Massachusetts driving observations (Boston: car insurance, neighborhoods, to live)

[dragonborn]

Originally Posted by mephie

I agree wholeheartedly. I would LOVE to see the police hand out tickets. It worked in Germany like you have mentioned and it worked in Switzerland.

I feel that if you have a car that can't get up to speed on an on-ramp, then you should replace the car because that is a safety concern for the roads you drive.

Or you can make the ramps longer as they do in the UK, where space is even more of a premium than it is in Massachusetts. Some of the on/off ramps on I95, I93 are downright dangerous and made worse by the indicisiveness of merging motorists who don't know whether to either 1) throw their vehicles into the lane, 2) slow down to a ridiculously slow speed to merge causing confusion or 3) stop completely.

Longer merge lanes would ensure that slower vehicles have ample time to adjust to the speed of motorway traffic before actually merging and approaching vehicles in the inside lane would have more time to see them.

The yield when merging law is ridiculous too. You should give priority to merging traffic as those vehicles have the least visibility. Make it law to allow vehicles to merge and not give the carte blanche to speed up to prevent someone merging, which is very dangerous, especially in poor weather conditions.

[mephie]

Yeah, well, that's not going to happen so you can either adapt and get a safe car or not.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by mephie

Yeah, well, that's not going to happen so you can either adapt and get a safe car or not.

What if I am in a tractor-trailer? Let's see who gives way in that case.

[mephie]

Originally Posted by massnative71

What if I am in a tractor-trailer? Let's see who gives way in that case.

They make safe trucks. Older trucks that may not be safe-- take it up with your employer. They have a responsibility to give you safe equipment.

I've never seen a truck that didn't seamlessly get on the freeway.

[nei]

I thought merge lanes in Massachusetts are decently long. Try merging on highways in NYC and its suburbs (especially the parkways). Extremely short onramps, you often have to accelerate from almost a standstill. Meritt Parkway in Connecticut is a similar style.

Generally, traffic entering the road must yield to traffic already there. Not having merging traffic yield sounds like it would disrupt expressway traffic and cause chaos.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by nei

I thought merge lanes in Massachusetts are decently long. Try merging on highways in NYC and its suburbs (especially the parkways). Extremely short onramps, you often have to accelerate from almost a standstill. Meritt Parkway in Connecticut is a similar style.

Agreed. Just drove the Henry Hudson, Hutchinson, Cross County and Merrit Pkwys yesterday. On the Henry Hudson you often have stop signs at the end of ramps with no merge space. You have to accelerate from 0-55/65 incredibly fast. You also have to do it with high traffic volumes which means picking a small gap and gunning it.

Only a few places in MA are like this. Some of Route 1 just north of Boston, bits of Route 2 in Leominster/Fitchburg, and a small stretch of Rout 6 on the Cape come to mind. But overall, I don't think MA has the worst merge lanes I've ever seen.

[BostonToKC]

Driving in the Los Angeles metro area (which is significantly larger and has more traffic at all times of day than the Boston area) is surprisingly much easier due to the mostly courteous drivers out there. Perhaps it is the weather and palm trees... Far fewer jerks and selfish motorists compared to the northeast in general.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by BostonToKC

Driving in the Los Angeles metro area (which is significantly larger and has more traffic at all times of day than the Boston area) is surprisingly much easier due to the mostly courteous drivers out there. Perhaps it is the weather and palm trees... Far fewer jerks and selfish motorists compared to the northeast in general.

I agree that it's easier, but I don't know if I agree with your reasoning. New York City is far bigger and it's in the Northeast. it's also easier to drive in than Boston. I don't think it's courtesy so much as it's an easier street grid (particularly in Manhattan), and a better ability to drive on congested roads. I find merging and changing lanes, even during rush hours in NYC, to be easier than in Boston. Also, if you miss a turn in Midtown Manhattan's grid, it's easy to just take the next one. In downtown Boston, if you miss a turn, you could end up completely lost. There's no doubt in my mind that this minor element of driving in Boston leads to a higher likelihood that someone will do something more desperate to make that turn whereas in Manhattan, it's not so difficult to go a block or two and make the turn if you miss it at first.

As far as the weather goes, I disagree too. Miami has palm trees and and nice weather. They are (arguably) the worst drivers in the country. Fast, aggressive, and ruthless.

I think it comes down to the layouts of the roadways and regional cultures.

LA may be bigger and more congested, but it's a city that was designed around the automobile. Though Boston is much smaller, it was built up LONG before the car existed. Most roads in Eastern MA are narrow strips of concrete laid over cattle paths and walking trails from the 1700s. It's not designed for cars.

Now you could argue that New York City was largely built up long before the car and you'd be absolutely right. However, New York City (out side of the Southern Tip of Manhattan) was pre-planned on a grid system and designed with wide boulevards that translated well into roadways fit for cars. NYC also had figures like Robert Moses who worked hard to create vehicular arteries into/out of the city (he is the central character in NYC's parkway system).

Miami, like LA, was built with the car in mind. The bad driving in Miami may be for other reasons. First, LA (and California in general) have a reputation for being a much more "laid back" culture than East Coast cities. Having spent a lot of time out there, I'd certainly agree that it's far more laid back overall than the East Coast. It's an overplayed stereotype, but there's some truth in it. At the same time, Miami has a LOT of immigrants from Latin American and South American countries like Cuba, Columbia, Argentina, etc. While I can't personally attest to the drivers in those places, they are largely reputed to drive faster and more aggressively than most Americans (or those in Mexico, etc).

[dragonborn]

I've driven in Miami and agree that it's the most terrifying place to drive in the USA. Never again.

[Cato the Elder]

Originally Posted by lrfox

In downtown Boston, if you miss a turn, you could end up completely lost. There's no doubt in my mind that this minor element of driving in Boston leads to a higher likelihood that someone will do something more desperate to make that turn

I grew up in LA and have spent considerable time driving in old European cities. There is truth to what you say, but I think it's only half the equation. The Boston streets were largely planned pre-automobile, but so were many cities in Europe. They're just as crowded, if not more so, but there's a certain road awareness and rules of the road that people adhere to.

Here in Boston, people seem to use the quirks inherent in the old roads to drive willy nilly. "Everyone else is doing it so I'll do it as well." Police, for the most part, seem to let this behavior pass or old hats know when and where they can get away with it. Speedtraps are set up (Somerville comes to mind in particular), but they seem to be about filling the coffers more than changing truly dangerous driving behavior. You throw in longer commutes, people running late, and newcomers who come from totally different driving cultures, and you have a recipe for m&$$holeness. In LA, you have a sprinkling of self-important people in luxury cars driving like this, but it's a relatively small percentage and the infrastructure, specifically tailored for automobiles, is better designed to absorb such behavior. Here, you have young, old, married, single, male, female - all segments of society - driving like this on roads that can't really handle traffic even on its best behavior, let alone the head-scratching moves you see every day.

So it's both the infrastructure AND openness to divergent driving behavior working together that makes the metro an especially harrowing place to drive.