Sometimes I love this place
May. 15th, 2004 12:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adrian_turtleSometimes it irritates me.
I was walking down Mass Ave this evening. The weather was nice, and I had a little time, so I walked part of the way home instead of taking the bus. One of the bus stops I passed had a "No Loitering" sign next to it. The whole purpose of a bus stop is to have people standing around and waiting! I don't know if the City of Cambridge thinks there is some clear distinction between good waiting and bad loitering. It might be set up to provide an excuse for profiling and discrimination, but it's hard to tell.
It reminded me that the commuter bikeway between Davis Square and Alewife goes through Cambridge, which considers it a park. As such, the City of Cambridge has signs up saying that the bikeway closes at sunset. Foot and bicycle traffic tapers off gradually. The path is reasonably well lit, but it's pretty deserted late at night. I was walking down Mass Ave because I thought it was more likely to be safe at the time. On the other side of Alewife, the bikeway is a road with no cars, so towns don't presume to close it. There's still not much traffic late at night (just because not many people have reason to go that way at that hour), but I don't feel like the path has been deliberately abandoned to make it more dangerous.
I was walking down Mass Ave this evening. The weather was nice, and I had a little time, so I walked part of the way home instead of taking the bus. One of the bus stops I passed had a "No Loitering" sign next to it. The whole purpose of a bus stop is to have people standing around and waiting! I don't know if the City of Cambridge thinks there is some clear distinction between good waiting and bad loitering. It might be set up to provide an excuse for profiling and discrimination, but it's hard to tell.
It reminded me that the commuter bikeway between Davis Square and Alewife goes through Cambridge, which considers it a park. As such, the City of Cambridge has signs up saying that the bikeway closes at sunset. Foot and bicycle traffic tapers off gradually. The path is reasonably well lit, but it's pretty deserted late at night. I was walking down Mass Ave because I thought it was more likely to be safe at the time. On the other side of Alewife, the bikeway is a road with no cars, so towns don't presume to close it. There's still not much traffic late at night (just because not many people have reason to go that way at that hour), but I don't feel like the path has been deliberately abandoned to make it more dangerous.
