Not only did I not know how to bypass the gates on the MBTA subway system, but when I had a good reason to look for that information*, I could not find it.
*I had purchased a monthly commuter rail pass that was supposed to include a month of unlimited use of bus and subway. Unfortunately, getting rained on broke the subway functionality. Commuter rail conductors and bus drivers just looked at the pass and let me ride, but I couldn't use the subway unless I could find a subway worker [not all stations have them] and tell a convincing story. Or just pay for another ride, which really seemed unfair. Jon Meltzer's comment on Making Light was the first I had heard, in 10 years of living near Boston and regularly using the MBTA, that it was possible to bypass the subway gates (other than the way I'd been doing it--convince a sympathetic MBTA worker to just let you in.) I could not figure out how to do so without asking him, and I chose not to ask him.
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*I had purchased a monthly commuter rail pass that was supposed to include a month of unlimited use of bus and subway. Unfortunately, getting rained on broke the subway functionality. Commuter rail conductors and bus drivers just looked at the pass and let me ride, but I couldn't use the subway unless I could find a subway worker [not all stations have them] and tell a convincing story. Or just pay for another ride, which really seemed unfair. Jon Meltzer's comment on Making Light was the first I had heard, in 10 years of living near Boston and regularly using the MBTA, that it was possible to bypass the subway gates (other than the way I'd been doing it--convince a sympathetic MBTA worker to just let you in.) I could not figure out how to do so without asking him, and I chose not to ask him.