[1633] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
[Mit-talk] RE: Mandatory T passes?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James J Wnorowski)
Fri Oct 21 16:35:13 2005
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:14:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: James J Wnorowski <jamwno@mit.edu>
To: grace <gkenney@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.58L.0510211440480.1681@scrubbing-bubbles.mit.edu>
cc: Diandra Lucia <dmariel@mit.edu>
cc: ec-discuss@mit.edu
cc: mit-talk@mit.edu
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
I don't think anyone has mentioned the bit of tying the T-pass onto the
MIT ID card. I'm not sure that bit is a good idea. Granted, it would
make the pass a lot harder to sell or otherwise get rid of, but i'm not
convinced that it would work right with the Silver line, since they have
the card readers that suck the card in instead of swiping it. I think the
current ID with its RFID goodness is just too thick for that to work
right. Also, there are a couple things you show the pass for instead of
swiping it, and if people are allowed to opt out how would they
differentiate a regular MIT ID from a "T-enabled" one? Just give us combo
passes and let that be that.
Also, they're talking about giving everyone a combo pass, which includes
buses as well as the subway. I'd probably take the #1 a whole lot more if
that were the case. But by the time they could possibly institute this,
i'll be gone anyway, so whatever.
-Jimbo
On Fri, 21 Oct 2005, grace wrote:
>
> as the article says, they would continue paying the MBTA people the same
> amount of money that they already pay them for the subsidized T pass
> program, which currently runs at something like $20-odd per pass [i
> think]. however, to lower our bill to $10, they'd have to have some huge
> chunk of the student population [read, everyone] sign on. if they made
> it optional, i assume that the danger would be too many people not opting
> in, leaving MIT to cover the difference. and we all know how MIT feels
> about picking up the tab for student services these days.
>
> me, i'm not sure how i feel about it - on one hand, i use the T a great
> deal. i certainly spend more than $10 on T tokens every month. $10
> for a month's pass is a fantastic deal. it's also more immediately and
> frequently useful to me than any of the other mandatory expenses people
> have been mentioning. but on the other hand, i don't like the creeping
> growth of mandatory expenses - there are too damn many already.
>
> perhaps an opt-out thing would work? i bet almost no one except the
> people really financially need it would opt-out, either because they'd
> find it useful or because they're too damn lazy. everyone wins.
>
> [fucking typical that the first time any undergrad hears about this is in
> a tech article though.]
>
> -grace
>
> gibbering like hunter thompson on a revolutionary drug, dmariel@MIT.EDU said:
>
>> I loathe mandatory extra expenses, and I don't think most people are very
>> fond of them, either (especially students). That said, $10/month is such a
>> good deal that I suspect a decent amount of folks would _choose_ to buy
>> passes each month. Why do they feel the need to make this mandatory?
>> (Sure, some people don't get out much, but if someone wants to be a
>> reclusive tool, that's their choice to make.)
>>
>> - Diandra
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jessica H Lowell [mailto:jessiehl@MIT.EDU]
>> Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 12:58 PM
>> To: mit-talk@mit.edu
>> Cc: ec-discuss@mit.edu
>> Subject: Mandatory T passes?
>>
>>
>> According to the front page of the Tech, there's a preliminary proposal for
>> requiring all MIT students and staff to pay $10/month in exchange for
>> universal
>> T passes. This was the first I'd heard of this, though apparently grad
>> students
>> have been talking about it for a while. What are people's opinions on this?
>>
>> - Jessie
>>
>>
>>
>
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