8.24.2005

Another nuisance uncovered

It's become clear to me that having a nice car and keeping it nice is impossible in Boston. Over the past few months I have had my car damaged by several bad Samaritans who have either "rubbed" my bumper or rear quarter panel in parking lots. They have kindly decided of their own accord that the damage wasn't enough to bother leaving a note to tell me of their insurance agents, and now I have a nicely marked up bumper. Anyone with a fairly new car knows that a bumper scratch can't be repaired to look like new, either.

And then there's the lovely mark of missing maker logo from my trunk, stolen by some miscreants who have nothing better to do in summer.

Today, however, was yet another example of a Boston driving phenomenon: the idea that no one behind me matters. I was nearly at my exit this evening when, by virtue of others ahead of me leaving my lane, I was behind a blue pickup truck with a load of some kind of gray sandy matter in the bed. It could have been pre-mix concrete or just stone dust, but there it was in the back and covered only by a couple of long-handled spades. As traffic picked up speed, the wind carried the particles out from the bed and I could hear them making pock marks on my hood's finish and on my windshield.

What's more, a smallish rock caught flight and landed square against my windshield taking out a small nick in the glass. It's not big enough to cause a problem, but it is big enough to be noticeable. Just another legacy of the evening commute.

Uncovered loads, which I believe are illegal in Massachusetts, are cause for a lot of problems in my travels around this state. I've been behind large dump trucks with their canvas tops doing little to prevent their overloaded hoppers from letting off a little "material." Usually, I'm glad to give these trucks a wide berth, and thanks to the mentality in Boston that an open hole on the highway must be filled, I can usually count on someone cutting in front of me who is willing to act as a sand and stone deflector.

But what's a driver to do? I've called the phone numbers on the sides of offending trucks to alert their owners that one of their drivers is causing a hazard (thank God for cell phones in that regard -- and I use a headset, so I'm not entirely a hazard myself while driving and talking). Mostly they are apologetic, but I don't know if it ever goes anywhere. I've thought of calling the police, local or state depending on the road, but I don't believe they're going to take the call seriously. I suppose they would if I reported that gravel was flying out of the hopper, but that rarely happens. It's mostly sand or fine loam particles.

Therefore, I'm left to just settle for calling the companies, and hope they will be kind enough to scold their drivers for being careless with their loads. If more of us drivers did the same, perhaps it would change things. But I've lived here too long to be that idealistic.

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8.23.2005

Next on Animal Kingdom: The aggressive white male driver

They lurk among us as upright-walking beings. They are husbands, brothers, uncles, even fathers, but like the werewolf, under the right conditions these men can transform into one of nature's most dangerous creatures: The aggressive while male driver.

Seen mostly on the roads in Massachusetts, he has been known to go on car trips elsewhere and exact his ruthless behavior on unsuspecting and mild-mannered motorists. The aggressive white male driver can usually be found in some kind of truck or SUV or sporty car, usually trying to compensate for his own feelings of inadequacy in various capacities. It's the power of the big engine that gives the driver a feeling of power over the weaker-engined drivers. Some of them disguise themselves in minivans when their spouses are too busy to ferry the children.

The aggressive white male drivers are neither nocturnal or diurnal. They are out at all times of day and feed indiscriminately. Their favorite source of sustenance: small Japanese vehicles with four cylinder engines. Usually the four-cylinder driver doesn't even know she's under siege until her rear-view mirror is filled with the word "FORD" on an emblem that seems as big as the back window itself. The aggressive white male indicates that it is about to pounce usually by swaying from side to side to indicate that is looking for a passing lane. Sometimes, the way other animals flash their teeth as a warning, the aggressive driver will flash his high beams on the person who isn't driving 40 miles per hour over the speed limit on surface roads.

We see this example: This morning in Hyde Park, a blue Chevy S10 (not the most powerful of trucks, of course) rolls up behind an unsuspecting driver on a road that is one lane in each direction. As the road is about to become two lanes, the S10 sways from side to side to try to go around the non-aggressive driver. Once the slower driver doing the speed limit picks a lane, the aggressive driver picks the other lane to plow through at top speed. But wait! Danger ensues for both the aggressive driver and the law-abiding one because there's a line of stopped traffic ahead in the aggressive driver's lane. Those poor drivers are waiting to make a left. Deciding to put all drivers around him in jeopardy for the thrill of the kill, the aggressive driver guns the engine and swerves out of the lane at the last second and cuts off the aforementioned slower driver, forcing him to jam on his breaks and miss the light. Luckily the slower driver writes a weblog about these natural phenomena.

There have been attempts by police to contain the aggressive white male driver in recent years, but it's not something they will ever be able to completely eliminate. It's a scourge that is here to stay, much to the lament of honest, law-abiding drivers everywhere.

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8.21.2005

Another Boston delight

Writing this weblog for a few months now has given me the opportunity to consider the root of why we all drive so bad around here. Some of it comes from years and years of selfish drivers begetting more selfish drivers, but I would guess a large part comes from the road design.

Since most of the main roads around here, except highways, are at least 100 years or more old. Some were the first roads of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Those old roads can be forgiven for their windy, hilly and narrow layouts. But there wasn't any desire to create new roads designed to carry traffic efficiently, except perhaps in the past 20 years. That has left us with narrow roads, especially in Boston, that are one way for one part and the opposite way for another (ever drive in the South End or in parts of Brookline?). As Boston expanded and larger lots in the streetcar suburbs were subdivided, there wasn't any rhyme or reason to their layout. It's probably just what would allow the most houses under the zoning rules.

Even the highways around here give their designers a bad name. Some of the more recently built highways, like the southern portion of Route 495 from Franklin to Route 25, Route 24 and even the Mass. Pike and the new underground section of Route 93, show there was some thought to how drivers access and egress these roads.

But then there are those parts that are reminders of bad planning gone worse. Some include the narrow and windy stretch of Route 128 from Peabody to the sea, or the interchanges along Route 128 and Route 3, where the entrance ramp and the exit ramp share a lane under a bridge. The same goes for the interchange at Route 93 and 128 in Reading. Ugh.

To me, the worst offender of all, is the lane drop. I can think of three right off the top. Route 3 South in Weymouth. Route 128 North in Peabody. Route 128 South in Wellesley. All three drop off in the middle of the road. There are signs, but who reads signs?


The Wellesley lane drop will be fixed someday when MassHighway adds a fourth lane to Route 128 in both directions from Wellesley to Route 24. That project is already underway in Westwood and Dedham, but it's going to take about 10 years to complete. Big surprise.

The other two, well, my bet is that they are here to stay. The Weymouth lane drop gets a reprieve during rush hour when people can drive in the breakdown lane all the way down to Marshfield. That's helpful, but the breakdown lane just becomes a right-hand high-speed lane. As for the one in Peabody or some town near it, I don't know why the lane doesn't drop at the exit a few hundred feet before it. All I know is, I make sure I leave enough room for the inevitable jerk who takes the open lane to speed down it only to find out it's ending abruptly and he has to merge.

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8.20.2005

Running of the brides


Here's something that makes Boston driving look like a walk through the gocery store.

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8.17.2005

The worst roads

Boston is known for its bad roads in terms of traffic and navigation. But what places around Boston have the worst roads to drive on?

Mrs. Boston Crazy Driving and I recently drove to North Carolina, and we drove over some of the smoothest highways we have ever known. Ironically, it was the toll roads in New Jersey that were in the worst shape outside of Massachusetts. On our way home from Raleigh, we hit a bumpy patch on a county road and I said, "This is the first bad road we've been on." True, southern roads aren't beset with the freeze-thaw phenomenon that occurs in colder climates like Boston, but there's more that plague road surfaces than temperature changes.

I was reminded of my North Carolina observation tonight while driving through Dedham. Having grown up south of Boston I have known Dedham my whole life, and in all that time I can never remember Dedham ever paving certain roads. Whether it's East Street, High Street, Bridge Street, Emmett Avenue, River Street, and some of the side streets, they all seem bad. Only the stretch of East Street from the rotary in Endicott to the rotary at Route 128 is decent, and if memory serves that required a Proposition 2 1/2 override to pay for it. The town also repaved Court Street and put in a clever roundabout to slow traffic, and it also put in some great traffic-slowing measures in front of the Riverdale School. But don't drive on Pine Street in front of Noble and Greenough School, because you won't have much of a suspension when you're done.

So, tonight, as I'm driving over Pine Street, I wonder what Dedham does with its excise tax and state road money. Towns are supposed to use money from the state gas tax, which in government speak is called Chapter 90, and excise tax (at $25 per thousand of car value) to pay for road and sidewalk improvements. I don't have the town's budget in front of me, but I bet the state kicks in a few million gas dollars every year. And if only one third of the town's roughly 30,000 residents have a car registered in the town, there's still several hundred thousand in revenue. That must be able to pay for a grind-and-resurface job on a few roads every year.

I'm opening it up to my reader (singular=self-deprecating joke) to decide. Put in your two cents on which town has the worst roads. Runner up in my book is probably Braintree, but I haven't been there regularly in awhile. I know Washington Street was repaved in a major rebuild, but before that it was garbage.

Your comments don't have to be about a town, they can be about a specific road or stretch of road.

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8.11.2005

Timid drivers

This is in line with the earlier post about the drivers who don't know where they are going. Timid drivers bug me. These are the people who stop at green lights to let someone make a left in front of them because they are afraid of being cut-off. These are the people on the highway doing 50 in the right lane with both white-knuckled hands on the steering wheel.

Just today I had someone say to me, "I have my husband drive me here, because I don't drive in Boston. It's just too crazy."

Of course I laughed to myself because I know the concept all too well. Boston's drivers are indeed crazy. But they are nothing to be afraid of. Any driver with the good sense to pay attention can make it in Boston. Sure, he or she will be cut off, honked at, given the finger and more. But all of that is harmless. It's nothing to be afraid of, like thunder.

For my part, I usually end up behind a timid driver who sits at a four-way stop and waves all the traffic through in all directions until the queues are empty.

But the worst is when I am sandwiched between a timid driver in front and an aggressive driver behind. I wish I had one of those little electronic signs in my rear window that, with the press of a button would display a number of messages, and in this case would read, "Hey! I can only go as fast as the car in front of me. So, Back off!"

I have patience when I ride in the car with a timid driver, but I make a note not to ride with that person too often. And when I have a timid driver in the car, I say "Close your eyes and hold on. I am in control."

My theory about the timid driver is that all possible scenarios (rational or irrational) occlude this person's driving acumen. That any number of things that could go wrong are swimming around in the driver's mind so they cannot make proper driving decisions. That adds to his or her frustration about driving and it leads to further unsafe driving conditions.

Now, I'm not making a case for timid drivers to get off the road, and I am actually quite grateful to the people who have the sense to admit to their timid driving and ask someone else for a ride. But for those who won't or can't do that, at least make sure you're keeping up with traffic, and if you do get lost, pull over safely and in a safe spot.

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A sign of an early winter?

This doesn't have much to do with driving except that I was in the car this evening on my way home and I noticed birds or geese flying in the tell-tale V formation. They weren't exactly flying south, but there was no mistaking that shape.

It's hard to imagine that on a 90-degree day in August the birds and geese are gearing up for winter. Look out Boston, I guess another long winter of crazy driving is ahead of us.

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8.09.2005

Which way do we go, Marge?

I'm tired of being behind people who don't know where they are going. It's easy to spot them. They're either driving really slow to look at the address numbers or street signs. Or, my personal favorite, they get to a green light and stop because they don't want to make a wrong turn. This usually causes me to jam on my brakes because I, like most drivers with common sense, expect traffic to move while the light is green.

What's more, I hate to be behind drivers who don't know where they are going, but they happen to be going the same place I am. I wish I had a PA system in my car so I could scream, "Pull over dammit and follow me!"

Most recently I was behind a minivan (I have particular thoughts about minivan drivers that are appropriate for another post), and the driver was going along as if he were feeling his way. He stopped at the green light at Route 60 and the fellow's near Haynes Square in Medford. Then he went straight. He inched through Haynes Square heading towards Route 93. He proceeded to randomly slow down and nearly stop to look at side streets to see if any of these were his turn. After a few instances, I got the picture and gave this guy a lot of car lengths, but that didn't set well with the guy behind me. I caught up with him at the rotary under Route 93, where he stopped in the rotary to let incoming traffic pass and eventually circled out of my sight.

This is just one example of the countless times I have been behind someone who is so caught up in how to get somewhere, that the person doesn't realize there are others waiting to get somewhere else. I try to sympathize by not using my horn because, as the saying goes, "there, but for the grace of God, go I," meaning I might be lost and need to find my way somewhere. But I get frustrated at the blatant carelessness for the other drivers on the road that these lost ones have, and sometimes I just have to let horn fly. Usually it's a friendly toot to arouse them from their somnambulent state, but sometimes I need to repeat as necessary until the get the picture. I never gun it past someone with my horn blowing in utter disgust and rage, though.

With these experiences in mind, I try to be considerate of other drivers when I am lost or looking for someplace. Usually I will start my trip by getting a map from the often dreadful Mapquest. Luckily my knowledge of the main roads of Eastern Mass. will help me to avoid Mapquest's sometimes peculiar routes. If, however, I am still lost or unsure as I am driving, I don't hesitate to pull over in a legal and safe manner to a part of the road that will allow others to pass as unimpeded as possible. I don't jam on my brakes.

If I need to turn around, I don't bang a Uey. I drive along a little further and make a legal left onto a road, and I don't scoop out the end of the road.

I usually won't ask for directions, mainly because I find people cannot give directions.

"Go down and go through three lights. No. Two lights. Then take a right. You'll see a gas station. Oh wait. That's an ice cream place now, but it closed. Well, just keep going on that road until you see a Dunkin' Donuts. Turn left there..."

You get the picture. Telling me to look for a Dunkin' Donuts? Please. That's like telling me to turn at a tree.

However, I buck the stereotype that men don't ask for directions. But instead of rolling up and screaming out of my window. I pull into a place, park in a legal spot, get out of my car, properly address a person and ask politely for directions. Why? Because I've been on the receiving end of some guy leaning out of driver's side of a lime-green Saturn saying, "Hey, can you tell me where High Street is?"

"Yeah, pal, you're on it."

Speaking of which, another reason I have sympathy for people who don't know where they are going is because of our poorly marked roads. I'm not talking about the highways, which carry two or three route numbers heading in opposite directions at the same time. I'm talking about surface streets, and if there's a sign at all it's small and hard to read, especially at night.

Some towns have started to correct this by purchasing large, high-contrast, reflective signs that mark streets well, but the majority of our roads are unmarked. Some of the roads have only a couple signs indicating their name from beginning to end. It's like the sign people decided only the people who get on at or pass certain intersections deserve to know which road they're on. That's Boston for ya.

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8.02.2005

Just some links

Here's a few links to recent stories about driving in Massachusetts. Most are sad. One is all too familiar.

Crash claims lives of 4 youths

Woman battles for life after driver barrels into Lynn sausage stand

Pair of multicar crashes send 10 to ERs

UMass math prof dies after being hit by truck

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Tip would be embarrassed

There's news today that the federal transportation bill that passed the House of Representatives yesterday named the northbound and southbound lanes of the Route 93 tunnel through Boston after the late local political legend and former House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill. What a disgrace to the name of a great politician, and the man who's legacy can claim partial credit for the project.

I can't find an online news source to link to, but I heard it on both television and radio. I was surprised to think that Congress believed this was a good idea until I realized that there probably aren't too many congressmen in Washington who remember Tip very well to object.

I have written here in the past that the new tunnel is a marvel of design and has improved traffic significantly in Boston, even before the project is completed. However, I believe if Tip were alive today he would be embarrassed by the seven-fold cost increases, the shoddy construction and the continued lengthening of the completion date. I bet he wouldn't even want to be associated with the project at all, not to mention have part of it named after him.

That said, I didn't like the Liberty Tunnel name either. Does the tunnel even need a name? I suppose. Everything has a name. After all, it replaced the Fitzgerald Expressway, not to be confused with the Southeast Expressway, which exists today as living oxymoron. I call the tunnel the Underground Car Wash, but I doubt that would have been approved. Anyone care to suggest a name or share what you call it?

In the end, the leaky tunnel will have a plaque affixed to it, and maybe even a nice sign, that tells drivers it is named for a great man, a great politician and a great booster of Boston on the national scene. And hopefully by then it won't be an embarrassment to Tip or to Boston.

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