Letters

Access MIT and Transit Commuter Benefits

To The Faculty Newsletter:

Re: “MIT Administration ‘Walking the Talk’ on Transit Commuter Benefits,” by Frederick P. Salvucci, MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. XXIX, No. 1).

I invariably enjoy reading your articles in the Faculty Newsletter. (I have appreciated your astute skepticism about plans for redevelopment near Kendall.)

This message is in reaction to your recent article about transit commuter benefits – not a response to the article, but a comment about the benefits themselves. It's great that MIT now fully subsidizes T passes. But to complete the picture, MIT should also work with the MBTA to decrease congestion and increase capacity. Travel between Central and Kendall Squares during morning rush hour is no fun; it's sometimes necessary to let a train or two go by before being able to board. The buses along Mass. Ave. are also crowded, and often delayed.

I write you in the hope that you'll be able to pass along a suggestion to someone who can make useful decisions. It's unfair to non-MIT Cantabridgians to encourage use of public transportation without also pitching in ease crowding. I believe that the MBTA is contemplating the purchase of new Red Line cars. Maybe MIT could figure out some clever design tweaks that would allow trains to hold more travellers, or to load/unload more quickly. Maybe MIT could subsidize salaries for train and bus drivers to allow more frequent service. Maybe MIT could develop safer signaling/braking systems that would allow trains in the subway tunnels at more frequent intervals. Or something else, t.b.d.

Please forward this message, or useful parts of it, as you see fit.

I look forward to your next FNL article.

Ken Pierce
Administrative and Web Assistant
Institute for Medical Engineering and Science

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