Traffic curse

[siercia]

Which would be funny if it didn't suck so damn much.



Someday I'll live somewhere that doesn't close its interstates for sport
A short essay by siercia

This weekend, I was truly cursed by the traffic gods and goddesses.

Friday, Widget and I decided to go visit Shani and Matt for some crepe-y goodness for lunch. We took our usual route home, only to find that someone had apparently poured molasses all over the highway. Not literally mind you, but for no apparent reason, traffic was moving at a snail's pace for the first 8 or so miles of the drive. There were no accidents, there were no unusual merges, it was not rush hour (3 in the afternoon is *NOT* rush hour), there was nothing but a lot of slow cars. But, you know, I live in Boston, traffic here sucks, I shrug it off.

(Total time: 1 1/2 hours. Total distance: 18.9 miles)

Saturday, I drive to Topsfield for the shower and back to Carrie's with no problems. We go to dinner, with no problems.

Then came trying to get home.

(a bit of backstory - we've known for many weeks that starting on Sunday, they would be re-routing traffic on 3, thanks to the big dig. I checked Smart Traveller before leaving Topsfield, and they mentioned that, but nothing of what would soon make my night miserable.) So, I'm heading down Storrow Drive, and traffic STOPS. Of course, it stops just after my last chance to get OFF it. We inch and inch and inch forward, while I curse a blue streak, just assuming it was stupid traffic. Little did I know.

I get to the end of Storrow to find that the on-ramp to Rt. 3 is closed. In the split second I have to make a decision, I follow the detour signs, instead of getting on northbound (my only smart decision, I think). The detour, like all detours in Boston, is badly signed, on confusing streets. I pick my way through where I'm supposed to be going and then hit the wall of traffic. It took 45 minutes to go the next three blocks. We were moving so little, I broke out my knitting project. Teenagers laughed at me, sitting there in my little car, knitting. Every once in a while, I peer around, looking for something familiar, so I can figure out where I am, and find an alternate route. But Boston doesn't believe in street signs, and I generally avoid driving in Boston like the plague, so no luck. I finally get to where I think I can see the end of the traffic wall and breathe a sigh of relief, only to reach that point to see that the wall of traffic is turning, and continues further still, beyond where I can see.

But then, I spot a street sign! No, it's TWO street signs! And I recognize the names! I pull out my handy dandy big book of maps, find myself, realize I'm a bridge away from Southie, and I know how to get home without the highway! Woohoo! So after spending nearly 2 hours in giant traffic snarl, I squeeze my little car out of the fray (nearly mowing down a traffic cop in my excitement) and make it the rest of the way home in under 20 minutes. I come to find out later that they had shut 93 down entirely, re-routing all the traffic through Boston surface roads. Had I known that, I could have zipped down Mass Ave and gotten on the highway south of the city.

(Total time: 2+ hours Total distance: 18.1 miles)

Then Sunday.

I'm going to Brookline to see some friends. First, we're running late, and the damn bridge is up. Just starting to go up, too (mo coworker timed it recently. It takes 21 minutes start to finish). Fine, I'll go around. Then, I ponder the in-Boston traffic. "Haha!", I say, I'm going to avoid 93 in Boston entirely! I'll take the pike to Storrow East-bound, get off at the tiny exit by BU, and cut up Comm Ave to St. Paul St. And it works! Until I get off Storrow, and find that something is going on with the intersection with the BU bridge, and all the traffic coming across it isn't being allowed to turn left or go straight, which means they're all going... where I need to go. And U-turning where I need to turn. And since I can't remember which intersections allow you to turn left and which don't I dno't want to go past my intersection and have to drive god only knows how far before getting another turning opportunity.

Compared to Saturday, a fairly minor annoyance.

Then, today.

I jinxed myself, actually thinking as I pulled into the driveway at work how surprised I was to not have had traffic problems on my way in. (Really, it's a five mile, 8 minute commute. How many problems, aside from the damn bridge, could there be?) I get out of the car, fish something out of the trunk, and hear a funny sound. I walk around the car to check it out, and watch as my tire goes flat.

I conceded defeat, walked into my office and pounded my head on the wall. Then got two of the nice guys in my office to change it for me.

I wonder what the universe will throw at me next?

Comments

[metalliman502.livejournal.com]

speaking of sport....UCONN MEN....2004 NATIONAL CHAMPS... WOOT WOOT!!!! i'll do a big gloating post tomorrow night if the women can beat Tennesse in the Woman's final.

[siercia]

Hee. I was sitting in traffic, listening to the game on the radio. It was being broadcast on three different stations and it kept fading out as I crept through the downtown buildings. I had to keep switching stations. Was silly.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Don't they close Mem drive every Sunday in the summer?

[skreeky]

The section between the 90 entrance at Allston, and the Mount Auburn Hospital, yes.

For extra fun, they also allow parking in the right lane of Storrow during Hatch Shell events, which can be all day both weekend days in the summer. This leaves one lane to be blocked by people that don't know how to parallel park and one lane for everyone else to snail by them hoping to find parking.

[siercia]

Ugh.

The memdrive thing has never really bothered me, I think because it's so predictable. The Storrow drive parking thing makes me CRAZY. It's so STUPID (we have public transportation for a reason, folks!) and you never know when it's going to completely mess up traffic.

*twitch*

[siercia]

Yeah they do. That's never bothered me so much, I guess because it's so completely predictable, and unless Storrow is stupid doesn't really mess up traffic all that much. And I like going out there to bike and stuff.