Funny things seen on the road recently

Last week I saw a guy in Malden on a sunny day driving an older Japanese mid-sized car wearing ski goggles, perhaps as sunglasses. Today, I saw an older model blue Dodge Caravan with the license plate "CAMRY." I wonder if the driver's spouse drives a Camry with the license plate MINIVN.

A long time ago, a coworker had a photo of a road sign post from some unknown place that was meant to alert driver's to a rough road ahead. The sign said "Frost Heaves," which is very common around these parts. Some jokesters took this to mean that poet Robert Frost was having some GI trouble, perhaps from a violent bout of the flu or maybe some bad shellfish and also posted signs reading "Poe Hurls" and "Barret-Browning Barfs" among others. If anyone knows where I can obtain this photo, please pass along a link or a photo itself. Much appreciated!

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posted by Tim @ 7:59 PM (0) comments

A witness to road rage

I've seen a lot of stupid maneuvers on the roads, as I'm sure most Boston drivers have. I've also made some, mostly because of a momentary lapse in attention or failure to double check it was safe to go. And even though I get angry at someone who makes a bad move does anything from crowding my space to putting my passengers and I in danger, I don't react the way a Mercury Milan driver did this morning on Route 93 North in Somerville.

We were traveling in a pack coming off the upper deck heading out of the city at a normal clip and the Milan driver had just passed me in the right lane. I made note of that car in particular because it looked a lot like a Toyota Avalon in my mind, and I started to think about how Mercury must be trying to compete when a silver BMW 3 series coming up the onramp from the Loew's cinema cut across the ramp's lane marker an into the Milan's lane at the same point as the Milan. Whoa! Luckily the Milan could move into the lane to his right.

That was scary enough for most of the drivers around them. I was about 10 seconds behind and essentially in a box seat for this whole scenario, so imagine what was going through my mind when I saw the Milan driver jam on his brakes, cut behind the Bimmer across two lanes to come up now on the Bimmer's right side, get back in front of the Bimmer and jam on his brakes. I had enough time to react if any of these point-proving acrobatics went awry, but the people around them quickly reacted by allowing the Bimmer to escape and move several car lengths ahead while also boxing in the Milan driver.

As I have said, I have been on both ends of the stupid move. I doubt the Bimmer intended to crowd out the Milan, but I still can't understand why so many people using that onramp fail to realize, or don't care, that they enter the highway in their own lane and will be able to change lanes further ahead. Many times I see cars, work Velasquez and tractor trailers making this move and it baffles me every time, because they are only causing a dangerous situation. Despite that, there's no reason to pull the crap that the Milan driver did. Perhaps he should write a blog about driving in Boston...

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posted by Tim @ 12:19 PM (0) comments

Podcommuting

As the weeks pass, I am learning more and more about the advantages of the iPod Mini my wife bought me this summer as a surprise gift. Since I first had it, I fell in love with the idea of carrying around one device the size of my wallet with all the songs I want in it. I immediately converted most of my songs from my not so vast CD library to mp3 and synced them with my iPod. Coupled with and iTrip FM transmitter so it can play through any stereo tuned to a certain frequency, this thing has become indispensable. Apple should send me a free one seeing as I have probably sold about six of these things for them: three minis, a 20-gig and two 30 gig video ones.

I have been listening to the thing pretty regularly, and more recently have discovered all of the free stuff available on iTunes, the searching database of audio and video files. Most interesting to me are files known as podcasts. These are audio and video files that people can access, most of them for free, that run the gamut on topics. I stumbled across one that comes from Virgin Radio in London called the Geoff Show. Anyone interested can search iTunes Podcast directory to find it, but you would have to be interested in things about the UK to bother. It's kind of a Matty in the Morning with fewer sidekicks. In fact, as I was making that analogy to a friend of mine today, I wondered if Matty had a podcast of his show and as the day progressed I wondered about other radio stations. So, I checked out some of the radio web sites tonight, and I wondered whether they have someone designing their sites, or do the let the interns do it? There were no podcasts on the stations, by the way (WBUR.org has some). The looks of some of these sites reminded me of surfing in 1996, and reinforced my opinion that Boston radio at least is way behind the rest of the world. Think they've even heard of podcasts or iPods for that matter?

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posted by Tim @ 8:35 PM (0) comments

Slip, sliding away

I went to bed last night after watching no fewer than four weather forecasts to see if the roads were going to be bad this morning. Almost all weather swamis (calling them forecasters gives them too much credibility) said the morning commute wouldn't be too bad, but the evening commute would be a nightmare. Guess what? They were wrong. It's now taking everyone an hour to go five or 10 miles. You know why? Because the people who plan the snow removal listen to the same forecasts we, the general public, do. So when the weather swamis goof up, the road crews get a late start.

As I was writing this post, my wife called to double check directions to a place she is driving to today in Ashland. As I was about to hang up with her, I heard a crack sound and she said, "Oh my God, I was just hit! I'm OK." We hung up so she could check for damage. She called right back to say there wasn't any, but the guy who hit her will be buying himself a new hood. My fear for her safety was magnified because she is six months pregnant. She really is OK, too, because she was wearing her seatbelt (a must by all passengers in our vehicles), she was stopped and the car barely moved when he hit her because he basically used her car to stop sliding.

Then I got to thinking about the fact that she was driving to Ashland in this weather on surface roads because the highways are so clogged. She normally works out in the boonies anyway, but Ashland is much further out. Makes me realize the price we pay for urban sprawl, and the fact that since most of the people she works with live in the sticks, they think it's no big deal for those of us in the immediate Boston area to make the trip. I think she should have turned around and called it quits after being hit, but I didn't even suggest it to her because she is too dedicated and conscientious to do so. I, however, feel like George Bailey, and I want to give her boss a piece of my mind the way he did to Zuzu's teacher.

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posted by Tim @ 8:18 AM (0) comments

Invisible copper

In case I have said so in this space before, let me say so now. Generally, I don't speed. I actually drive 20 mph in school zones when the lights are flashing and I follow posted speed limits on surface roads. I gauge my speed on interstates depending on the flow of traffic and weather conditions, like most people, but I'm not blazing past anyone either. Let me confess that I have received two speeding tickets in my life. One was justified, the other wasn't because I hadn't passed a speed limit sign yet, and I was using the rule of speed on a two-lane divided road (50 mph), the posted speed limit was 35.

So, I found it ironic that I had a cop tell me to slow down and pay attention on Thursday evening when I was on Route 16 heading towards Fresh Pond in Cambridge. I had left Arlington Center at about 5:30 p.m. and was heading was on Route 16 in the left travel lane. There weren't many cars around the car in front and me. In fact, there was one to our right and the ones behind were about 15 to 20 seconds back (that's a big gap).

As we approached the traffic signal at Fresh Pond, the car in front started to brake. I naturally thought he was braking for the red light ahead. This was not so. The driver was breaking harder than normal and I had to jam on my brakes to stop without creaming this guy. That's when I noticed a cop in his navy blue uniform (not very visible at night on a dark road) waving a reflective wand. That was the only thing reflective on him that I recall, and I noted that because cops on detail during the day wear reflective vests, so I don't know why this guy wasn't when he was standing in the middle of a busy state highway.

You know why he stopped us? To let one car make a left out of a side street. That was actually his detail duty; to let cars out of this side street. Fair enough. Once the car got out into our lane of travel, the cop signaled for the car in front of me to go, and for me to pull up so he can scold me. He tells me to slow down and pay attention. I told him I didn't usually travel this road, which is true, and I couldn't see him because he's wearing dark clothes and it's dark out before rolling up my window and carrying on with my journey.

Now, I don't usually mouth off to cops. In fact, I never do. It's a losing argument from the get go. Plus, my job has put me in touch with a lot of cops in a lot of Massachusetts towns over the years. I have developed some great relationships with them. I also have three cops living on my street. But I also know that some really get a hard on by putting on that uniform, and even the cops I know admit it. I doubt this guy was like that, but I couldn't help but get that impression from his behavior.

There was no reason to scold me. I wasn't speeding, and I was using the cues around me to determine the reason for slowing down. We were all approaching a red light. None of us was speeding. Both the car in front of me and the car next to me were braking, but suddenly not at the same rate. Then come to find out the cop stopped traffic to allow one car, not a line of cars, that hadn't been waiting very long to get out. But the car next to me didn't stop. It continued on to the light.

What I really wanted to say to the cop was that I was paying attention, and if he were paying attention he would have noticed the large gap behind us and waited for it to properly stop that traffic instead. In fact, it's possible that other car probably could have gotten out on its own, without the aid of a cop, given the space behind us. But, like I said, mouthing off to cops isn't a good idea. It's like arguing with a baseball umpire. The umpire ends up with dirty shoes and I end up watching the game from the clubhouse. Who wins in the end? The ump.

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posted by Tim @ 12:45 PM (0) comments

And, they're off!

This isn't just a Boston-area thing, but it's bothersome nonetheless. Who hates those people who sneak up in an open lane at a red light just to get by the line of traffic? I wish I knew how to post a poll. I bet there's a ton of people out there who would agree that this practice is annoying. But, I must confess, I used to do it a lot when I was younger, and still do it sometimes in certain cases. Though rare, in the case where there are two straight-ahead lanes on both sides of the intersection and one of the lanes on my side is open. I'm thinking about two-lane divided roads like any of the roads in the Parkway system, the Fells system, McGrath-O'Brien Hwys, etc.

What I never do, however, is use a dedicated turning lane to drive straight. Those lanes are marked as turning lanes for a reason. I have made the mistake in unfamiliar territory, and I can be gracious to others in a similar situation depending on how much they cock up traffic once they realize their error. But I have no patience for people who use turning lanes to get to the stop line ahead of the line of cars, or to cut in just before the light, you know, "to make time." I have news, unless you're behind a front-end loader a hay ride, you're not going to make much more time by sneaking a few cars ahead.

Then there are those intersections that have two lanes going straight usually to give drivers the option to change lanes if one is blocked by another driver's turning operation. There's one such intersection near my house like this. There were three lanes before the markings faded. One was for the bus stop, and two were for traffic. The left lane often gets blocked by a left-turning car and we all use the right lane to go around. When it works, it works like a charm. It doesn't work when the right lane is open and someone has sneaked up alongside traffic to try and be first through the intersection. That's because all the cars behind the car turning left are trying now to get into the right lane, but can't because it's being used by the driver trying to get by everyone. Or, in another instance, cars in both lanes are going straight, and the people on the right are trying to beat the people on the left. Trouble is, there's only one lane to receive the cars on the other side, especially when there's cars parked on the curb.

I think it goes without saying that this is dangerous. I have been nearly sideswiped, rear-ended or I've nearly rear-ended someone thanks to these selfish drivers. I would be curious to hear from people who do this what their thinking is. I say it's just to get a few cars ahead in line for sundry reasons. If I'm wrong, I'd love to know.

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posted by Tim @ 12:19 PM (0) comments

The artomobile

Was driving home on 93 South Tuesday night and kicked myself for not having my camera with me. Actually, I couldn't literally kick myself while driving, so I banged my steering wheel with the heel of my palm in self-loathing frustration.

In front of me was small older model lightweight pickup truck. I was so enamored of its paint job, I forgot to note what make it was, but it did have a white cap over the bed. The paint on this truck is hard to describe. The owner used it to make a statement or two. One of them was painted on the tailgate: "Art is cheap." Oh, the multiple entendres of that statement on this work of rolling art. The other statement is, I love my car and I love my craft.

As a writer by trade, it is hard for me to scoff at anyone else's interpretation of art and what someone else deems art. It is, as the cliche goes, subjective. I certainly wouldn't paint my car a pale shade of pink or purple, as this truck owner did, and cover that with random figures that at quick glance looked like crude outlines of eyes and eyelashes, but upon closer inspection might have more closely resembled cave drawings or hieroglyphs of the sun. Better yet, the figures could have been meant to resemble a Petri dish with countless amoebae floating about. Look at that, all that from a passing glance on a dark highway. (And yes, if I had had my camera, I would have tried to snap a photo while driving, though I don't know how well it would have come out in the dark.)

In general, I like art. My tastes trend towards the traditional scenes found in musty old museums, but I am interested in talking to today's artists who are reaching into new media, or repurposing old media. And I can see why a car would make such a great work of art. For starters, in and of itself, a car can be considered a work of art. A team of designers (probably artistically trained) spent months coming up with the shape of the truck's body while working within the limitations of the chassis dimensions and federal safety regulations. That's sort of like painting on flat canvas and then placing it around a stretcher.

Then, after who knows how many owners, the truck becomes the utilitarian inanimate device needed to cart around various original creations. It is otherwise nondescript if perhaps a bit tired looking. Then, one day, bored with the unoriginal look, the owner decided to take brush to it and make the art-hauling truck into the artomobile (that's my term, not the truck owner's). Suddenly this well-used pickup has been lovingly reinvigorated. Seeing this, and quickly calculating his or her cost, the owner decides the tailgate is going to bear a special message: Art is cheap. Indeed it is.

It was a treat to see this truck on the road, and it brought a smile to my face to see that someone was willing to stab a little independence into the mundane world of auto paint. If only I had my camera I could share it with all of my reader (singular on purpose in an attempt to be humorously self-deprecating).

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posted by Tim @ 11:01 PM (0) comments

Center lane exit

I have been driving Massachusetts highways for the better part of 15 years and a passenger for quite longer and in all my years I could never figure out exactly what causes certain accidents on the highways. Some days it can be blamed on the weather. In some cases it is alcohol or inexperience. But what about someone who has been behind the wheel for more than a few years, is apparently dead sober on a bone dry sunny day? This has always baffled me. I have chalked it up to not paying attention mainly. It could also be plain stupidity or arrogance, too.

I don't know what category this fits into, but it could have caused an accident. I was on 128 South recently in Reading (?), I'm not too familiar with the town lines on the highways to know if the 93 interchange actually sits in Reading or Woburn so forgive me. But I was attempting to go from 128 South to 93 South. Anyone who has done this at any time of day knows that this is akin to riding the go-carts on the Cape. There's about four different turning operations going on in less than 100 yards under the bridge that is 93. This is urban highway planning at its worst for sure, and it is difficult to maneuver when a steady stream of traffic from 93 North is coming down its onramp to 128 South to merge into the same travel lane that the 128 South traffic is using to access the onramp to 93 South. One misstep and it can be disastrous. A driver must be looking ahead to gauge the speed of the cars in front, to his side to make sure there is a clear opening and behind to make sure that opening is large enough to fit. It is very delicate but can be done easily.

Then enter a truck with a cracked windshield lettered with the John L. Ciman masonry company from Peabody. The driver of this truck decides he is going to attempt to exit 128 at 93 FROM THE CENTER LANE. And of course, he does it right in front of me. But the whole isn't big enough for us to merge together. I brake. The guy behind me, coming from 93 North and gaining speed, has to jam on his brakes and beeps. I beep, too for good measure. None of this fazes the good mason (who, by the way had a Peabody phone number with a 508 area code painted on the truck. Hasn't Peabody been in 978 for 10 years? I think it might be time to update, John). Perhaps it's moves like this that cause accidents that tie up traffic for hours. Just something to think about.

It is this type of maneuver that led me to start this blog in the first place. Here it is days later and I am still mad about it. Thank god I have this thing for therapy. It beats paying a shrink $250 an hour, or rather 50 minutes.

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posted by Tim @ 8:39 AM (0) comments

Left turn loonies

I can probably expand on this more, but I just wanted to quickly vent my rage at people who cut me off at red lights. You know the type. They're the ones who have already practically made their left turn before the light turns green. Then as soon is does, it's zoom-zoom! All traffic making a left turn must yield the right-of-way to ALL oncoming traffic, unless there is a dedicated traffic signal allowing the left turn traffic to go first.

More to come...

UPDATE: I promise to write more when I had time. Who knew it was going to take me several days? Anyway, the reason I wrote the above entry was because I had just been cut off by someone doing this very maneuver and without a turn signal. Anyone who cuts a quick left can be slightly forgiven for having the courtesy of giving me a turn signal to work with. Despite the turn signal, I don't like being cut off by someone in a hurry who pulls the right of way right out from under me. Nobody likes a cutter.

I can see where some drivers think that all left turning traffic gets to go first because some traffic lights are designed to move the left turning traffic through the intersection while all or most of the other traffic is stopped. These signals tend to ease traffic congestion even though it may take longer for the lights to cycle than if it were a traditional traffic light. Despite these signals, left turning traffic does not have the right of way EVER. If memory serves from when I was preparing for my learner's permit test, all left turning traffic must yield the right of way until it is SAFE to go. Also meaning NOT when you feel like you've waited long enough to turn.

Here's what the state Driver's Manual says: "When making any left turn, you must first yield the right-of-way to any: 1. Oncoming vehicle; 2. Vehicle already in the intersection; 3. Pedestrians or bicyclists crossing your intended path of travel." Yes, drivers must yield even for lowly pedestrians and cyclists in their path. Even though I'm sure the driver who is in a hurry will ask "Doesn't he know I have to get to Dunkin's before work or my whole day is ruined?"


My stock answer to anyone in a hurry to get somewhere on time: You should have left earlier.

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posted by Tim @ 6:20 PM (0) comments