CharlieLitter

We're starting to hear more and more complaints about Charlie. Not the automated fare collection system now at 43 stations, but the littered CharlieTickets that has come with it.

"With the new fair collection systems in place at Hynes, not much has changed from a daily commuting standpoint," wrote Abraham of Boston. "What has changed though is the amount of garbage in and around the station...The MBTA was counting on its riders hanging onto and refilling their paper CharlieTickets, but that has not happened thus far...The people of Boston are feeling no sense of ownership towards their paper tickets like the people of New York City do towards their more tactile plastic Metro Cards, and are in turn disposing of them without a thought."

"Does the MBTA have a plan...for combating the growing number of CharlieTickets that are beginning to litter our streets and our T?"

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the T will talk with cleaning contractor and customer service agents about the litter, making "every effort to stay on top of it." More importantly, in the next two or three weeks, riders should start seeing CharlieTicket trash cans on one side of the fare gates with the message "Please deposit CharlieTickets here," which will hopefully cut down on the sloth.

A reminder from Pesaturo that Boston is six weeks away from the distribution of the credit-card-like CharlieCard, and he predicts hundreds of thousands will be in people's purses and wallets by the end of the year.

With this new technology, the CharlieTicket should decrease in useage as the reuseable CharlieCard increases. Still, in the meantime, pick up after yourself.