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Whadaya know? You need to pay attention turning left across trolley tracks
By adamg on Thu, 05/18/2023 - 4:22pm
Photo via TPD.
Transit Police report the driver of this car proved unable to handle the intersection of Huntington and Longwood avenues shortly before 7:40 a.m. on Tuesday.
Operator stated he made his left turn too soon and was stuck on tracks. Service was delayed & ultimately diverted to another track. Driver cited. No injury reported.
It was one of two car mishaps that delayed E Line service that day.
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Comments
That took work!
I used to turn left at that intersection every day on my way to work. I can't see how the driver managed to do that - it took effort to go over the curb to get into that position!
GoogleMaps said turn left
so they turned left.
(Got a better hypothesis?)
Autocolonoscopy?
Autocolonoscopy?
10/10 work
"Driver cited" is like music to my ears
GPS
Perhaps the person follows the GPS commands too closely when it says to make a turn.
GPS always tells you a good few yards before the actual turn. That's where you, the driver, have to use your own head.
Another theory
The driver knows that intersection perfectly well, but was rushing to get a kid to BLS on time (source: I used to have to deal with that awful intersection back in our BLS days sometimes, although I never managed to drive onto the trolley tracks in any haste to beat the light).
I have an idea: someone could
I have an idea: someone could run buses from all over the city direct to BLS, coordinated with the school start time. That way there wouldn’t have to be so many cars each carrying one kid.
They do
There are special T buses in the morning. But sometimes your kid misses them, or there's some other reason you have to drive your kid to school.
It's hard to play Minecraft
It's hard to play Minecraft and drive well.
Luckily
there is not much traffic at this intersection in the mornings
Huh??
That's one of the busiest sections of road in the city 24/7. It's even worse now that they removed a lane and made it bus only.
Come on man
Sarcasm. It's a thing.
It can legitimately be hard
It can legitimately be hard to tell from a text-only post if someone is being sarcastic or is just out of touch with reality.
No, it's much better
I've been able to get through that area much faster each day now that there aren't a bunch of single-occupant vehicles in the way. If you're having trouble, consider taking the bus, the green line, or a bike.
it is better
It's better for the buses. One of those versus I dunno... ten cars(?) reduces traffic. If you consume more space, you pay for it somehow.
E line
Not a surprise that it happened there! People do this kind of thing all the time at that intersection! And further down the street they blow right past the trolley as people are exiting onto the street. Guess it's worth killing somebody to save three minutes.
I’m not sure how calculated a
I’m not sure how calculated a decision it is. People probably just see a stopped vehicle and pass it.
The problem is there’s only half a mile of street running trolley in the part of the country north of Philly, so nobody knows about the law against passing a stopped trolley. The tiny, poorly located, badly designed street signage doesn’t help. And the “STOP” decal on the trolley door glass is worse than useless since it prevents passengers from seeing oncoming cars.
This isn't the street running section
That's only southwest of Brigham Circle.
"Service was delayed & ultimately diverted to another track."
It's only a Hyundai, for Pete's sake. No injuries, no collision, doesn't look like major damage or broken glass or leaking fuel. Seems like they could have cleared the tracks relatively quickly if that was a high priority, which I hope it would be.
Time
The incident needs to be called min. The wrecker needs to get there, hook up, and get the thing out. The track needs to be inspected for damage. If all that happened in 45 minutes I'd be impressed. With trains every ~15 minutes (or less) that's 4 trains in one direction that wouldn't be able to get through that track.
What does “Service was
What does “Service was delayed & ultimately diverted to another track“ mean? Did they bypass the blockage by running the wrong way on the other track? That would be great, and I wish the T did that more often rather than giving up and stopping trains for hours.
I feel like, if there's one
I feel like, if there's one organization in this Commonwealth that we ought to encourage to take things a little more slowly and carefully when it comes to safety, that organization is the MBTA.
I think they have to be a little bit professional here
As much as I might prefer for the T to just recruit a few burly undergrads to grab the car and flip it off the tracks, I think they're required to do a bit more in terms of trying to remove the obstacle safely and carefully.
Is there a compelling reason
Is there a compelling reason other than cost to not fence off the Green Line tracks? It seems like ~once a week someone drives onto them and gets stuck.
Yes.
Yes.
There is a reasonable expectation for licensed drivers to operate on the roadways. Building infrastructure to idiot-proof the world only leads to more idiots with smaller paychecks.
Massholes are, as Massholes
Massholes are, as Massholes do.
We need a total and complete shutdown of car use...
...until we figure out what the heck is going on.
This is sarcasm, probably.