It's Night's Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you please, Boston's News Radio.
All right, Well, a subject that we talk about often is Boston traffic, and whenever there's a traffic report that comes out that implicates Boston drivers problems for Boston drivers, we like to talk about it. So the Boston Herald Today interesting article by Grace Djakovic at Boston Herald dot com says that Boston ranks fourth in the United States, fourth worst in the United States, and twelfth in the world. Twelfth worst in the world in terms of overall congestion.
Now in Boston, Boston typical driver lost eighty eight hours to traffic throughout the year. This is an unbelievable amount of time when you think about it. It also means that when they lost eighty eight hours of time just sitting in traffic, average speed of Boston's downtown driver is thirteen miles an hour. Now, I know we're an old city. I get all of that. I totally get all of that, But this is crazy. We spent I think it was twenty four billion dollars on the big dig back from
the late eighties through the nineties. Those of you who weren't living here at the time, don't remember the inconvenience of the big dig. But we were told, oh, when the big dig is done, we're going to be just fine. Well we're not. We're not just fine. In Boston, we lost seventy nine Computing to the report found that Boston drivers lost seventy nine hours. That's I mean, that's a lot of time and and fourteen dollars sitting in traffic. Now,
this this is crazy. I was driving yesterday. I was actually my wife was driving, and we were going down Beacon Street. I try to avoid Beacon Street, all of those streets whenever I can, put me on store drive and let me get out of town. But my wife's not a fan of store drive. So we were driving down Beacon Street. Those of you who live in Boston,
no Beacon Street. So from Beacon Street and Charles Street to Mass Avenue probably like two miles maybe tops two and a half had to take us at least twenty minutes. There are bike lanes all the way down on both sides of the street, right side, left side. There are parking lanes on both sides of the street on both on the on the right side, I guess it's one way street heading out bound, and basically we're down to two lanes. It used to be three lanes on Beacon Street.
It was built as a y thoroughfare, Commonwealth Avenue, y thoroughfare, and it's maddening. It's maddening because yesterday this was noontime or show twelve thirty one o'clock, there was double park People double parked and have banded their cars. So in many areas of Beacon Street it was down to one lane in traffic. There were I didn't see any police
cars out ticketing people. But now again I'm not looking for people to be penalized, but when you lose, when you have two bike lanes and then two sides of the street for parking, you need parking. Living in the back bay, and you're going to have double parking of abandoned cars, SUVs, and for the most part you're down to one lane. It took about twenty minutes to get from Charles Street to Mass Avenue, which is insane. It's
absolutely insane. Now in New York they've come up with congestion congestion pricing, and they had this funny phrase for it. I think they call it What's the phrase they call it congestion relief. They will have congestion relief by charging you money if you want to be in Lower Manhattan anywhere from the south side of Central Park south all the way down through Soho and Wall Street nine dollars for each car. This is insane. It is absolutely insane.
It is a continuing attack on automobile drivers. Uh, those who are in power in major American cities want to eliminate automobile traffic in their city. That's what it's all about. And you can you can phrase it in terms of climate change. What difference is that going to make? Not going to make any difference at all, as long as countries like Pakistan and India and trying to keep belching stuff up into the atmosphere. Uh, the fact that that you're going to be driving riding in the MBTA or
driving a tricycle to work, it won't make a difference. Yeah, you can drive a tricycle. That that's they're allowed in a bike lane. Let me go to Jim and Kansas City. Jim, welcome, you are next on NIGHTSIDEM going to start us off as our Jim gard ahead.
Dan, Hey, thanks for taking my call and then thinking about this, since you talked about it on Friday night. Yeah, well, I think the reason why we call it congestion relief pricing is because if they call it, and if they don't call it that, then it could be construed as restricting people's rights under the first Article eighth section the right to travel. It's it's it's not really a right
to travel. It's a right to have commerce or whatever, but it's I mean, generally, I think it's it's viewed as a right to be able to travel and unimpeded from one municipality, one governments to another. And they say that. So the only way they're going to get away with it is if they say that they're trying to increase people's ability to travel.
Rather than understand the point you're making. I think that it's a tough point that you're trying to make legally. Look right, do you.
Think it's well, then do you think they should be it's illegal under that? Under that, No, I don't think.
You're going to win that argument because they're going to say, look, we're not impeding people's right to travel. We're simply saying that we need to regulate transportation within our community, and if we in our community decide we want to have do you know how much money they've spent on bike lanes in Boston gym. Boston is on the same size as a city as Kansas City. I mean, it's not a huge metropolis. It's not New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.
Take a guest as to how much the city of Boston has spent in the last couple of years on bike lanes. Take a guess.
I might I might have heard you say this before. Fourteen million, one.
Hundred and twenty one million dollars on bike lanes.
Wow, that's a lot.
Okay, yut, it's crazy, it's insane. And the number of people who use bikes compared to the number of people who use cars. We're an automotive society, but they want us out of the cars. They want to make it so expensive that people like you and me will say, I give up, I'll take We call it the MBTA here. I don't know what they call it in Kansas City, but rapid transit, public transportation, or drive your bikes to work.
And every month somebody in Boston is killed riding a bike. Sad, horrible, but you put people out of this sort of weather, and you know, all all you need is one person to make a bad decision and all of a sudden they find themselves under a truck. It's but but they could kill less. They could kill less about the lives of bicyclists. They are only reacting to the bike lobby, and which is, give us as many bike lanes as you want, take, you know, take the roads away from
from drivers. Do you have bike lanes in Kansas City, gym or no?
They have a few of them, not very many. And they don't have very many trains either. They have this one train that they put kind of downtown and it's a it's a big deal because it runs through places where people used to park their cars. There's not very much free parking either. There's parking, but so you have
to pay and then walk. And there's places where people in high places used to park their cars, like right in from a city hall, and that train runs right path there now, so you can't park a car there. And there was a big uproar, oh probably five years ago about this real powerful city council person who insisted on continuing to park a car there, and it turned into a big fiasco.
Well, I don't mind seeing the politicians lose their parking spaces, but really, you know, I mean, at least they're they're giving up parking spaces in Kansas City. The city councils in Boston they have nice underground parking and city Hall, so they're taken care of. They don't have to want a lot of thing.
But I don't know, Oh, that's that's to me, that that's one hope that you might have is to get it struck down or prohib.
Well, you're you're a constitutional scholar. If you think that that's if you can find some constitutional lawyer, good luck. But like anything else, they're gonna say, Look, you could make that same argument over parking meters. You could say, well, parking meters tie up streets. This is a purely political effort by a lot of the progressive city cities in America, and Boston leads the way. If you get them in Kansas City, stop them before they get going gym because
they know they want bike lanes everywhere everywhere. Trust me on them. Okay, okay, they have some, but keep it down to a minimum. Trust me, it's not worth it, particularly in the city like Boston.
There's one there's one place over here. There's a kind of a street where it's it's kind of hard to explain, but you have to unless you want to go way out of your way, you have to take this street. It's called in one place is called Truman, and then it becomes I think something else, but end me a picture.
So I it's tough to explain it on the radio. Gym. I gotta run. I gotta break.
There's a place where the road goes straight from two lane so one lane, without almost no warning whatsoever, in order to accommodate the bike lane.
We got plenty of those in Boston. We got plenty of those roads in Boston, Gym, trust me. Hey, I gotta run, Jim, I gotta I got a commercial break. I gotta get to Thank you much, appreciate you call. We'll take a break. Six one, seven, two thirty, triple eight nine two, nine, ten thirty. Are you looking forward to congestion pricing in Boston? You know what that means. It means that you and I will have to pay nine bucks, ten bucks whatever just to drive for the
privilege of driving into the city. Uh. And all it will mean is the only the uber wealthy, meaning those who work in law firms and uh, they get their their their vehicles, all their expenses are paid. The average person, uh, and you know is gonna end up. They're forcing you to ride in the MBTA, just like they're forcing you in New York. We're gonna talk about congestion pricing. We
talked about it the other night. I want to continue to talk about it tonight back on night Side six one seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine, ten thirty. I'd love to hear from anyone in New York. They had it yesterday and today was the first workday of congestion pricing. I'm sure, I'm sure that New Yorkers are the average person, the working people. They're the ones who are really going to take it, take the brunt of this, this this folly, nothing, nothing more than that.
Back on Nightside after.
This, Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
All right, we're talking about congestion pricing in New York City. It's going to come to Boston, so be prepared. Let me by the way, I just want to play a little bit. This is Governor Hokel I said the other night, has to be like the dumbest governor in America. But she's trying to tell people it's going to cost the average driver of an automobile nine dollars. Trucks will be more, or SUVs, I think will be more. So this is
cut number thirty two, Rob. This is where she explains how that charging you nine dollars a day to go into New York City is actually going to save you fifteen hundred dollars a year.
And I'm proud to announce we have found a path to find the MTA reduce congestion and keep millions of dollars in the pockets of our commuters. Under this plan, the MTA will can implement a congestion pricing plan with a reduced daytime toll of nine dollars beginning in January. You heard that correctly. It was fifteen dollars before and now it is nine dollars.
That is a forty percent reduction. This lower toll will save daily commuters nearly fifteen hundred dollars annually, and that kind of makes a big difference for our families.
How stupid does she think the average New Yorker is And if you're a New Yorker, how stupid. We were gonna charge you fifteen a day, so now we're only going to charge you nine. So you get a savings there of forty percent. You're still out nine dollars a day, but we're saving you fifteen hundred dollars a year. That is just I mean, you talk about and when you she has to be the most arrogant as well as the dumbest governed in America. Six one, seven, nine, three, one,
ten thirty. That's the only line is open. Let me go to Phil in Boston. I'll bet you Phil is a little frustrated like myself.
Then in this play, this is crazy. You mentioned that governor. She may sound like we're paying fifty. They're paying fifteen dollars already, so we're saving you six dollars and who's gonna pay? Hey, how are they gonna pay it? I'm so much gonna be coming off your little chess bitty having a windshield.
Well, no, there's two ways. Here's how they're gonna get it. No, two ways. One, if you are an easy pass person and whatever they call the different states, it will just click on to your monthly bill. But let's assume that you're smart and you don't have an easy pass. You got a license plate, they'll take a picture of your license plate. They have all these they've spent millions of dollars to put up all of these cameras, and you know they've they could care less. But yeah, you know
it's jim. I'm I'm gonna stick you up with a gun when I see you on the street, and I'm gonna say, give me your wallet, and I'm gonna say, oh, you got two hundred dollars in your wallet. Okay, I'm gonna take one hundred and fifty dollars out of your wallet. Here, you can keep fifty. So I've saved you by robbing you. I've saved you one hundred and fifty dollars because it could have been two hundred.
Don't give any ideas. Then what happens if you have to go in town and you pbably don't have the answer to this, who does who? When you have to go in towns that pick up someone in the city hall would have pay a bill, then you have to grow the new back end and pick up your daughter or someone's friend, whatever, and.
Every every every time you go in.
I can't even get my tax bill in the mill because either it's gonna this is And you mentioned a bike lane for bikes, and you mentioned a billion dollars I have seen. The only things I see in the bike lane is one gentleman with a little thing he made up with a baby in the back that I think it's crazy. And the rest of unicycles, uh mopens and no helmets on. No, no, how are they gonna get the plate? How is this? This is this? You're right,
they're trying to get us. They don't want to have us all walking along with turkeys, and no one will be able to drive.
Yeah, well that's the only people who will be able to drive will be the uber wealthy who for them nine dollars a day is like a.
Nickel right off or whatever.
But I'll tell you, you keep electing the same politicians, you're gonna get the same result. What do they say if it's insanity? When you're doing the same thing over and over again and you think to yourself that somehow I'm going to get a different result. You know, you beat your head against the wall, you have a headache, You get up the next day, you beat yourself against
the wall, you have a headache. Keep going doing it every day until you stop beating your head against the wall, You're always gonna get headaches.
Let me get this bully's bills? How can people survive the tax? Bull of this and that the pizza coffee is for? I mean it's crazy. I mean they keep piling and olliver. They know we can pay. I think we should go on Swike and don't no one drive their car in a Boston within reason, you know, I mean, is this crazy?
They do not care? Uh, they do not care because they think you're stupid. They think that you don't vote, and they think that that people overall will just return them. I've said, I've told you before. You go to the diner, whether you're in Boston somewhere or you're in a suburb. And every once in a while you're there and the state rep comes by and pat you in the back. He doesn't know you did. He gives you the big hey, how you doing great to see you? Remember me? Come
to Alexandine Representative Smugsborg. Thank you very much? Now house wife and kids? Oh you're not married. I'm sorry, I'm talking. They think we're idiots.
And thanks. I'm glad we agree on this, and then maybe this might get the word out. It's it's got a it's got the stop. Sweet. Oh you coun't even get so much lemonade. I'm a lemon man.
They could kill us. They could kill us. They they will soak you until you're dead, okay, and they'll even soak you after your dead. It's as simple as that, because they got to keep the revenue coming in so they can put their their their stupid brothers in law on the payroll. What's going on? Thanks? Phil, talks talk soon. You have a great one.
Thank you.
Love your passion, man, love your passion. Coming back on Nightside, I got Melissa and Oregon coming up, got Robert, Michael and Maureen and I got room for you only line open six one thirty. Will be right back on nightside.
You're on night Side with Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Back to the phones. You're are going to go to Melissa out in Oregon. Hey, Melissa, welcome. How many bike lanes you got out there? Oh?
Too many to count? Give a lot. And it's.
And I'm a baker, you're important.
Yeah, yeah, I actually live pretty close to the on Town and there are these lanes that you stop a little bit. All right, It's just it's I still can't figure them out. So it's and I'm a biker and I can't figure them out. And but my question to you on the New York thing, and I've looked this up, but I haven't been able to figure out an answer. It sounded like the governor of New York said they reduced it from fifteen. So was it already implemented au.
No, no, no, no, no. They started oh yeah, oh yeah. It was like, uh, well we're going to have this, and they had some sort of a committee to come up and said it we'll be fifteen dollars. Uh. And so at that point the politician, the governor step say says, no, I don't think it should be fifteen. Let's make it nine. We're saving everybody six dollars. You were not saving anybody anything. You're charging him nine dollars.
It's exactly then the impact to live drivers, uber drivers's going straight to the customer. And I'm curious how cabs, you know, will they just stay within a certain zone, because otherwise they're not going to want to leave the zone. And then have to come back in and pay nine dollars.
Well, what it is, it's it's just anything south of Central Park six sixtieth Street, So south of Central Park all the way down you know, to to Soho and Battery March or whatever. Yeah, so that's the place. I just think what it's going to do anybody. First of all, look, if you're uber wealthy and you can fly into New York and you know, take a h an uber or a limo and and you don't care what the cost is, great, great,
good luck. But if you're somebody from Boston who wanted to drive down to the city, Boston's it's like four hour drive from here. You're gonna drive down in the city and pay one hundred dollars a night to park your car, Pay five hundred dollars a night for some fleabag hotel in New York City. I mean, give me a break.
Just mentioned you might not have a restaurant, sorry enough, you might not have a restaurant to go to, because that's going to be passed on to restaurants every time they get a delivery to their location. So they may not have any place to visit. They might have money to go there. They might not have anything to visit, and they might not have workers.
And what they're saying is that the money will help the the what they call the MTA, the Metro Transit Authority or whatever is in New York. So yeah, take the subway in New York, but watch your back because someone might try to push you in front of an oncoming train. And whatever you do, don't fall asleep because someone might light you on fire.
So and you know, so is your life worth nine dollars? I mean, it's just it makes no sense. And you know, one of the things that we have a very nice metro system here, it's called TriMet and it's that they do an excellent job with it and it does run on time and all those and the buses are good here. But I don't know that trains and buses and bike
lanes solve all problems. And it feels like the urban planning folks they're focused on, I don't know what the right way to say it is that they're they're just missing the bigger picture and the costs are just killing people. And it's just it's just something seems backwards.
You know, how is Portland doing as a city a couple of years ago. I mean they were in real dire straits. They're homeless population, people setting up in people's backyards. Is that you had police stations that were being burned and people were protesting. I mean, Portland looked like like a disaster area. Has there gotten any savory? Any better there?
It has? I knew, you know. I lived here for a long time and then I was away for about four years, and I came back in May of twenty three, and there were things that surprised me. I live about a mile and a half from downtown in a very quiet neighborhood, but there were things in my neighborhood that I noticed had changed. They have started to clean up there. The new mayor, things have changed.
What they were. They had a mayor out there who was a bit of a cuckle bird who I thought. I think he was different.
Yeah, cool, different, Yeah, I mean, hi, I like the new gentleman. He wants city employees to come back to work, and they're fighting him on. It's like, come on, you know, get to work, you know. But I will say this, it has cleaned up a lot. The other thing is, and this is probably not politically correct, but I I think it's something that should be said. I first moved
to Portland in two thousand and one. In Portland had a homeless problem because of the weather, because of the services, And you're gonna tell me it took the twenty nineteen and twenty twenty to recognize there was a homeless problem. So I think that's what bothers me. I will say that I used to be someone, you know, that used to walk by myself at eleven thirty twelve at night.
I don't do that anymore. I've curbed, you know, when I feel that way when I'm in any city, I think the city that And maybe this is just the Portland and me talking. Seattle's dirty. Seattle doesn't feel the same. You know, what is the statistics? I just heard they're supposed to have two thousand people on their third shift, and what did I hear? They might have eight hundred or twelve hundred or something?
So police, no police.
Yeah, I spoke too quickly, but you know, and I think that's what bothers me is that the most is that Portland's always been a very clean city, and when I came back, it didn't feel as clean. It felt, you know, there's a lot of tagging, there's a lot of buildings that it doesn't feel like people have taken respect towards the city and the buildings. And I haven't just seen that in Portland. I've seen it in Eugene. I saw it in Chico, California, when I was there.
I saw it in Columbus, Ohio recently when I was there, And it just feels like we've lost caring and feeding of our cities, if that makes sense, our infrastructure. But I'm biased again. I love Portland. I love being by the ocean, I love being by mouth hoods. So maybe I have a rosier view than what is really happening. Well, and it has cleaned.
Up well, I hope it has for you. I mean, they've had a lot of problems in that city over the years, and uh, it used to be it used to be a wonderful city. But everyone who I talked to has has has a similar reaction as you do, Melissa. Always great to hear your voice. Thank you. So we count the days down to when the when the truck leaves from Fenway Park, which is always early feeblies, so it's even less. That's you're right, all right, thanks, Melissa,
talk soon. All right, let me keep rolling. You're going to go to a Michael in Boston. Michael, you're next on Nightsiger, righthead.
Michael, Hi, Dan? How are you?
I'm doing fun?
How you should have told her we're four hundred short on our police here in Boston too.
I mean, oh, absolutely no. I was about to say that, and I let and I let this slip at your correct there's a lot of major cities that they can't recruit police. Police used to be people wanted to be police officers. But people don't want to be police officers anymore.
Is that it or they don't want them?
Well, I think that that there was a period of time where a lot of police officers said I don't need to deal with this aggravation anymore and left. And I think the word came fourth. And I think that a lot of young people say, I'll find another job one it's dangerous. Uh, And you're not, don't You don't have the respect that you used to have. They you can listen to our station. They have ads now on the station where they're talking about trying to get there.
There's a whole campaign going on by the city of Boston to try to recruit police officers to get people. I mean, I've never saw that before. It used to be people would die and take the civil service test. They don't do that anymore. It's it's as simple as that's what's your taken? What's going on?
I'm kind of confused. I heard about this yesterday on your show, and I'm thinking in New York, if you have a residence in the city. We're on West fifty seventh Street. Let's say, and you commute to work, you work in New Jersey, and you force us to come home every night? Are you an exception or are you're included in that?
See, I have seen nothing to the effect. I have seen nothing, and I've tried to read as much as I could of exceptions. You know, you would think that anyone who lived there. No, I can suggest that you can go and look. Congestion they call it, by the way, This is again one of those words I love, the euphemism congestion relief zone total interest. Starting January fifth, twenty twenty five, which is yesterday, vehicles will be told and
to congestion relief zone. The toll amount will depend on the type of vehicle time of day, and whether any crossing credits apply. I have no idea what crossing credits are and the method of payment. There were also discounts and exemptions that will apply to certain drivers or vehicles entering the congestion release Zone using an Easy Past New
York account. But it just talks about the congestion relief zone includes local streets and avenues in Manhattan south of An, including sixtieth Street, which is the Subwits Central Park, excluding the FDR Drive, West Side Highway, Route nine A and Hugh Carry Tunnel connections to West Street. But I see nothing about all it talks about. Oh, discounts and exemptions. Here we go, discounts and exemptions. Discounts and exemption plans
are available for the congestion relief zone. A discount plan is available for low income drivers, and exemption plans are available for individuals with disabilities or organizations transporting people with disabilities, emergency vehicles, buses and specialized government owned vehicles. Not a mention of people who live. They assume everybody is wealthy enough who live there.
So do you think if this is done in Boston? For example, I have a condo in Copley Square, and I use my car very little, but when I use it, one of the times I may use it, if not to take a just to take a ride for the day and then come back. But I'll take it for groceries. I'll go to market Basket, which is outside of the city, and I'll get groceries for myself and other people and come back home. Yep, and say a fee. I guess so, I guess so, yes, according to those well again you Boston.
Boston can do it differently, but the bottom line is the average. Can you imagine every person who has who lives in the downtown area. If you have to have an electrician or a plumber or someone come to your home to do some work inside the home, that person is going to be charged an additional fee that's going to be passed on to you. These people are insane. They're absolutely insane. They want to turn Boston and New York into places where only the uber wealthy can live.
That's what their goal is.
Well, coincidentally, I got my tax bill yesterday. Oh tell me about that early tax bill which is due February first. Uh, it's up thirty percent over last year. They did it in two increments, so it's about five hundred a quarter more than it was a year ago. So they went up to last So give it up.
Give it. What were you paying in real estate taxes in Boston last year overall?
Roughly uh last year or last quarter? No, last year last year about seven thousand.
Okay, And what will you be this year? What will you be paid?
This new bill is uh twenty two hundred for the quarter.
Times four is almost so your tax bill is going to increase eighteen one hundred dollars. And you know on a on the federal taxes are the tax deductions are capped what they call the salt cap, at ten thousand dollars, so you're gonna you know, you know, it used to be that the amount of money that you would pay, you know, to the state of Massachusetts along with your real estate bill, uh, you know, could be taken as a federal exemption. Now it's limited to ten thousand dollars.
So yeah, it has been. But you can still take the standard deduction. Thanks to Trump, that went way up. So for most people it's worth taking just the standard. You don't need that, that's fine, the standard that's almost seventeen thousand.
That's fine, you got it. You got it, Michael, I let you run.
Well, at what point I mean the tax rate went up and the assessment went up with this bill? Yep, I don't understand that.
Well keep well, just remember this. There's an election this year. Keep it in mind.
Oh yeah, but it doesn't do any good.
Well, you know something, if you continue to believe that, that's what they want you to believe. They want you to believe that your vote doesn't matter, so you won't vote. Your vote matters, everyone's vote.
Your vote matters. But I think the only thing they're going to listen to money talks. And I'm very tempted to not pay this real estate bill and put a letter in there. And if we all did that, we'd get somewhere. You know.
That's what the problem is. They might get you in to court. They might get you to court. Be careful of that.
Break.
We'll talk soon. Okay, thanks for calling. Good. We'll take a quick break. Maureen is next that we got Matt, and we may stay with this. At eleven, you will decide and we may do something else. Coming back on Night's side right after the break.
Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World Night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
By the way, I just got a text. Another high school in Boston is being closed. A letter to the Excel High School community. They will be closed. That school will be closed. By the way, again, euphemisms given shifting circumstances. I wanted to be sure you heard the news from our team. On Wednesday, January twenty second, two thousand and five, we will recommend next steps in implementing the long term
Facilities Plan to the Boston School Committee. This includes recommending the closure of Excel High School at the end of twenty twenty five twenty six school year. So once again, another another Boston high school closing. We understand that news of closures can bring a range of emotions for students, families, and staff. We also know that these steps are necessary to ensure that every student has a high quality seat in each of our schools with high quality options close
to home. Yeah, it's all going to be wonderful unless you happen to be a student there. Let me go to Maureene and Cambridge. I had Marene welcome next on Nightside.
Hi can even kenn, How are you.
I'm doing fine? Little little wound up tonight because I think the politicians think we're all stupid.
Yeah, yeah, I kind of agree with that to a certain extent. I was just always feeling that as a motorist, my XI tax pays for the roads, repairs, whatever else, that the bike should also pay a fee for using the roads if they want to use it. As I agree with you.
No, I agree with you. But do you know how much and maybe you're ware this maybe or not, do you know how much Boston has spent developed putting bike lanes in just Boston.
I heard what you were saying earlier. Was it one hundred and twenty.
That's a lot. You can keep a lot of high schools. You could keep a lot of high schools open for that amount of money.
Yes, you could, you could, definitely.
But and Cambridge is no better. I mean you have bike lanes Galord Cambridge, Well.
Yeah, a lot of there's more bike lanes that are taking away talking spaces for small businesses, and I know that's happening in Boston as well, and it's that place to park. So it's it's really it's a very difficult situation which they do for the bikes, you know, for bikers. But the only thing is when you throw in the even the electric bikes, they go as fast as as a car can.
And the again, as long as long as they're a bike, as long as they're bikes, they're all set. It's as simple as that. Yeah, I mean, but again, bikes are an effective political lobby. And the politicians vow to political lobbies. The only people they don't vow to are residents and voters. It's as simple as that. They they assume that that that you will always be like a flock of sheep and vote for them, and in most cases in Massachusetts,
that's what happens. So yes, anyway, good block and Cambridge Marine run for city council. Over there, Come on, you have you have a lot of common sense. Thanks Marin. Happy New Year, you too. Gotta try to sneak to in here if I can get Matt. Next, Matt, You're next, night side, welcome.
Hey man, Right back at you.
You're in You're in Boston, right ahead.
All right exactly, I'm in uh right brighton. So I do have my own personal transportation, However, I personally found it easier to use services like uber, Lyft.
Et cetera.
Now, while I was in Hold, I looked up in New York, I looked up the gladia, and I looked up the distance. Let's say to Fifth Avenue. It was fifty right now, it was fifty five dollars, which is a nine mile drive to do the same in Boston about a nine mile drive to give or take to go in Boston from Logan to Newbury Street, it was twenty two dollars.
Yeah, and it's not and that's maybe about three miles from Logan to Newbury Street.
It was set on it was seven miles where I put in.
Okay, well, you didn't see that that long?
Well, okay, so I guess my my point is that there there there is an X like Sacks, and there is absolutely how long I mean, I guess my question would be how long has the mass passed? You know that thing that you put on you if you don't go through the tolls yourself? How long has that been in?
It's been long, that.
Easy pass for about fifteen years.
Okay.
So I was a little kid when that came around.
Yeah, I would say that the parades.
Of those I used to live down in Florida, and when I would go through Miami, it would be four dollars each time you would go through there, and I thought there was in I thought there was yeah, incredible sports.
It's you know, it's more expensive in Boston. It's only going to get more expensive when they have congestion pricing. Matt, I got to keep only want to try to get one more in here before the break. Thank you was always okay, talk soon, Thank you very much, Alex and Millis Alice, you're gonna wrap the hour for us. What can you do with about a minute.
And a half, Dan, I was going to say where I live in Miller's here. You know, our taxes went up to but I try to avoid going into Boston. Even when I had to have a procedure done and it was at nass General on Fruit Street, I couldn't believe the amount of construction that's going on over there. I don't know how the people around that area function. It's insane. And every time I go into Boston, when if I have to go, there's a new building up, you know, and the landscape has changed, and try to
find parking. So I avoid Boston, and it's you know, I.
Think a lot of people. I think a lot of people avoid Boston, and I think more and more people are going to avoid Boston because it's more difficult to get into, get out of, and it's more expensive. Parking meters now, a quarter get you four minutes in Boston. So if you if you're pumping quarters into a parking meter in Boston, you've got to be very dexterous because you've got to be able to get an hour. You have to fire eight meters eight what's it? No, not,
what's it? It's fifteen. You got fifteen quarters to get an hour four minutes an hour on Commonwealth Appen, you've got to fire. By time you fire fifteen quarters into the parking meter, you got to put a couple more quarters in because it's taking you that long. It's nuts, it's nuts.
They have apps, but still it's very expensive.
Yeah, a lot of people aren't familiar with apps, are not as comfortable with apps and as as simple as that. Hey, Alex, I sure change to hear, but I got you in before the eleven o'clock news.
Happy New Year, my friend, Happy new yea you also
All right, talk to you soon coming back right after the eleven If you want to continue to talk about this, great, If not, I'm going to change topics back on night side