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Storrowing not the only stupid way to drive on the river roads
By adamg on Wed, 09/27/2023 - 10:38am
Joe Kidston looked out his window overlooking Soldiers Field Road this morning to see somebody in an SUV zooming along the Paul Dudley White path, which, last we checked, was just meant for pedestrians and bicyclists.
What are we going to call this? Definitely not a Storrowing, but equally dumb.
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Comments
How does someone do this?
The only way I figure is that they were coming out DeWolfe St in Cambridge...completely oblivious to the "must take a left or right" signage, paint, lights everywhere and went around the traffic light and up onto the Weeks footbridge. When they got to the other side of the river, they were facing the stairs and took a right...I'm assuming they will have hopped off the curb at N Harvard...
Wow.
Turned too soon coming off
Western Avenue.
I was thinking about that
But if you look at the Western Ave/access road intersection, you'd *know* you're driving up on a sidewalk there. At DeWolfe, if you *thought* the road went straight, the footbridge is at least as wide as a car lane, so I could see it being more plausible you figured that's "straight at the light" or something.
The bridge IS a clear shot
I thought there were steps on one side or the other, but Google confirms that there are not. He probably DID just drive across the bridge.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/9yp6kq4uJ3BmVYcs5
The bridge used to have steps
The bridge used to have steps on one side, but it was recently restored and modified to not have steps anymore!
In a wierd way
It does look drivable.
Make sense
People park and drive cars in the bike lanes, why not start using the paths too?
I'm trying to think of where that person drove onto the path assuming they didn't turn around at some point. The only place a car could enter and be in that location would be more than a mile away at the Hatch shell.
They got on at Western Ave
There are plenty of places to get on this path closer than the Hatch shell.
Look at the intersection at Western Ave, which is fairly close to where the photo was taken, and you could almost see how it wouldn't be that hard to accidentally get on the path with a car.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/njVoMf227G75d7Wk9
{Head slap}
I ride on that section of path daily yet for some reason I was blanking on the various river crossings into Cambridge.
Yeah, they probably just made a hard right/left and kept going.
Also possible they got on at North Harvard st and turned around.
There literally is no place
There literally is no place in Boston that is safe from idiotic drivers. Pizza places, houses, Boston Common, the DTX pedestrian zone. All have had run ins with dangerous drivers.
the reference
there is a twenty year old reference to a South Park episode about older drivers that is mirrored here, minus the "older" part.
this city has got to be in top 10 for car-into-building? car-into-train? car-into-pond? car-into-pothole-into-car? car-into-river-from-bikepath?
There are openings in the
There are openings in the barrier at several points, including near BU Bridge and Charlesgate. For maintenance and emergency response, I suppose.
Charlesgate ramp
I've used that ramp myself on my bike, from Beacon Street to westbound Storrow Drive, to get onto the path. The gap in the barrier is just before the ramp joins Storrow Drive.
New River Road
Don’t give crazy Boston drivers any suggestion. Did they get to where they were going? Did anyone stop them, like the Mass State Police?
Not a lot of time for cops to
Not a lot of time for cops to notice. If they continued for much longer in that direction they'd get to the Anderson Memorial Bridge, which would force them back onto the road and I think it might be physically impossible for a car to keep driving on the bike path past there. (Although they could pull back on at the Newell Boat House if they're just intentionally causing mayhem.)
More like not a lot of care
There was a van parked on the shared path at the BU Boat house on mem drive today and yesterday. Its just about weekly occurrence and during rowing season, visiting schools trailers park in the bike lane there.
MSP hasn't done anything to stop this. Or maybe its Cambridge PD, I might be wrong about whos job this is to ignore.
its MSP
Its MSP.
All former MDC areas that were subject to patrolling by the MDC Police, now are patrolled by MSP.
Curious. Any of you folks who lived here when the MDC police existed know if things were better when the MDC/Park System had its own police department? Curious to know if MSP just doesn't care because they have such a large area to cover and MDCP did because they had such a smaller area.
MDC = More Damn Cops
That's how we designated them.
They did seem to be more present in places like Carson Beach and Franklin Park than Staties are now.
Aside from that. maybe this vehicle WAS a State Police unmarked one.
With drug forfeitures, they can end up with all kinds of models.
Similar issues at Blessing of the Bay
The drivers somehow didn't understand the whole "this is a bike/ped path" thing because "but we're driving boats" despite the ample parking lot just for them.
Several groups got involved before "knock it off or have it towed" soaked through their dimwitted heads. Took a bit less to get the Medford high school crew people at Hormel Stadium to stop similar bullshit - one thing to actively unload boats, another to just leave everything blocking a bikeway and walking trail for hours/days because you are too damn lazy to use the nearby parking lot.
You might want to ping the Charles River Watershed Association to see who they can rile up.
I appreciate they are really
I appreciate they are really trying to stay to the right of the yellow line though. Safety first!
I wish them luck
if they try to get over the Fiedler footbridge.
well teknikally, b.m.w. x5 is
well teknikally, b.m.w. x5 is an off-road vehikle.
how iz ħis ennee diffərant from
driving on a parkway; or, parking on a driveway.
ħairz a 'hahvahd yahd' joke in here sumware ?
ħairz a 'hahvahd yahd' joke in here sumware ?