I was quickly confronted by Daniel Dombak, a Marketing Director for Equity Office (which manages South Station), and informed that I was on private property and couldn’t distribute flyers without a permit.

“Are you going to arrest me and drag me out of the station for handing out flyers to reporters?” I asked him.

“No, of course we’re not going to drag you out of the building,” he responded, but in fact that’s exactly what he intended to do.

A few minutes later, a Transit Police officer approached me and informed me that I was not allowed to distribute written materials on MBTA property without a permit.  We went back and forth for several rounds with me trying to get her to explain in plain English what would happen if I continued to distribute flyers.  She finally claimed that yes, if I continued to distribute the flyers after being asked to stop, I would be arrested.  The police officer, against whom I have no complaint because she was just doing her job, informed me that of course I could talk to reporters as much as I wanted; I just couldn’t hand them pieces of paper.

This entire exchange was witnessed by Wade Roush, Chief Correspondent for Xconomy Boston.  He subsequently interviewed me about this incident and about the problem I was attempting to bring to light. [UPDATE: Roush's Xconomy article which discusses what happened to me: MBTA Data Helps [sic] Google Users Get Around Boston]

I would have enjoyed getting arrested, because that would definitely have given some much needed publicity to the issue I’m trying to get fixed, but I don’t think my boss or my family would have appreciated it all that much, so I decided not to push the issue.

Nevertheless, the trip was not a complete waste.  I managed to get flyers into the hands of a few reporters, and I was interviewed by one of them.  Furthermore, something even better happened.  Boston Transportation Commissioner Thomas Tinlin was there representing Mayor Menino, and I was able to talk with him briefly after the press conference.  He and I have corresponded in the past, so I used that to break the ice before asking what he recommended I do to get someone to fix the incorrect route information I’d been complaining about for over six years.  He told me to send my concerns to him by email and he would make sure they made it directly to Dan Grabauskas.  So I’ll give that a try and see what happens.

One final thing I’ll mention is that I was terribly amused by the number of people who praised Dan Grabauskas for so quickly taking advantage of new technology by getting the MBTA onto Google Transit.  “Quickly” indeed.  Apparently none of these people are aware that there are 70 transit agencies in 10 countries managed to find their way into Google Transit before Grabauskas figured it out.

The day I wrote to the city about this, I received a response from someone in the Transportation Department claiming that it would be looked into.  When I hadn’t heard anything back from him, I escalated on June 3 by sending email to Transportation Commissioner Thomas Tinlin.

I received a response from Commissioner Tinlin the next day.  He explained that the man who had responded to me on May 15 was seriously ill and had been in the hospital for several weeks.  He also assured me that he would look into the matter immediately.

Today, less than 48 hours after I first emailed Commissioner Tinlin, I received the following response:

Mr. Kamens,

Upon research it appears that a fairly new traffic investigator assigned to the ___ Street RPP program made an assumption that the entire length of ___ Street was to be Resident Parking. This, as you know was not the case.

In his attempt to be proactive he made this mistake with the best of intentions. I have spoken to him about the proper process which must be followed and he should contact a supervisor if any confusion in the field occurs again.

Having said all this the signs in question will be taken down beginning today. I do apologize for the confusion and inconvenience this has caused you and your neighbors.

Sincerely,

Tom Tinlin

There was a Transportation Department crew on our street removing the signs about ten minutes after this message was sent.

Very nicely handled.

Also, on the off chance that someone else encounters a similar situation in the future, I should mention the following for the record.  In his email to me on June 4, Mr. Tinlin summarized the process that’s supposed to be followed before a parking restriction is put into place: “Our policy as it relates to the establishment of a Resident Parking program is two fold. 1. A neighborhood petition circulated by the folks requesting which is then followed up by a series of community meetings, and 2. A request from the local elected officials.”