Entries from March 1, 2008 - April 1, 2008
HOW DOES THAT GO? WORKING HARD OR…..?
Only Massachusetts requires police details at road work sites. Boston drivers are from Massachusetts. Coincidence? Risking a lifetime of tickets for riding their bikes on the sidewalks and for missing license plate lights, DLA researchers take a look at paid police details.
A dream police detail: Ensuring public safety in front of Dunkin' Donuts!
Photo Credit: DLA Labs
On March 12, justanothertrooper posted this entry on the MassCops.Com blog (a web site for New England law enforcement professionals): “NECN is reporting on detail pay for BPD (Boston Police Department).....can always tell when spring is here!”
Can’t argue with him there. Local and state police salaries, swollen by overtime “detail” pay (directing traffic at street or highway construction, special crowd details, etc.), draw the focus of media and (much less frequently) politicians on a perennial basis. The issue is always simmering in the minds of the motoring public since virtually every trip to D’Angelos Marketbasket includes dodging an open manhole or a DPW backhoe digging up a storm sewer…always under the careful supervision of a state or local police office. But it moves to the front burner with the annual news story reading something like “Police Top State’s Highest Paid List”, or –in the case of the Boston Herald—“Cops Cop Top Take-home!”
And so it was earlier this month when the Globe and other news media....
JWD
in traffic monitoring, Police details, traffic safety, public safety, MassCop
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THIS JUST IN: MASS TURNPIKE AUTHORITY SAYS “WE’RE BEHIND IN OUR TECHNOLOGY!” (Part Two: The Survey)
Previously, on Driving Like Ass, DLA researchers were struck by this question: why does Boston—a city known for the impatience and intolerance of its drivers—have one of the country's lowest adoption rates of electronic toll collection (ETC), or FAST LANE system? In Part Two, DLA heads to the RMV in search of answers. (Click here to see Part One)
It would be easy to pass Boston’s FAST LANE disinclination as just another case of New England Luddism. But, at DLA, when in doubt, we like to head for the data which, more often than not, means “let’s conduct a survey.” 
A DLA survey instrument was developed to collect data on drivers’ awareness of the FAST LANE systems, perceived benefits of the FAST LANE system, motivation, and pricing sensitivity.
Photo: FreeFoto.Com
JWD
in electronic toll collection, FAST LANE, Toll roads, tolls, Noah Bierman, Peter Samuel, Massachusetts Turnpike
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THIS JUST IN: MASS TURNPIKE AUTHORITY SAYS “WE’RE BEHIND IN OUR TECHNOLOGY!” (Part One)
Electronic toll collection makes so much sense…which, of course, is why Ass-Like Drivers don’t use it.
Last month a friend offered to drive me to New York in her spanking new Prius, 
of which she was enormously proud and, in an effort to minimize her already dwindling carbon footprint by pursuing some sort of gas mileage record, she had taken to coasting whenever possible. Despite a somewhat erratic driving style, I was impressed with her enthusiasm and commitment, and those quiet, gravity-powered, battery-charging interludes began to lull me into a world far removed from the venalities of Boston driving.
Boston drivers, eschewing all things logical and reasonable, hurry to get in the Cash Only lines
Photo credit: DLA Research Labs
As we approached the Mass Pike toll booths, all the “Get Ticket” lanes were backed up hundreds of yards. The FAST LANE lanes were either wide open or blocked by drivers who didn’t remember that they didn’t have a FAST LANE pass until they were ten feet from the gate and were now trying to squeeze left or right while digging quarters from under the seat. My friend pulled into a “Get Ticket” lane.
JWD
in traffic monitoring, electronic toll collection, FAST LANE, Toll roads, tolls, Noah Bierman, Peter Samuel
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