Subject:
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Re: subway info?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Fri, 2 Mar 2001 19:54:39 GMT
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Viewed:
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94 times
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Larry Pieniazek wrote:
>
> In lugnet.trains, Eric Joslin writes:
>
> > That intersection isn't *that* bad. You just have to learn how to drive in
> > Boston, that's all. We're all really good drivers here- perhaps you're just
> > not up to scratch.
Having learned to drive in Lexington, I've got some good Boston driving
skills. I used to study "The Boston Driver's Handbook" for ideas :-)
(well, not really, but I did actually once perform one of the advanced
maneuvers - said maneuver being the "shielded left turn" where you turn
left at the same time as the car in front of you, using him as a shield
in case oncoming traffic doesn't slow down enough, and the advanced part
being not only do you use them as a shield, but you also gun the gas and
get ahead of them - I once got stuck behind an old lady who was taking
too long to make a left, when she finally started to move, I moved
faster :-)
> So's Rainman... what's your point? :-)
>
> I dunno if it's actually true though.
>
> I haven't met a Boston driver I couldn't beat through a squeezedown (think
> the merges on old I 93 coming into downtown, or the merge shuffle to get to
> the callahan right after you cross the Charles) through sheer power of
> intimidation (and the knowledge that I was in a rental and thus had nothing
> to lose), even during the height of rush, when I needed to, so you may not
> be all THAT great.
I've got a fun anecdote there. One time a bunch of us from RPI were
going to Boskone (SF convention which used to be held in Boston), partly
because I had a remote idea of where we were going I was driving. As I
pulled out from a light, I heard a loud gasp from beside me. I asked,
"what's wrong" and the owner of the minivan we were using who was
sitting in the back seat on the right [who hadn't gasped, it was the
person riding shotgun who gasped] calmly stated that I had just bested a
cab in a squeezedown [Boston is famous for squeezedowns at lights]).
Another time I got a bit of a hint of how different driving is in Boston
and other places was when I was driving a friend from Bolton into
Boston. We were going in on Route 2, which used to end in a rotary. He
commented that he wouldn't have had the guts to sail through that rotary
as part of two lanes of traffic at 45mph. There isn't a rotary there
anymore, when they put in the Alewife station at the end of the Red
Line, they turned it into a 3-way intersection with lights, though when
the Route 2 traffic has the green, I think it still can sail through at
45mph.
Of course I commented that he had the advantage in the country. After
driving to his house once, I asked him if the yellow line down the
middle of the road was something to follow when things got dark, there
wasn't enough room for a car to be on one side of the line and still
have all four wheels on pavement. Of course since moving down here and
going caving in the mountains, I now consider myself skilled at country
driving (which incidentally is almost safer at night - at night you get
a clue there is someone coming the other way BEFORE you go into the
corner because you can see their headlights). Now I'm quite comfortable
doing 45+ with my right hand wheels on the dirt shoulder, and doing
things like using the whole width of the road (slightly more than one
car wide) so as to be able to take corners faster... One place we go
caving, you have a choice of taking interstate up one side and down the
other of a triangle, and then turning down the 3rd side for a short way,
or taking country roads, you can just take the 3rd side. I have
commented that each way takes about the same time, and friends have
responded, "Sure, the way you drive on the country roads, but the way
the rest of us drive it's quicker to take the interstate." I also had
real fun one time we took a wrong turn coming back from a cave, and by
the time I figured out where we were, decided it was better to take the
back road over the mountain. Well, very quickly, the back road became
dirt, had a downed sapling across it, and little gulleys. One couple who
was riding with us had considered taking their car, but decided they had
made the right choice in riding in my van. That drive would have made a
great commercial for Sony's older CD Changers, I never heard the CD
changer skip even though sometimes I didn't notice a gulley until we
were bashing through it at 45mph. I've never had a skip proof a CD
player since. I did slow down a bit for the sapling (it had already been
driven over a few times, so it was somewhat flattened). I've also from
this decided that there really is limited use for 4 wheel drive. A full
size van has plenty enough ground clearance (you really can't get much
more ground clearance without using giant tires, without real special
suspension, and just about every SUV I have ever seen has the same
differential in line with the axles to the rear wheels), and at least in
Virginia and West Virginia, the back "fire" roads are generally well
graded.
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: subway info?
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| (...) You only did that once? Wimp :-) Besides there is a reason we drive like we do here. If you didn't drive that way you would never get anywhere. Many turns in the city are blind and in the suburbs there is so much traffic that if you don't (...) (24 years ago, 2-Mar-01, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
| | | Re: subway info?
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| (...) Those are easy, all it takes is some combination of faster reflexes and/or a bigger engine. I'm referring to the kind where you are in essentially stopped traffic and you get to a point where someone will have to give. I'm a big fan of (...) (24 years ago, 2-Mar-01, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
| | | Re: subway info?
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| (...) There's still a rotary near there, it's over the bridge and past the Fresh Pond stuff. Route 2 doesn't end there, though, it goes all the way in to Cambridge. Always has, as far as I know. It just ceases to be a highway-type thing there, and (...) (24 years ago, 2-Mar-01, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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