washington Post did a nice overview of the neighborhood in its travel (!) section, but the line about "JP, as hip Bostonians call it" cracks me up.
Also noteworthy: Tourists can expect trouble with our "inscrutable" subway fare machines (are the ones in DC that much better?) and while "JP" doesn't have any roller coasters, the Jamaicaway is a good substitute.
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Comments
Well if they went on a day
Well if they went on a day when the machines were acting up I can understand. I still get a monthly pass so I can criss cross the city for work without a hassle and every third month I have a hard time getting a machine to accept my credit card, the data lines to the machines in some stations must have issues or something. So yeah the machines are easy to use, if they work... As for actual operation they are almost literally the same machines they have in DC, down to the tap, pay, tap protocol for adding fares to your card. Plus DC doesnt give you a monthly pass you gotta pay as you go, although they do give you a minor discount when you buy in large increments and the goverment and some businesses can give you a "Metro" coupon that you can insert in the machine and add to your own card as part of an incentives package for using the system.
I've only ridden the DC
I've only ridden the DC Metro once, but as I recall, you also need to pay to exit, depending on how far of a trip you make. That does indeed make complete fiscal sense from the Metro's point of view, but it was much more frustrating than riding the T, not knowing the system beforehand. If I hadn't had any money, I literally would have become the DC Charlie. Oh well...at least my wife would bring me sandwiches each day, and I love sandwiches.
On a side note, I feel like there is/used to be an exit fare at Braintree, maybe even Quincy Adams (or QA, as the hip Bostonians call it), but I don't remember. I also have a vague recollection of varying fares on the outer stops of the Green Line.
In any case, I used to hate the Charlie system (partially because he looks freaky), but I rather like it now. Before, when I had to buy monthly passes, I had to go to one of the designated booths (ie. Downtown X-ing, Gov't Center), on designated days to purchase the pass. Now, it's just tap card, insert credit card, tap card again, any time of the month.
Exit Fares
Quincy Adams and Braintree had them. You had to toss another token in and use two to get on (maybe only one to get on at Quincy Adams??). You needed a slightly different kind of pass to get on there or out there, in theory, but I'm not sure how that worked in practice at evening rush hour.
DC Metro and MBTA fare systems
In DC, the fare you pay depends on both the time of day and the distance you travel. So yes, you have to tap your farecard or insert a ticket to exit.
The T abolished exit fares at Quincy and Braintree as of the last fare increase, on January 1, 2007. Double fares to enter at Quincy and Braintree, and variable fares on the Green Line also went away at that time. So the fare increase actually decreased fares for some people.
Braintree and Quincy Adams
Braintree and Quincy Adams both had an exit fare, AND an double fare coming in. Your also right about some of the outer Green Line stops.
Your also right about the DC system. You pay upon exit and that payment is based upon more than one factor. It takes into account the distance you traveled between stops and the time of day your riding. So if you get on at one end of the red line and travel to the other end of lets say the blue line during rush hour your paying a higher fee than the person who got on one red line stop and went two stops at 8pm. So it pretty much makes it impossible to plan ahead for exact fares unless your willing to sit there with the algorythyms. One major plus is that they allow you to use the card to pay at Metro operated parking lots, in fact many wont even accept anything but a Metro card.
OH and good luck getting those sandwiches , the majority of the DC subway system is much more underground than ours in what appear to be indentical bunkers/bomb shelters. Ive come to the conclusion that when they started building it they thought that is what the future would look like.
http://smallworldphotos.com/images/wdc_metro.jpg
the majority of the DC
Heh. I think the architects of the Metro were the same ones who designed Boston's City Hall. It's like they simply turned their design for the DC subway stops inside out.
In any case, despite the Soviet bloc-style design of the stations, and despite the exit fare, the DC is the cleanest, most convenient, most reliable subway system I've ever encountered. The MBTA would do well to learn from the positive aspects of the Metro.
I think your right, it does
I think your right, it does seem very brutalist in nature...
They are clean, but thats because they have a strict no eating/drinking policy on the trains. If there were a Universal Hub in DC when I was living down there I would have posted about an incident I saw where they went way over bounds:
A woman was riding down the escalator , with an obvious "baby bump" and as she was coming down the metro officers approached her from the steps and told her she had to put the snickers she was eating away, that you cant eat on the metro. As she was getting off the escalator she said something rude (probaly a swear, I forget, she was kind of a bitch) then took a big bite out of the bar and went to walk away. The officers pretty much grabbed her from behind , spun her around, and almost knocked her to the steps and proceeded to take her snickers away from her. I dont know what happened from that point because I was watching from the safety of a subway car (the doors were still open so I could hear), and was too busy trying to stuff my water bottle out of site into my bag.
Brutalist Subway
I'm a big subway fan, and looked forward to seeing the DC Metro. My impression of it was much the same. All the stops (outside of the few above-ground stations) look almost identical, and the entire system is lacking soul of any sort.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Works for me
I was just about to step onto the Green B Line the other day for the first time in a while and I muttered under my breath, "I'd give my soul for a better transit system."
A whole system of Porter Square stations
Many of the DC metro stations will remind you of Porter Square, with their arched ceilings and loooong escalators.
I always thought it looked
I always thought it looked quite lovely in the Christian Science Complex manner.
subway, communist style
Oddly enough, the Moscow Metro is famously not communist looking. Apparently all of their ornamentation and style was saved for their subway stations:
Well at least that is in
Well at least that is in line with classic communism (as opposed to real world communism), put art where it can be appreciated by the largest number of people , regardless of class or wealth. Sounds like a subway station to me!
Art in the subway
Louvre station in Paris is filled with replicas of art from the museum above.
Bomb Shelters
Underground spaces actually are bomb shelters - in WWII London, people went into the tunnels during the Blitz.
In DC, I remember hearing from people who lived there that "bomb shelter" isn't just an esthetic, it is a secondary design purpose.
A sandwich in the DC Metro
would probably get you arrested. Even drinking from a bottle of water is not allowed there.
Edit: I see someone above beat me to it by a minute, but UHub doesn't let me delete a comment.
Its sooo communist Russia
Its sooo communist Russia circa 1984
In Communist Russia sandwich eats you!
Flavor change on the way?
Is a name change in the works? I recall that Cherry Garciparra eventually became Cherry Ortiz.
I love the fact that the
I love the fact that the story just flew by that without mentioning that Manny is gone, it was national news, I had friends from all over who emailed me about it, knowing full well I didnt care much about it.
Out of this galaxy
I also see that the story lists the Milky Way Lounge & Lanes as a JP hotspot, without noting that the place will be closing in the next 9 months. Anyone clipping that article for a trip next summer will be out of luck in at least a couple of ways (if you also count the presumed deletion of the Manny-themed ice cream from JP Licks menu).
Oh, well, details
The Jamaica Plain site it linked to hasn't been updated in months.