Eh, I drove up from Providence, where I was staying with a friend, in morning rush hour traffic, to the absolute dead center of Boston (the building next to the Stock Exchange,) for a job interview. It was a piece of cake. I was actually surprised at what a nonissue traffic and navigation were. I left an hour early, on the advice of my friend, with nightmarish descriptions of Boston traffic ringing in my ears. I ended up cooling my heels at one of the 70,000 Dunkin’ Donuts and reading the paper before my appointment.
Meh. I’ve seen worse. Getting back out was a breeze too.
I can’t remember if those particular ones are still there but they are still quite common and you have to be in the know to figure out what you are supposed to do. Visitors get honked at if they are first at the light until everyone is mad. It is insane. I was going to post a rant about the lack of left turn arrows on very busy intersections. The only way to turn left is to make a suicide turn and hope the oncoming drivers aren’t high or to pull into the intersection and wait until the light turns red before you turn. That option only allows one or two cars to turn left at every light cycle and it still screws things up.
Don’t they have Ph.D.'s at MIT that study traffic flow theory? Has anyone ever thought to call them before building something?
I really don’t get the lack of signage in Boston, and the screwy traffic lights. Those are very fixable problems, and it sure as Hell doesn’t take a PhD from anywhere to figure out details like that. The only explanation after we spend a gagillion dollars on the Big Dig that I can think of has been cited above: If you don’t know where you’re going, or what you should be doing right now, you probably don’t belong here. Run for your life.
As for untangling mazes like the North End, I’m afraid it would take a Nobel laureate, or a very big wrecking ball. What can you do when four-legged animals were your civil engineers?
Yeah, I would definitely chip in just to stick signs on those damn lights to let people from out-of-town know that they’re on timed delay and that your car WON’T be hit by you making a left turn. I used to dread seeing an out-of-town license plate move into first position on those…
Also signs directing people how to maneuver a rotary would also help. A lot. Especially on that damned Fresh Pond one.
Yes, but if you don’t know where you are, or how to get there, you might be a foreigner. And if you’re a foreigner, you may even be one of those evil Lobsterbacks. And, By OG! This time the bastards won’t even be able to find Concord!
trying to stop chuckling long enough to compose herself
Here’s a turnaround: Whenever I’ve visited another city (save NYC and overseas), I’ve always been stunned at how, well…orderly traffic is. Cars stop at red lights. Pedestrians wait for the “walk” light. Roads are clearly marked, and – gasp – are laid out in a grid! Who the hell thought of that?!? What the heck is a *%^#%! grid?
I’m sure everybody realizes that geography is probably the most important reason why Boston is the way it is. Old city + not much land + commerce/business center of New England + tons of commuters = Boston’s Vehicular Reputation. There’s also the ethos of rugged noncorformity in that if something as mundane as jaywalking is considered illegal, of course we’ll disobey with pride.
I grew up here. I still live here. I’ve always taken the jaywalking and near-homicidal driving for granted because it’s always been this way. I’ve always done both without a thought that what I may be doing might be perceived as wrong/asshole-ish/weird to someone else.
An irony? In driver’s ed we, of course, were taught by the book. When it came time to practice on 128/95 and the other main roads, however. our instructor told us that except for the basic rules of the road, everything else was up for grabs because it was the only way to survive the other drivers. He was correct
You reply with the equivalent of “I know you are, but what am I?” and think that my posts suggest immaturity?
The situation where everyone allows each other to pass may be mutual beneficial, but that’s an unstable node. Each individual person has a personal incentive to tend away from ideal behavior; it is extraordinarily unlikely that everyone will cooperate as each person has a individual incentive to deviate from the ideal. It’s sort of like the Prisoner’s Dilemma.
I never said big city – I said a “real” city. Not that there’s any sort of objective difference; the definition of a “real” city is as nebulous as the insult dictates (as evidenced by the ensuing listing of “big” cities that are assumed to be “real” because of their size).
Yes, and this is what won the Nobel Prize in Economics this year, in part, the understanding that people constantly faced with shared sub-optimal outcomes will begin to cooperate such that everyone can reach the optimal outcome of travel speed by following the little sign that tells you to walk or stay put. Assholes like you haven’t figured this out yet, and I hate you for it.
Oh, yeah – one thing I forgot. In Boston we have blinking Green lights.
So what, you say, we have them elsewhere. They have them in Canadas. They mean that your side has an “advance green” (your side gets green before the other side, allowing you to make a left turn without getting hit).
Not in Boston it doesn’t. It’s just another way we screw with the heads of outsiders. Try to make a left at a blinking green and you’re likely to get hit. Because that’s not what a blinking green means here. As a matter of fact, nobody knows wha a blinking green means in Boston. I have a political cartoon to that effect.
(To be fair, even if a blinking green did mean an advance green in Boston, it still wouldn’t let you safely make a left turn at a light. Peoople would run through it on general principles.)
My favorite incident was when I was walking along Park Drive on my way to Simmons & saw a ladder truck with sirens and lights blazing some whipping around the turn from the Fenway onto Park Drive - and watched its starboard ladder detach, go flying through the air & hit 3 parked cars broadside. They didn’t even pause, but the fireman on the rear steering wheel seemed to be radioing someone as they continued on, I assume to have another firetruck come by to pick up the escaped ladder.
Man, I am really out of the loop. I remember when I was growing up there was nothing there…I get so frustrated at the traffic in that area I tend to turn left on to Rt. 16? 60? Whatever that is right off of Rt. 2 after Alewife to go into Medford and take a right on to Mass Ave to get into Cambridge. Or since my parents moved from lexington to bedford and we’re no longer right off of rt. 2, I generally take 93 into Boston.
Hey you are talking about my city there !!! :mad:
As someone else said, this is a city whose streets were designed as cowpaths and NOT for anything in the 21st century.
Add in the fact that there is always someone constructing somethingsomeplace, and you have serious mobility problems.
Because of these constraints on both motorists and pedestrians, the citizens of Boston have realized that they have to make do with what they have.
I’ll admit I jay-walk - a LOT. You can do it in front of police officers - it’s not enforced, mainly because it is a necessity. The light has been green for a while and there is NO car in sight - heck that is the perfect time to cross the street. (Yes, I’ll still run - just in case).
Now what could a pedestrian have done? Press the button for the “WALK” light and then wait and wait. Then when you get the “WALK” light, you have held up a bunch of cars that would not have otherwise experienced this delay. You see the inefficiency of this?
Yes, I’ll admit there are some people who will step off the sidewalk no matter what the traffic conditions are and I consider that behavior extremely rude (and sometimes lethal).
As for the public transportation and people not moving in to the subway car, bus, etc? Yeah, Bostonians are pretty bad about that. Then again there are some outsiders that are transgressors too. One of our subway lines connects to the Airport - oh and what fun that is !!! Sure people will carry those suitcases in 2" from the door and leave those right there. Heck, after all the world was designed specically for them right? I’ve also seen people put 2 huge suitcases on 2 seats and sit next to those. Oh yes, too bad if someone wants to sit. Hey you can’t sully your luggage with the dirt from a subway car floor. How plebian. How gauche. :rolleyes:
Well, that’s my view on the situation. I hope I’ve added a little something concerning Bostonian behavior - and shown that it’s not just the locals who are the rude ones.
Well, as i said in the OP, anbd reiterated later, i have no problem at all with jaywalking in general. I do it all the time. But there is, as your post suggests, a way to do it and a way not to do it.
Completely agree with you about this. I hate people who think that their luggage is entitled to a seat, and i take great delight in asking them to move it so i can sit down.
