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gnomi...I think I've found my new profession.
As is not uncommon for us on Tuesdays,mabfan and I met for lunch today. On days that we meet at Park St., we tend to meet on the inbound (at that point, of course, "inbound" is meaningless, since the inbound/outbound designation for the subways is in relation to Park St.station); towards North Station) Green Line platform, near the schedule rounder. And there's a set of benches flanking a T map (the spider map on one side, the extended Green line map on the other side). It's not uncommon for people to stop at the spider map, get an idea of where they're going, and keep moving. Sometimes, people will pause and look confused, and if I can, I'll offer to help them out. At most, this happens once or twice during the time I'm waiting for mabfan, if I end up waiting for him.
Today, however, I arrived four minutes ahead ofmabfan and settled myself on one of the benches. In those four minutes, six different groups of people (three pairs, two singles, and a three-person group) stopped to look at the maps. I ended up giving all of them almost identical directions (because of the six groups, five of them were actually looking for the opposite set of tracks, heading back out toward Kenmore and beyond).
It used to be that the Information booth at Park St. was staffed most days, but now it seems that almost every time I go past it, it's dark. So I started to think that, should I ever want to get out of the word biz and do something that would make me absolutely no money, I could set up a folding chair at that spider map, hang out a "Directions Given" sign, and give people directions to wherever they're trying to get on the T.
As is not uncommon for us on Tuesdays,
mabfan and I met for lunch today. On days that we meet at Park St., we tend to meet on the inbound (at that point, of course, "inbound" is meaningless, since the inbound/outbound designation for the subways is in relation to Park St.station); towards North Station) Green Line platform, near the schedule rounder. And there's a set of benches flanking a T map (the spider map on one side, the extended Green line map on the other side). It's not uncommon for people to stop at the spider map, get an idea of where they're going, and keep moving. Sometimes, people will pause and look confused, and if I can, I'll offer to help them out. At most, this happens once or twice during the time I'm waiting for mabfan, if I end up waiting for him.Today, however, I arrived four minutes ahead of
mabfan and settled myself on one of the benches. In those four minutes, six different groups of people (three pairs, two singles, and a three-person group) stopped to look at the maps. I ended up giving all of them almost identical directions (because of the six groups, five of them were actually looking for the opposite set of tracks, heading back out toward Kenmore and beyond).It used to be that the Information booth at Park St. was staffed most days, but now it seems that almost every time I go past it, it's dark. So I started to think that, should I ever want to get out of the word biz and do something that would make me absolutely no money, I could set up a folding chair at that spider map, hang out a "Directions Given" sign, and give people directions to wherever they're trying to get on the T.
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Date: 2006-09-26 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-26 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-26 07:15 pm (UTC)I realize that this program would have a lot of kins to work out, but it could be interesting to see if it would work.
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Date: 2006-09-26 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-26 07:19 pm (UTC)Yeah and that inbound/outbound thing is so ODD in Boston. I went to school there and I still think it's odd.
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Date: 2006-09-26 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-26 07:42 pm (UTC)I get confused every time that I have to go to Park Street.
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Date: 2006-09-27 02:05 am (UTC)But yeah, sounds like you could set up a comfy chair, a donations jar, and some reading material to keep you occupied between consultations. :-)
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Date: 2006-09-27 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-27 03:32 am (UTC)(Once I understand the basic layout of a city and its public-transit system it gets easier, but right now, when it comes to getting around, there's no functional difference in my mind between Boston and, say, Hong Kong. You're a big city; that intimidates me.)
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Date: 2006-09-27 01:38 pm (UTC)*nod* about transit systems before they're familiar enough. I remember being wholly intimidated by Paris' Metro. Can you get a map there in advance? (If not, I could rustle one up to send along, if you like; I always feel better with maps to pore over before I get there.)
Oh, and a phone number can definitely be provided :-).
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Date: 2006-09-27 06:06 am (UTC)