Boston Traffic is the worst in the country! (Cambridge, Washington: appointed, rent)

[gilwood]

Here's my rational for Boston traffic being worst in the country:

1) Boston drivers here are the rudest and most inconsiderate people imaginable. They are generally just angry people. drivers
here will blow their horn at you & flip you off if you saftely merge into their lane with plenty of room. Drivers use the least
amount of consideration when driving. Drivers commonly drive with one tire in another lane. It's been openly admitted to me by
several born and raised Bostonians that "using your signaller is a sign of weakness". What kind of mentality is one Where openly
breaking the law is considered to be cool? Drivers often use their cars to block oncoming traffic so they can make a slow left
turn. As stated in other posts, if someone doesn't blow their horn at you and give you the finger, you're almost disappointed.
Note: Most of these drivers are from different parts of MA.

2) Boston & Cambridge roadways are the most confusing in the country. The story told by every Bostonian is that the roads were
built upon old carriage ways and no improvements have been made. It's very easy to get lost here even with a GPS telling you
what to do every step of the way. Why? Expect 1 lane becoming 4 and you have to know exactly which lane to go straight and don't
expect to be able to merge back in without being flipped & horned. Expect curving three-way forks with no clear signs and the
GPS telling you to follow the road. Expect traffic lights with lighted green arrows at weird angles like 10 degrees and 35
degrees meaning green for the 2nd left but red for the off-kilter 1st left. Expect rotaries with up to 10 roads connecting to it
and people circling like angry bees waiting to horn & flip you. If you drive a mile, expect to encounter at least a few rotaries
or some other inane traffic construct here. There is no rhyme or reason to how the roads were constructed, so when you want to
make a left expect to see 3 consecutive one-way roads all saying "Do not Enter". I've even seen a discovery channel episode where
they compare NY to Boston and described NY with "flow-through" roadways and described Boston as a "maze". These are scientists
saying this, not just me.

3) Traffic congestion is terrible. The big dig was a big failure, it did nothing to alleviate traffic. It's common place to
figure around 10 minutes per mile when travelling around the city. So if you go 3 miles, expect it to take 30 minutes, even
worse during rush hour. The highways are jammed almost any time.

4) Pedestrians have the total right of way. So yet another thing to slow you down. Pedestrians commonly just smugly walk across
the road without even looking. Driving Mass ave with make you pull you hair out with the number of people crossing no where near
any crosswalks. Traffic rules are more like suggestions over here. Expect to see lots of cars just pulling U-turns randomly and
holding everyone up.

5) Most neighborhoods don't want traffic flowing through, so they construct crazy laws to force everyone into bottlenecks. So
you'll see signs like "No right turn from 7-9am" just when you need to make a right. Expect to see one way roads running into
each other and forcing everyone into a bottleneck. There's nothing like sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on an avenue, then
looking left and right for side streets to escape and seeing 3 consecutive "Do Not Enter" signs on both sides. Also expect to
see two traffic lights within 50 feet of each other with one green and one red and alternating back and forth.

6) Slightly off-topic, but the T (subway) stops running at 1am and the bars close at 2am (Just another of Boston's stupidities).
So 1AM-3AM is called "Taxi Time", when it's nearly impossible to get a cab in Boston. There will be dozens of people flagging
desperately to get a cab. Of course even the taxi's don't have a rule like having their signs unlit when they are occupied. So
people are practically stepping in front of a speeding taxi in attempts to get one only to find it's occupied.

7) Driving drunk is the only time Boston traffic makes sense. And at night half the drivers actually are drunk! When's the last
time you heard of a boston people with a DUI? It's like driving drunk is actually legal here.

Summary: I challenge anyone to come up with a combination of worse evidence like the type I presented here on traffic in another part of
the country. I crown Boston the Lord of evil traffic.

Now I expect the usual responses here:
- If you don't like it, why don't you leave? I signed a 2 year relocation contract, so I'm trapped!
- Why did you come in the first place? b/c noone warned me about how terrible this place is. Look at all the positive comments
about Boston on this board. These are all comments from people that have never set foot outside of MA.
- You won't be happy in any place. I lived in DC for a year and loved it there. My contract ended, so I had to leave. I lived
in NY for 5 years and loved it, it had some negatives, but nothing like Boston.
- Why don't just take the T (subway) everywhere? Firstly, It doesn't suit all places. If you want to live near a subway stop,
then you have to live at a "square" where rent is jacked up beyong belief. Besides, have you seen the green line? The subways
car drive in the same lanes as the car traffic!! So subway cars have to stop at red lights and sit in traffic. Who the hell
invented that?
- Why can't you see the positives? I don't think enough people have been warned about how bad it is here. If you're considering
relocating here, please don't make the same mistake i did. It's nothing personal to Boston people either, they endure quite a
hellish environment and still have the courage to smile.

Green Line MBTA - Back Bay - Boston, MA

[Cantabridgienne]

Oh God. Another "the T closes before the bar does so I'm FORCED to drive drunk" clown.


I do agree with you about overly aggressive drivers, careless drivers, clueless pedestrians jaywalking and paying a premium for easy subway access. But once you try to justify drinking and driving (wah, I might have to wait 10 minutes to hail a cab!) you just sound like an *******.

[gilwood]

I have no idea how you read that from what I wrote. I don't condone drunk driving at all. Actually, I don't even like drinking. I seriously haven't drank more than 2 beers in a night since I've been to boston. I actually feel serious peer pressure from Boston people to drink harder, which I have to staunchly refuse time and time again. I don't think drinking is cool like Boston people and I certainly don't think drinking & driving is cool since I lost a dear high school friend to a drinking & driving accident. One of the reasons why I barely drink.

The quote about driving making sense while being drunk came from a born and raised bostonian. I practically had to get into a fist fight to get the keys away from him after the bars.

Glad you agree with the rest of what I had to say! That says a lot coming from the most stringent defender of all things Bostonian.

[Highwyre237]

My Hypothesis with Boston drives rudeness is, boston is such a pain to drive in, once you have an open road (like 90, 93 or 95) you are finally in charge, and will take every advantage you can.

I drove this way too, until my 3rd accident. Now I'm calm and collected at all times.

[rranger]

I'll respond simply by saying that you clearly have never driven in NYC or Northern NJ. If Boston bothers you, you'd have an aneurysm there!

[Cantabridgienne]

Originally Posted by gilwood

Glad you agree with the rest of what I had to say! That says a lot coming from the most stringent defender of all things Bostonian.

I'm the "most stringent defender of all things Bostonian"? Huh? All I did was disagree with your assertation that all the restaurants suck, when you listed some seriously sucky restaurants (the Barking Crab? Ewww).

I do think you are determined to be unhappy during your tenure here, though. Good luck with that!

[Cliff Clavin]

So we've got 2 years of this griping?

[gilwood]

Originally Posted by rranger

I'll respond simply by saying that you clearly have never driven in NYC or Northern NJ. If Boston bothers you, you'd have an aneurysm there!

I have driven in NYC & Northern NJ traffic for many years. Now I do agree that they have a TON of traffic. But when you have to consider the raw amount of people coming across those bridges everyday - I think I read somewhere that 16 million people cross into NYC everyday. Only 8 million live in NYC bringing the population to 24 million between 9am and 5pm. After you pay the toll going into a tunnel or bridge you get this massive merge into a few lanes, people are crazy aggressive and will come inches from your car before letting you in (if they do at all!). But they are also less likely to flip you off or blow their horn due to the large amount of crime there. Anyone of those people might be packing a gun and single horn blow might result in a hail of bullets coming back. So direct rudeness is slightly less due to fear.

Also, NYC just makes sense, one way roads alternate and the street numbering system helps you find your way easily. I do realize some nights that there will a crap load of traffic within NYC too. I once spent 3 hours just trying to leave NYC back to NJ b/c the holland tunnel closed down. But it's not the norm and people don't exhibit the same anger and actually have a sense of understanding of where you are trying to go and the situation. The views of pedestrians also helps alleviate tension. Some comedian said you always have a choice of seeing the most beautiful girl of your life or the wierdest person you've ever seen in NYC!

The one frustrating thing is the parkway during summer on a friday afternoon heading to the NJ shore. That is just ridiculous how many people head to a crappy beach. But at least you can hit "re-route" on the GPS and take side streets that will take forever. Also, when you use your GPS in NJ or NYC, you can trust that it will take the most direct route to get someplace.

Here's one you guys haven't brought up: The Washington DC beltway. That place might be 2nd just due to the number of just awful drivers. They must hand out licenses at toll booths there.

[Boston_Burbs]

You need to treat it like a game and not take it so seriously. You will never see these people again, so who cares if you get flipped off?


I hate hippsters on fixies way more than traffic. They are by far the most annoying inhabitants of the city.

[Bostonmania]

The reality is that most major cities and metros have damn awful traffic. All along the east coast really. Nobody will disagree Boston traffic aint good, but its not worse than the NYC metro or Jersey or DC or any other highly populated place. Bostonians may be rude, but at least there isn't as much traffic as in LA. The reason their traffic is so high is that their public transportation system sucks and practically nobody uses it.

LA's like six times bigger than Boston and the traffic's probably six times heavier. If you look at the T's annual ridership it's like 500,000 a day, compare that to LA, which is under 150,000 rides a day. Be grateful boston has a half decent subway system or you'd have way more *******s out on the streets.