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"Ward Vandewege" <ward at pong.be> wrote: > I've been wondering what incredible moron designed the new fare > collection equipment they are installing on the busses. ...but > whoever on the MBTA side approved the purchase of these things should > be fired I got a little taste of government procurement a few years ago when the turnpike authority solicited bids for what became Fastlane. Managers collected a half-dozen bids, making each company jump through a lot of hoops to get them submitted on time. In the end, it was all basically rigged to favor whichever big defense contractor (I forget which) had already deployed a handful of EZ Pass systems in other states. The best technology never had a chance to prevail, it was always about whoever had the most clout early in the game. By 1998, the game was over and any rival whose equipment was incompatible with EZ Pass could just forget about winnng contracts. Spineless government officials never attempted to create and enforce a multi-vendor standard which would permit ongoing innovation. Yet knowing this and having been on the front lines of this in a couple of areas of technology, I still scratch my head when it comes to MBTA procurement. They seem to go out of their way to buy crappy, overpriced technology that no other city has ever used before. Even more years ago, I remember the city of Boston announcing a $10 million project to create a network of smart traffic signals. Not only did this never seem to happen, but the whole idea seems to have died in favor of kowtowing to the pedestrian-safety lobby. This afternoon it took me about 12 minutes to get through the 9 traffic lights between Inman Square and Lechmere, a stretch of less than 2 miles with no reasonable alternative routes available. Several billion dollars' worth of condos and retail development are under construction at the Lechmere end of that route. Can anything be done to at least come up with a computer model of a better way to meet the needs of both drivers and pedestrians, or are we doomed to permanent gridlock once the development's done? Just wanting to find out if anyone's working on these technology issues--not necessarily relevant to this forum's focus Linux usage, though my solutions would of course be based on Linux servers--on the political or development sides of the infrastructure business. So far my conclusion is that no one is; I've toyed with the idea of running for Cambridge City Council on this platform, but I think I'd have the stroller-mom crowd gang up on me and run me out of town if I proposed alternatives to the current focus on "traffic calming". -rich -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
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