While we did not get slammed with much snow (that was wishful thinking, turns out), what we got was ten times worse.  I don't know what you'd call what's happening out there right now.  I'll call it vile, and leave it at that.  And the vileness level is off the charts with the foreknowledge that it will be even worse tomorrow morning, after all of the vile slush has frozen and turned the sidewalks into sheets of ice.

Pedestrian crossings, at least in Back Bay where I work, are useless in this weather. Not only does the city not bother to clear them when they make way for cars, but even if they did, it wouldn't make a big difference.  They seem to have been designed specifically to add to pedestrians' misery in weather like this. 

We know they were made to comply with the ADA, but I believe they were done in spite.  They are not only not wheelchair accessible in any kind of inclement weather, they are not accessible, period.  The problem is the crossings are lower than the gutter, so that the run-off pools in them, and there is then no drainage for the run-off.  There's about six to eight inches of slush there if you care to step in it.

Trying to negotiate the crossings in Back Bay this afternoon without ending up waste-deep in slush, I kept asking myself if there was some reason you can't decrease the grade and run a drainage pipe under the crossing?  Or add drainage grates at crossings themselves?  

When I got home, I checked out walkinginfo.org's information about "raised pedestrian crossings," so I know it's possible to make crossings that don't flood whenever it rains.  A little more research showed that Cambridge actually has a number of raised pedestrian crossings that other cities are using as models for pedestrian-friendly urban development. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:


This should be the standard, particularly in neighborhoods, like Back Bay, where pedestrian traffic is so heavy.  But I imagine this would not sit well with the neighborhood association.  I wonder what Jeff Rosenblum and the kids over at Livable Streets have to say about it?  Are they working on this?

I don't even want to get into the MBTA's obvious pleasure whenever the weather gives them an excuse to make their riders suffer.  Riders themselves use the weather as an excuse to behave badly, too.  There were many seats on my red line train on the way home that were empty because there were puddles of water in them.  Where is a Metro to mop up a mess when you need one?

What seats weren't empty seemed to be occupied by supersized passengers today.  This is going to become a crisis soon enough, and I don't want to make light of it.  Human beings—at least in the US—seem to be branching off again—this time to a species of homo giganticus. 

Has anyone noticed that the seats on our trains only accommodate one ass-cheek per rider in about a third of riders' cases?  The rest of us can fit our bums in the seats, but getting three adults in the space allotted for them is a challenge even for those without the mega-economy-size keisters.

With a generation of giants coming up, we're going to have to deal with more and more bigger and bigger people who just don't fit in our trains and buses.  They're already widening car seats to accommodate bigger butts—as usual the MBTA is behind the curve.  
 

But it doesn't get much viler than Mitt, here announcing his Valentine to the nation, the kick-off of his presidential bid, looking for all the world like the sleazy used car salesman he is.  It's going to be a vile year in politics, people.  Brace yourselves.