Progressive Democrats of Cambridge - DFA

In the first of I'm sure many initiatives to open up the governing process to ordinary folks, Deval Patrick and Tim Murray have announced the website for their transition team: http://www.patrickmurraytransition.org/

Through the website, you can submit your resume or CV in order to apply for a job, or you can send a comment to one of the team's working groups. Here's what I just sent the transportation group:

Make the T cheaper, at least for low-income folks. The current T funding scheme is simply not working, and it needs to be revised so that the state takes responsibility for the T. Mass transit should be widely and cheaply available to the people who need it most.

Also, the green line expansion into Somreville and Medford should continue as speedily as possible.

Finally, here are a few relatively cheap and easy things we can do to improve the T:

- Make the charlie card machines "eat" cards once they are out of money, as the DC system does. Many people find it extremely frustrating that the machines don't do this.

- Make the map of the T, including all subway lines, bus lines, and commuter rail, available on a Google map. There are already several such maps currently maintained by volunteers, so this would be very easy to do. The system maps currently on the T's website are very hard to work with.

- Make the Trip Finder available by cell phone, so that people can easily find the quickest route to their destination.

So if you've got a gripe about something, don't just sit there - send a note to the new administration.

The Livable Streets Alliance reminds us by email that today is Car-Free Day:

Today Sept. 22 is celebrated in 1,500 cities in 40 countries with carfree festivals, bicycle demonstrations, street closures and permanent changes to make cities more environmentally and socially sustainable. Each year in late September, streets are closed to cars and opened to children's games, neighborhood parties, street theater and outdoor cafes, allowing people to see their cities the way they could be with fewer cars.

One of the many marvelous things about Cambridge is that from late Spring to early Fall, every Sunday is car free day on Mem. Drive. So take some time this weekend to enjoy the not-quite-frigid weather while it lasts with a stroll, bike ride, jog, rollerblade or otherwise locomote yourself along the Charles; leave the car behind for a bit.

Another way to celebrate Car Free Day is to visit AltWheels downtown. It's running today and tomorrow at City Hall Plaza.

Cambridge, sometimes you make me smile.

Via livejournal, I've found this ridiculously cool MBTA map. It shows you all of the MBTA bus maps overlayed on a Google map. For an avid public transporter/Google addict like myself, it's like I've struck gold.

Forgive me for sounding a little bit like a Cambridge cheerleader, but this just proves once again why this is a great place to live. I had an idea for this kind of Google map, what, three or four months ago. I wanted to see it happen in the worst way, but I didn't have anything like the time to pull it together. And now, voila, some genius at MIT has done just that and made it available to all the rest of us, free.

Cambridge, you just made my night. Thanks!