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Snow + People Leaving Early = Mess
By adamg on Tue, 02/12/2019 - 4:16pm
BNF looked out at the gridlock in front of South Station around 3:30 p.m.
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Comments
its awful
Its awful out there.
Its gridlock everywhere. Like it does when we get a snowstorm for the evening commute.
Took 40 mins to go from Haymarket Station to the onramp to US 1 North. Usually takes < 5.
Glad I left when I did. Can't imagine it when I would leave at 515.
Would have been no worse and
Would have been no worse and maybe even better.
Too many employers letting people out early ( or people just leaving early) just as storm started snarled up the plows and sanders.
Employers don't care what
Employers don't care what time you get home. That's why they announce at 2:30 pm that you can leave at 3pm. This is because they have no forethought and have just decided that they themselves are going to leave at 3pm so - oops - better let the little people go too.
If only there were some form
If only there were some form of public transportation near South Station. Imagine if there was a building by there where people could access a subway line, many commuter rail lines and tons of buses? Then they wouldn't be sitting in their car for hours creating traffic!
No sorry subways/trains are packed
I was just in south station the windshield wipers on my train weren’t working so, no and besides some ppls commutes mean they literally can not use “The subway”
no issue on the bus
easy commute home. went right past south station too.
How would that work for buses
How would that work for buses that need to use the jammed road?
Or the 40-minute jam mentioned above getting from Haymarket to the Tobin? Thanks, Big Dig, for eliminating the Tobin onramp right at Haymarket. That's why the 111 starts at Haymarket. But now it has to use awful surface streets to Charlestown.
Unfortunately there's also an
Unfortunately there's also an interstate highway there, plus an inappropriately wide yet designed to jam surface road which is the only way onto that highway.
Just like for the Pats Parade?
That worked out well.
Right, yeah
Because a bunch of drunken teenagers in cars would have fixed everything.
Yeah. Sure.
Alternative scenarios have to be complete to matter.
Left JP for Taunton at 230,
Left JP for Taunton at 230, got home at 430. Not a great time, not apocalyptic tho. Usually home by 3:30.
Everyone getting out of work early killed my commute. :(
That's why I worked from home today
.
Great for you
A vast majority of people can't work from home. Either they have a job in which they need to work face to face with people (retail, medical, etc) or their job requires some sort of physical activity beyond mashing a keyboard.
Nonsense
I'm a state worker. I could work from home, I'm just not allowed to like other professionals are when a weather mess is due to land. That's because command and control are more important than production.
The vast majority of downtown workers could easily work from home for a day to prevent these messes. But that would mean that they aren't being babysit by people who have to justify their management jobs.
Ditto
State employee here. Almost everyone in my office could easily have done their job from home yesterday. We have remote capabilities, MA has a work-from-home policy, and in my office, we mash keyboards or make phone calls when we're not in court or with clients. Some (rare) directors even allow it to happen. But most directors have insane micro-management issues and need to see you in order to believe that you're doing your job. I don't work in Boston anymore, so I drive to work, which means I spent most of the day watching weather reports until they let us go at 2. Then it took me well over an hour to get 10 miles home. Sad, because I would have done far more work if I had been able to work from home.
Not I
I don't get to work from home, but nonetheless, my commute home (driving) was not much different than other days. I am very lucky in that regard.
2.5 Hrs Somerville to Brookline
Left Somerville at 3:40. It took 1.5hrs to get onto the roundabout to the BU bridge and over it. 2 cars stalled leading up to the light before crossing the bridge. Once over the bridge at 5:45, no cars on the road.
Must be the new math
3:40 to 5:45 = 2.5 hours
Missing leg of plot
At 5:45 over the bridge but then additional time to get the final bit to home
Please read the entire word problem before you start your calculations. Number 2 pencils only so the scantron can read your answer.
The BU Bridge incline
Always a mess. I've gone on a run and pushed people up the bridge who were stalled. Once traffic forms wheels form ice, it snows on it, and it's a mess.
I was headed from Central to JP at 5. Got on a train at 5:07 at Central, got to Stony Brook at 5:29. That was the way to go today.
Is the southbound incline
Is the southbound incline steeper than it should be? It's always a little tricky getting up it on a bike. And the sharp curve which is often cut off by drivers doesn't help.
Left Brighton at 6:10
To arrive in Dot to start at 7. I got there at 6:30.
I passed at least 3 cars on
I passed at least 3 cars on various parts of my commute that were foiled by small and large hills. The joys of rear wheel (or even front wheel) drive with balding all-season tires.
Usually winter weeds these guys out before February but we haven't really had a snow during a commute this season.
It's just as likely that those drivers didn't bother to
disengage their traction control. On most cars (like my 2012 Focus), if the "traction control" senses wheel slip, it will immediately cut power. That is the LAST thing you want to happen when climbing a hill (even a minor one) in conditions like we had yesterday afternoon.
Make and Model Dependent
My AWD Subaru has much better traction heading up hills with the traction control on. I have tested this, as I live on a hill.
It seems to look for the wheels that don't slip - for example, it will "commando crawl" over a plow tailing, using whatever wheel has traction.
Excuse me for asking, why was
Excuse me for asking, why was today - again - such a clusterfuck? If it snowed like this - a few inches during the afternoon and then a couple more in the evening - every week, would it still be the same shit show every week? Would our glorious world-class city shut down for a day every week? (wait, we did do that in 2015 - but those were pretty big storms TBH).