” It’s gray, it’s white, it’s balding, and it’s coming.’’ says Christopher Hart of the Boston’s Institute for Human Centered Design about future users of the MBTA’s Ride. Today Eric Moskowitz wrote in the Globe this morning about a current Ride user profiling Penny Shaw…  BRAINTREE – Penny Shaw, a former teacher with a doctorate in French literature, was 58 when a series of falls brought her to the hospital with what doctors would diagnose as a rare neuromuscular condition. After five bedridden years, Shaw recovered enough to venture from her nursing home in a power wheelchair. Now she goes out a few times a week – to see friends, attend meetings, visit the library – using The Ride, the MBTA’s door-to-door service for the disabled. But changes in the service that have been proposed as part of the T’s broader deficit-cutting plan would drive up the $4 round-trip cost for Shaw and thousands of others to between $6 and $24, prices that some say would keep them homebound………….. Christopher Hart – director of transportation projects for Boston’s Institute for Human Centered Design, an organization promoting better infrastructure and product design for people of all abilities – has cerebral palsy and uses a power wheelchair. He also serves on the state’s Transportation Advisory Committee. Hart, 34, uses the bus and subway system for most trips from his Hyde Park home. But even with the investments the T has made, barriers remain for many – impassable sidewalks, unfamiliar turf – leaving The Ride as the only option.  “It really won’t hit until the baby boomers start giving up driving,’’ Hart said. “You can see the tidal wave. It’s gray, it’s white, it’s balding, and it’s coming.’’    

Meanwhile some folk are combing through Joe DeNucci’s 2008 report  on something called “interest swaps” that cost the MBTA some $55 million.

DeNUCCI SAYS RISKY DEBT PRACTICE
RESULTS IN INCREASED COST TO MBTA
State Auditor Joe DeNucci reported today that an investment practice intended to help
save money actually resulted in a $55 million increase in borrowing interest costs to the
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).
According to DeNucci’s report, the MBTA, in an effort to reduce annual debt service
costs, decided to utilize interest rate “swaps” to try to offset the impact of rising interest rates. A
swap is an agreement between two parties to exchange payments on different types of debt as a
way of hedging against fluctuations in interest rates.

One of the most common form of swaps is when the debt issuer and the counterparty exchange fixed and variable interest rates.

The MBTA, which carries the highest level of debt of any transit agency in the nation,
began this debt management practice in 2000. During the five-year period reviewed by
DeNucci’s office, the MBTA entered into 12 interest rate swap agreements with various
investment banks totaling $1.632 billion. As a result of these swaps, the MBTA received nearly
$31.5 million in interest and premiums. However, the MBTA made payments totaling more than
$86.8 million for interest costs and termination fees during the same period, resulting in a net
loss to the T of $55.3 million.