Hey, there! Log in / Register
Rte. 2 not for the weak in a snowstorm
By adamg on Sun, 12/21/2008 - 10:44am
Halley recounts her commute home on Friday afternoon from Lexington to Arlington via 128 and 2:
... Next was Rt. 2, a big toboggan run disguised as a highway. Again, people were slaloming along at a fairly reasonable pace and then some unfortunate blockhead would stop dead in front of you for no clear reason, or some ass in a warlike fashion would fly past you in their SUV making you eat their slush. As the hill got really steep around Arlington Heights and the Park Ave exit, I saw a bunch of cars just stopping in mid-highway. The visibility was so lousy, I couldn't see what was ahead of them ... they looked like they'd all stopped dead to look at dinosaurs suddenly crossing the highway or something equally shocking. At that steep height, like a bunch of kids in line at the pool's high diving board deciding they didn't really want to jump, they looked ... scared. ...
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Proper terminology
as established by Carlin:
People going slower than you are assholes.
People going faster than you are idiots.
Yeah.....right!!
Ha ha ha!
Route 2 is the worst- I've
Route 2 is the worst- I've worked in Waltham almost 10 years and won't drive on it when its anything more than light rain- the visibility sucks and the ruts in roadway by Arlington Hts./ Arlmont create the effect of hydroplaning while you're driving highway speeds in the rain
Points well taken, j g.
First of all, Route 2 is often not the best route to drive on also because of the bottlenecked rotaries, as well as the moderately steep downgrade to it.
Secondly, not withstanding the ruts in the roadway, roads, especially those where the ingredients that've gone into making the paving material for these roads have not been mixed properly, can and often enough do become very slippery, as the oils often come up to the surface after it rains.
Welcome to the Route 2 Eastbound Ski Area
There is nothing like the thrill of sliding down that giant hill on Route 2 en route to the Alewife Snarl. You get a nice shot straight down and then a thrilling slalom, all the while dodging a whole bunch of nuts who don't think the snow affects them at all.
One time six years ago I took a trip home down that hill in the middle of an unexpected snowstorm while driving an old junker of a car that turned out to be falling apart. The brakes weren't so much soft as they were non-existent; you would have had better luck stomping your foot through the floorboards and stopping the car Fred Flintstone style.
Through a careful blend of upshifting and taking great care not to fishtail, I made it to the bottom of the hill in one piece. I got past the merge near the old Faces nightclub, and that's when both tires on the right side blew out. In retrospect it was a good thing we were going so slowly, or otherwise I probably would've lost control of the damn thing by then.
I limped off to the nearest service station I knew, which was the one just off the first Fresh Pond Death Rotary near the old Ground Round. It was there I learned two very important facts:
1. There must've been some nasty piece of metal debris on the road hidden under the snow that snagged both my right side tires, and
2. I was one of approximately 12 cars in the service station with two blown right tires.
The station owner was beside himself with glee. It was as if God had decided to make it snow hundred dollar bills over his station. Meanwhile, a very vicious rumor began to circulate among the disgruntled drivers that maybe, just maybe, someone had planted that metal strip in the road.
I picked up the car a few days later. On my way back over the Fresh Pond bridge to Rindge Avenue, I hit a giant snow brick and lost the muffler.
That was a great winter.
Ouch!!
Glad you handled the situation, put it under control and made it home alive and in once piece, Spatch.
Btw--here's wondering if somebody really did plant that metal strip in the road that caused both your right tires to blow. Who knows? It might not've been just a rumour.
Just saying.
Sorry about the loss of the muffler. Ewww.