Hillary Clinton, Dems: You Are The Biggest Losers

"I want to be very clear, Hillary Clinton and the Dems have no one to blame for what happened tonight but themselves."

Last night, I posted this. Let me explain what I meant since you can't really explain much on Twitter. The reason for my statement extends back to the type of candidate Hillary Clinton is and the behavior displayed during this election cycle. Many, myself included, believe Hillary Clinton would have said anything to get elected and then, flip on those promises once she does get elected. A prime example of this is the TPP where if it wasn't for Bernie during the primaries, she would have never went against it.

Speaking of Bernie, who was he anyway? After all, since Fall 2015, the Dems have chosen Hillary Clinton as their candidate. Well, he was the one to show the world just how weak of a candidate Hillary truly was. Remember, before the primary season began, he was an unknown. Over time though, it was pretty obvious he was the candidate the Dems needed and brought a level of excitement that Obama brought in 2008.

Leading Up To The Democratic National Convention

As Bernie started getting traction, the negativity started getting published. Basically, the mainstream media started writing articles and reporting how bad of a candidate he is, how far fetched Bernie’s policies truly are, how much of a Socialist he is; the list can go on. Shoot, I remember a day where one media outlet posted 16 negative articles against Bernie in the span of a few hours. These actions started chipping away at Bernie and eventually overtook him. It was later shown that many of his policies would have worked considering they are working in European countries already and they are flourishing.

Let’s not get started with the whole Dem Primary process, shall we. If we must though, I recall there were plenty of issues in the primaries. I believe New York Primaries were reported to close polling places and/or change times of polling places in areas favoring Sanders. Many were also denied the right to vote in the primaries thanks the state’s cutoff date to register, which I believe was Oct 2015. Jump to Arizona and what comes to mind is Maricopa County, where polling places were dramatically cut in area with a high minority population that people waited 6+ hours in line to vote. It also did not help that the state was called for Hillary when people were still in line waiting to cast their vote. Then we have some cases in Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Ohio, where the Clintons were reported to go into polling places with Massachusetts being reported that Bill, although I don’t think it was intentional, ended up blocking a polling location. There's also the Superdelegates that gave the false appearance that it was all said and done for Bernie. The problem though is that none of the Superdelegates were binding until the convention and without them, it would have shown Clinton and Bernie a lot closer than what was actually reported.

Near the end of the primaries, the Dems were hit with Wikileaks, the DNC’s hacked emails. In those leaks, it showed the DNC was highly biased towards Hillary Clinton. That in itself is troubling as the DNC is suppose to be impartial and fair to all candidates until the convention. Nonetheless, there it was and many Bernie supporters saw this. What is even more troubling was the chair of the DNC Debbie W Schultz going after a news anchor through their boss because that news anchor said something negative about Hillary. These leaks ultimately lead to Schultz resigning from the DNC Chair to only jump on board with Hillary as her Campaign Chair.

At The Convention

So when the primary is all said and done, Hillary Clinton was pronounced the winner. Unfortunately for her, even the DNC had issues. At the DNC, there were reports of a large protest outside of the DNC, with them breaching 1 of 3, yes that’s right, 3 fences. I remember there were images comparing the DNC with Trump, saying something along the line of, “Donald Trump says he will build a wall, the DNC actually built it.” Of course this was not reported at all. The protest was not the only thing though as there were many issues with the DNC that were not reported.

First and foremost, there was a clear divide with the DNC itself. Nothing was more evident of this when Bernie supporters walked out when the Clinton nomination was announced, leaving roughly half of the convention empty. Before that though, there were stories of paid actors to take the place at open seats, thanks via a Craigslist ad, barring exit doors so no one can leave during Hillary’s speech, and of course, shutting off the lights in the section of the audience where they were chanting, “No More Wars.” Even Green Party Candidate Jill Stein crashed the convention, although she was quickly escorted out. Funny how the thing I still remember was the Jill Stein banner behind Hillary as she was giving her acceptance speech. Of course, who can forget the image of Bill Clinton sleeping as Hillary gave that same speech.

Dark Clouds Over The Democrats In The General

Things did not get easier for Hillary Clinton after the DNC. In fact, they got worst. Wikileaks overshadowed Hillary and the Dems with threats a new email leak. This time, it came in the form of the Podesta emails. In the new emails leading to the election, it was discovered that Donna Brazile, current Chair of the DNC, sent questions from CNN to Hillary’s campaign prior to not just one, but 2 primary debates, giving an unfair advantage in the primaries. This action ultimately got CNN to “fire” Brazile after the second time was revealed. The emails also showed that Clinton had what appears to be a “Pay to Play” system where donors can give money and get something in return. It should be mentioned at this point that even though there is very little reports about it, the IRS is currently investigating the Clinton Foundation for this particular practice. I think what was extremely troubling to the voters though may have come from her position of a “public position and private position.” That solidified the public view of her as being a liar and saying anything for votes.

Let’s not forget the leaks regarding the Goldman Sachs speeches. Yes, these are the same speeches that Bernie was trying so hard for Clinton to release in the primaries. In them showed just how trusting Hillary was towards Wall Street, a position that many in the public disagree. In those speeches, she said that the people who are best suited to deal with regulating the financial market was the financial market themselves as they had knowledge of how it works. However, there is one teeny problem with that logic and it came in 2008 with the Housing Bubble. The same financial markets are the ones that caused the bubble to burst because they knew how the system worked, how even though many have suffered because of it, they will benefit because, well, they knew how the system worked.

Although the campaign quickly tried so hard to say that Russia was behind the leakes, which was and still is a separate issue, it did not address the main concern. Other than Donna Brazile, everyone else in the Hillary campaign did not deny nor talked about anything that was said in neither those emails nor the Goldman Sachs speeches. This left many to believe the emails and speeches were true. To this date, there are no mentions of the speeches or email leaks but the email leaks are slowly getting authenticated by major companies, including Google.

Not Surprised The Polling Was Off

Polling, polling, polling… where do I begin about the polling? First and foremost, the polling has been off throughout the entire election season so it is no surprise that they were off for the general election as well.

First things first, let’s talk about the polling in the Democratic Primary. Throughout the primaries, it showed Bernie to be less than Hillary in many of them. This is no surprise as Hillary was the favorite and many thought she would win them. However, on the days people voted, the results ended up being far different than the polling suggest. In states where Bernie was winning in the polling, the results were far greater in favor of Bernie. It was completely different in the opposite direction. States where Hillary was winning in the polling, the result showed Bernie was closer than expected, even surpassing her to win the state. I remember a poll at one of the states showed she was winning by around 17%. On the day people voted, it ended up being about 6%. Even in Massachusetts, the state was heavily in favor for Hillary Clinton but she ended up winning by less than 2%.

As for the Republican Party, I will admit, I did not really follow them too much. In reality, it became quite apparent by March 2016, that Trump will be their nomination. Nonetheless, I remember polling gave Trump a whopping 1% chance of winning the nomination at the start of the primary. I also remember some states where Ted Cruz was favored to win in polling, only to have the final outcome of Donald Trump winning. 

Now moving onto the general election, it was quite similar. After the DNC, Hillary Clinton was the favorite to win. After all, they reported she had a 90%+ chance of winning at the time. In fact that chance stayed pretty consistence until late September to early October. The problem though is that for some reason, the polls were showing Hillary slipping in the polls since late August but the news decided to not update their chances until a month later. I personally noticed the polls shrinking, to the point where I openly said that a Trump win was not surprising at all. Yet, many still considered Hillary the favorite to win.

It was not until a week before the election where the news finally noticed that Hillary’s lead was nearly, if not already gone. Still though, they predicted Clinton to win. The most generous anyone gave Trump was Nate Silver of 538, giving Trump about a 30% chance of winning. After looking at the past polls closely myself, I gave my guess on November 2 of Trump winning a 49% chance.

So What Now?

The future is all but uncertain as to what will happen. Will there be war? To be honest, I don’t think there will be. After all, Trump did came out saying something that actually impressed me during the general election, “If the rebels did overthrow Assad - and he's a bad guy - you might very well end up with worse...” Yes, I know, it makes him sound intelligent, especially since Hillary came out saying she would put sanctions on Syria, which would have undoubtedly start a war with Syria and possibly Russia.

As for the economy, we are already seeing the effect of it in the market except there is something that really is quite liberal. As far as I know, Trump is against trade deals like NAFTA, which ultimately caused many of US jobs to go overseas. That is probably why he won in the states that were mostly affected by NAFTA.

Last but not least, who is to blame for the results? Well, the sad truth is that the Dems are already blaming others. They are blaming the 3^rd Party Candidates for taking away their votes, even though there was no guarantee the votes from them would go to the Dems. They are blaming Bernie Sanders for dividing the Democratic Party, even though the actions of the Dems disenfranchised the Bernie supporters from the beginning. They are blaming media for not being tougher on Trump, even though they were soft on Hillary. Yet, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party have only one thing to blame, themselves. The actions you did this election not only affected the US Presidency, it affected the House Majority, the Senate Majority, and the Governors race majority. To put it bluntly, you lost it all.

Edits:
November 17, 2016: As in my last paragraph, the members of the Democratic Party are blaming everyone other than themselves. They even went as far as blaming the voters for not going out to vote but those who did vote, for not voting for Hillary Clinton.

Something sure stinks at the DNC in Philly, Large Crowds of Protesters Swarm City

Um... What?

This election cycle sure has been a fascinating one. Everything from the unelectable Donald Trump getting the Republican nomination to the no name Bernie Sanders nearly defeating Hillary Clinton (maybe???) should all be up there but what happened today really does take the cake. To better understand what happened today, one must really look back at the immediate past.

If you remember, a few months ago, Bernie Sanders accused the DNC of being biased in favor of Hillary Clinton, even going as far as calling for DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign. Of course many in politics scoffed at that, calling it to be completely untrue but many of the voters felt that the primary was indeed rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton.

Jump to this week and hold and behold, WikiLeaks released nearly 20,000 emails that it obtained regarding the DNC. Several of those emails were extremely damning as it portrayed the DNC of actually conspiring against Bernie Sanders. Just for clarification, the DNC is suppose to be neutral throughout the entire primary process. Once again, Bernie Sanders called for the DNC Chair to resign. As a result, Debbie Wasserman Schultz has lost her speaking role at the DNC in Philadelphia and has been replaced by Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio.

The pressure did seem to be too great for Debbie Wasserman Schultz as it was reported earlier today that she will indeed resign from the position at the end of the convention. Many have questioned her decision as they have said she needs to resign prior to the convention. In her place will be DNC VP Donna Brazile for the remainder of the election. Nonetheless, she was going to be gone, right?

Well, not exactly. Within an hour of her resignation announcement, Hillary Clinton has announce that Debbie Wasserman Schultz will become her campaign's "honorary chair" during the general election. This will definitely have a negative impact on Hillary Clinton. There are 3 scenarios that I can think of immediately, 1 being that Hillary Clinton was not aware of the DNC Chair's resignation. However, I personally don't think that is the case. Instead, what I can see is that she chose her because she does not care about the voters who see her just as negatively as Hillary Clinton herself (I believe Clinton is now losing to Trump in key states).

The last scenario I can think of is more dark than Clinton simply not caring, it is that it was all planned out. Although this is all conspirational, it could be that the DNC Chair known what she would get and would have gotten away with it if the leaks did not occur. It is also possible under this conspiracy that she will do all she can during the DNC until Clinton is formally nominated, which is why she is staying until the end. Remember guys, this is just a theory and without evidence, I really have nothing to say about it.

All in all, I see this whole process negatively and I will be honest, I do not see how anyone can not see this as being negative.

Large Protests in Philly

I am pretty sure the media outlets are not reporting this and will not report this but there are large protest throughout the city of Philadelphia as the DNC is set to begin tomorrow. Although I am not physically in Philadelphia, I can say that there are numerous reports via social media showcasing several of them.

One such is the March for Bernie movement which saw a whopping 1+ mile long line, all for, of course, Bernie Sanders. Thousand of voters lined up to participate. There have also been marches for Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party Dr Jill Stein, and anti-fracking. All in all, every single report out there have said they have not seen anyone who is pro-Hillary Clinton.

It appears even the Philadelphia Police are not too happy with Hillary Clinton and the DNC due to their choice of not including the families of those who lost their lives while in the line of duty.

I am going to be completely honest, this is going to be an interesting week and as of now, looks to be more unorganized than the RNC that happened last week.

Bernie Wins Wisconsin, Clinton's Downfall, Nevada Changes, DOJ in Arizona

2016 Primary/Caucus Election Results Based on Percentage
(Superdelegates and Arizona not included)

As many of you know, Bernie Sanders was recently declared the winner of Wisconsin last night with a margin close to 14% over Hillary Clinton. To many, this wasn't surprising as even Hillary Clinton was reported to be the only candidate not even in the state on primary day. Nonetheless though, the surprising part was by how much. Many have predicted that Sanders was going to win but only by a few percentage. The outcome proved to be a sign of not to take polls prior to elect day so seriously, especially after the wide margins he has won in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Utah, and Idaho.

Speaking of those states, however, the win in Wisconsin is the 6th state in a row in which Bernie Sanders has won. So much so that even the Mainstream Media (MSM) have come out saying that he has the momentum right now going into both Wyoming and New York. However, MSM is downplaying Sanders' wins with headlines like, "Bernie Sanders Wins Wisconsin, Changes Nothing." Even though they say that, the win does open up states that normally don't typically matter to states that matter significantly (New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and the list goes on.) It also lead to an important debate that is scheduled in New York days prior to the New York Primary, which has 247 delegates up for grabs. Although Bernie Sanders is trailing in recent polls to Hillary Clinton in New York, he is quickly catching up.

Does this mean Hillary Clinton is on a downfall path? To put is simply, yes it does. Doing that map posted above has lead me to look at the difference in delegates between the two candidates. Plotting the data onto a chart, it shows that Hillary Clinton's lead in delegates has been shrinking since March 15, 2016. Although it does not look like much but the gap has shrunk by almost 100 delegates. Regardless of the candidate, loosing a gap of that much is quite significant, especially coming into states that are leaning towards Bernie Sanders more than they do towards Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton's Lead Peaked on March 15, 2016

There are a couple of new details regarding two previous states, Nevada and Arizona.

All states have their own system in place to choose delegates and Nevada uses what appears to be a 3 day system. The first day is the general caucus where people vote for their candidate and elected county delegates. However, the delegates given to a candidate is proportional to the elected delegates. This is where the changeover has occurred in favor of Bernie Sanders. Over the weekend, Nevada held the Clark County Convention where those elected delegates were to meet. Unfortunately for Hillary Clinton, many of her elected delegates did not show, which automatically went to Bernie Sanders. After all is said and done, they now go to the State Convention where the number of delegates are finalized. Prior to the convention, Hilary Clinton was leading Bernie Sanders 20-15 delegates. After however, the lead shrunk to 18-17 delegates.

Now head next door and there is a completely different story entirely. Several weeks ago, I have said there were many problems in the Arizona Primary including long lines, lack of polling locations, and voters having their status changed. Well, as the state certifies their delegates, there is now an official investigation regarding voter suppression by the Department of Justice. Although there is limited information regarding the details of the investigation, it has been publicly announced that the DOJ wants to know the reasoning for having so little polling locations in a high density area. There have also been some news stating the DOJ is also investigating why as many as 20,000 (estimated count) had their registration status change without their knowledge.

Controversy in Arizona, Landslides in Utah and Idaho; Could this be a shift?

Another day has past and another election has ended. This time, it was Utah, Idaho, and Arizona. Democrats voted in all 3 states while Republicans voted in 2, Utah and Arizona and as you may have heard, Trump and Clinton won the night. There is a small detail that seems to be missing however, Trump and Clinton winning Arizona was not the biggest news of the night, not by a long shot. To further explain this, we must look at Utah, Idaho, and Arkansas separately.

Looking At Yesterday's Result

Utah

In Utah, there was massive turnout in voting. On the Republican side, there were roughly 129K people voting. On the Democrat side, not as many people as there were roughly 65K people voting. However, both side showed that they did not support the front-runners and they showed it in a big way. How big, you say? Well, by at least 40%! In essence, both Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders won the state of Utah in a complete landslide.

Idaho

In Idaho, there was also massive turnout in voting, although not as much as Utah or Arizona. Roughly 24K people voted on Tuesday and just like Utah, they showed they did not like the frontrunner. Like Utah, Bernie Sanders won in a complete landslide with a difference of around 40%.

Arizona

Arizona… yes, there is a lot to talk about Arizona.

First and foremost is how cringe-worthy the whole process was in Arizona last night. Let’s talk about what many have called “voter suppression.” It has been reported that many who wanted to vote last night were instead given provisional ballots and turned away. Although the number varies, last I heard were tens of thousands. That is a whole lot of people. State Election Officials have stated that they were turned away because they were registered as Independents and due to the rules, were not allowed to vote. The problem however lies with many of those people stating they changed their status to either Republican or Democrat prior to the deadline. Several of them were also turned away due to wrong address. Hence, they were all given provisional ballots which by my understanding, do not matter. This sort of action disenfranchises a whole chunk of voters. On a brighter note though, I have read that usually, provisional ballots will be counted within a week after voting so an overturn of the Hillary Clinton win or Donald Trump win may be possible but by that time, the story would be lost.

Another problem in the Arizona Primary occurred in Maricopa County. It was decided that in order to save money, they will cut polling locations. By how much seems to be appalling by all statistical standards. It has been reported that with 300,000 voters, they had 200 locations for the 2012 election. However, in an election with somewhere along the line of at least twice as much, they only had 60 locations. This resulted in massive lines that frustrated many of the voters to the point where they gave up. For those who actually waited in those long line, they waited for hours to vote. Polling in Arizona closed at 7pm their time, yet there were reports of people waiting to vote as late as 1:30am, that is a 7+ hour wait in line. These events have caused many throughout the United States to start several petitions to have Arizona revote, have UN officials oversee the voting, and a possible class action lawsuit. Even the governor or Arizona, Doug Ducey has called for changes to the voting process. It has just been reported that a protest in Maricopa County is being set up. At this point, regardless if Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump won Arizona officially, the whole Arizona Primary has been tainted by the action of those put in charge.

Shift On The Horizon?

To be honest, I think Bernie Sanders' win with a landslide in Utah and Idaho is a major shift in this election. A few weeks ago before I started this blog, I stated that almost all of Hillary Clinton's guarantee states were over. From this point, there are no more guarantee states for Clinton. The states that are coming up now are classified as more liberal and they are in turn, in more favor to Sanders than Clinton. To put it simply, do not be surprise to see Bernie Sanders catching up to Hillary Clinton in the delegate counts up to this point.

On the Republican side of things, I do not see any change between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. However, that does not mean Cruz is not a threat to Trump.

So exactly how much of a threat is Cruz to Trump? The answer is a major threat as Trump may not get the needed delegate count to get the nomination. How about Sanders to Clinton? Remember, Sanders is a candidate that no one knew about and over time, has taken away Clinton's inevitable nominee status. As of last night, MSM has reported that Clinton may not get enough delegates in time for the convention. I will like to say that alone makes Sanders a major threat to Clinton.

Edits:

Edit #1

Things have certainly gotten interesting in Arizona. As stated before, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has publicly called for a change to the voting process. What has also been reported since then was that Phoenix, AZ Mayor Greg Stanton is calling for an investigation from the Department of Justice into the issue with long lines. On top of that, a special meeting has been called for Maricopa County on Monday March 28 at the Arizona State House.

There has also been reports of Bernie Sanders campaign office in Arizona getting hacked. This lead to Anonymous getting involved with an investigation of their own. To sum things up, they are trying to answer the following:

1. Whether the allegation that Sanders' campaign was hacked true?

2. How easy is it to changes someones election status?

3. Did this only affect Sanders' or did it affect the other campaigners as well?

4. Why were less than 35,000 votes tallied in Maricopa County when they have a population of roughly 4 million?

The End of Late Night on the MBTA and What It Means For Commuters

Of all things that could get me started using blogger, this was the subject that got me to actually start a blog. Then again, it is a service I use on a weekly basis. Due to this, I think it is worthy of being my starting post.

Before we talk about what is happening now, let's go back to the original "Night Owl" service of Boston’s MBTA. I was one of the few to remember the service and it was a service I appreciated. I will be honest, I really didn’t use it much due to the fact I was a freshman at college at the time. However, I did use it at the end of it’s life, including after the 2004 ALCS win of the Boston Red Sox over the New York Yankees and after several work days where I left at 1am. I will admit, the service was certainly a convenience but I didn’t really need it too much.

Jumping ahead several year, I really didn’t see a need for late night service. Lucky for me, I take Bus 111, one of Boston’s busiest bus routes, which leaves after 1am from Haymarket as it needs to wait for the last train with many times a full bus (50+ passengers). Many of my work shifts would end between 11:30pm-12:30pm because I was still a college student. It wasn’t until years later until I realized how important a late night service is to people who work late nights.

Since I was no longer a college student, my responsibilities increased at my work. So much so that some nights, I will not leave until 2am, sometimes even later. One question that I seem to see on many comments regarding the end of late night is “how did they get home before?” I cannot speak for everyone but I can speak for myself. During the nights where I will be working late, I had 4 options, car pool with another employee, take a taxi, driving in, or in the worst case scenario, walk. All three options had their own issues.

 

My Personal Experiences

Car Pooling

This may be the most explanatory solution of the 4. It is extremely convenient to have a co-worker who lives in your area and who drives in. Most of the time, they will give a ride since it is on the way anyway. The down side though is if the co-worker is not working that day, then you are basically out of luck.

Driving In

This is most likely the most convenient of the 4 options, or what it appears to be. Boston has, what I believe, a major parking issue. First and foremost is that there is not enough street parking in the city but the biggest issue is that parking in Boston is not economically feasible on a daily basis. Most garages are roughly $30 or more. If you were to look at it mathematically for someone who works 5 days a week, that will be $150+ per week or $600+ per month. Let’s say that the person is only getting a pay of $11/hr and works 40 hours per week and the cost of parking will be roughly 30% of their income before taxes are taken out. I will also like to mention that this does not include any tolls the person may have to go through to get to and from work.

Taxi

The taxi should be an easy solution but in actuality, it isn’t. If you ever tried to get a taxi after 1am, you will know that it is extremely difficult to get one. I remember a time I got out of work around 2am and not getting a taxi until around 3am.

Not only is it difficult but there is no guarantee you will get a taxi or that the driver will cooperate. I know now that this is against the guidelines/law (not sure what it is exactly) for taxis but there have been times where I will be asked to get out of a taxi after saying my destination.  In essence, the taxi driver did not want to go over the Tobin or through the Callahan/Sumner Tunnel due to the fact they have to pay tolls. This means that if you live in Everett, Revere, Chelsea, East Boston, Winthrop, and so on, you may not be able to get a taxi at all.

Last negative with taxis is also that it isn’t economically feasible either. Although it is not as expensive as driving in, it still takes a good chunk out of your income. I will like to mention that some of the charges is also due to the tolls the taxi has to go over. Let’s take an example of Haymarket in Boston to Bellingham Sq in Chelsea. The ride will come out to be around $20 with toll fees included. If I were to use the same example as I did for driving in (someone working 5 days at $11/hr), weekly expenses will be $100 and monthly expenses will be $400, which comes to roughly 20% of one’s income.

Now before I end this section, I will admit the pricing is based on the distance and tolls. For example, going from Downtown Boston to Back Bay would be cheaper than going from the same place to Brighton. Same goes for Downtown Boston being cheaper for those going to East Boston than it is to Revere, although I believe Downtown Boston to Brighton is cheaper than Downtown Boston to East Boston due to the toll.

Walking

Now this is something no one wants to do but to me, it has partially happened. One night, I was not able to take the taxi as I had no money (this was before taxis were required to have card readers). My last resort was to call someone but when that failed. I decided to just walk. If you want to know how dangerous that was, since I was going to Chelsea, I had to follow Rt 99 from Boston through Charlestown through Everett to get to Chelsea (looking at it now, it would have been a little more than a 5 mile walk). Lucky for me, though, I was able to get someone while I was at the Bunker Hill Community College area but if I wasn’t able to, I would have continued walking.

I will be completely honest, I have shown my disapproval of the MBTA’s decision to late night service. It appears I wasn’t the only one as the Federal Transit Committee also came out with disapproval. From my perspective, they could have done things much differently to save money than cutting the whole program entirely. After all, they did have the data to do see what can be done.

My opinion on what could have been done

Bring Back the Night Owl System

I mentioned the Night Owl earlier in my post but did not go into much detail regarding it. The service when it was running replaced all subway lines with busses and only major routes will have a bus operating. In all honesty, I do not know why they could not bring this back in a modern form. My suggestion would be running Subways until 1am (giving an additional 30 minutes to normal service rather than an hour) with busses replacing the Subway from 1am to 1:30am. That way, there would be a savings on the cost for keeping the subway running while people are able to use the system.

 
Make the System Seasonal

The biggest issue I have seen firsthand is that there would be low ridership in the winter months while high ridership in the summer months. In my opinion, the MBTA making the late night service from Q1-Q4 (March-December) or even Q2-Q4 (June to December) would have definitely be a solution. Notice I ended both in December. That is because Q1 (January – March) is typically cold where people do not want to walk to the nearest station and would rather find other means of transportation. Mind you, their term for Q1 may be entirely different that what I think it is.

Increase Fares for Late Night Riders

This may not be popular but it could be understandable. Making the late night, say $5 for subway and $3 for busses (even maybe as high as $7 for subway, $5 for busses) stating at 12:30am would have been more reasonable than cutting the whole service. It definitely would have been cheaper than the other options (I will talk about Uber and Lyft later, and maybe Bridj).

What I think will happen now

Oh boy, this is only speculation but I can definitely see this happening. I must remind the readers that this is my opinion on what I believe will happen.

At Subway/Bus Stops

People are creatures of habits and since this program nearly lasted for 2 years, I believe people have made a habit of their schedule by now. I would not be surprised to see people go to a subway station to be surprised that it is closed at 2am. Same can be said about bus riders waiting at bus stops for the next bus that will not come.

Taxis

I can see an increase of taxis being used but at the same time, I can see the actions of my experience with taxis become more common. The fact that they all have card readers is a plus but I can see some taxis refusing to provide service to passengers. For those who will be using taxis, remember these two things. Taxis cannot refuse a passenger due to where they are going and for Boston Taxis (not sure if it is everywhere else as well), they cannot and are not suppose to operate without a functioning card reader. Notice I said functioning because some drivers may say the card reader is not working.

Uber/Lyft/etc.

Services like this have come out saying they will help those who need it. Unfortunately, the help they will provide will be temporary. Between 1am and 2am is when clubs and bars let their patrons out and they will be demanding these services as well as workers. With that said, do not be surprised to see a normal $5 dollar rider turn into a $50 ride.

Bridj

Last but not least is a company I really don’t know much about, Bridj. This company is definitely something that should be watched at in the near future, especially since they do look like they are going to be the best option. The only concern of mine is the same with taxis, tolls. Will Bridj charge a fee for going over tolls or will Bridj work side-by-side with the MBTA/MassDot so they won’t have to deal with tolls? Time will certainly tell.