Wisecracks from behind the Wheel #8

The best way to respond safely to an urgent text message is to do so while stopping right in the middle of the travel lane, while rush-hour traffic backs up behind you. The presence of a nice, quiet local street just to the right is not an option to pull over for texting purposes.

Wisecracks from behind the Wheel #7

The only empty parking space in sight will be unusable because of the inconsiderate parking job on an adjacent space:

The Boston subway's green line

I recently read an interesting article on how the first electric trolley system was demonstrated in New York City, but an accident happened and the locals balked. So the inventor brought it to Boston instead.

It is the oldest subway line in the US.

And on most days, it feels like it is the oldest subway line in the US. Choose any performance metric, and the numbers are likely to be similar to those back in the day.

So please stop giving them new reasons to blame their incompetence on!

Wisecracks from behind the Wheel #6

When the traffic light finally turns green, the driver at the head of the queue will be buried in a phone and will not move for about 5 seconds.

Transportation system resilience

Or lack thereof. How can a power outage cause gridlock on a freeway?

A transformer explosion along an interstate brought down electrical wires that shut down both sides of a major section of I-495 for hours on end. Just in time for the evening commute! This is an on-going nightmare:

Click on the image to view the disabled highway's dashed-line theme in fine detail...

When is it rush hour in Boston?

I seriously believe that the term "rush hour" should be banned. It is so last-century. Today, we have "rush hours" (note the plural) that tend to the "rush day" in the limit.

I charted Google Traffic's travel time estimates for my commute back home yesterday, by sampling from the website at sporadic time points in the afternoon. Here is the result for potential departure time points ranging between 2:15 PM and 6:00 PM, on a Monday afternoon:

The starting point is just west of Boston, inside Route 128/I-95. The end point is roughly 21 miles north-west of there.

The free-flow time for this trip is about 30 minutes, which is reported by Google around 2:15. But it goes downhill fast from there, reaching a maximum of 56 minutes... yes, nearly an hour, at about 3:15.

If I want to have a decent commute back home, I need to leave work by 2 o'clock. Or, wait until about 7 o'clock! Wow, what level of service! What quality of life!

It should be noted that the above times are those reported by Google, which (in my experience) systematically under-estimates the level of congestion. Also, these are instantaneous travel times, so leaving at 2:15 does not guarantee a 31-minute ride home. In fact, it is guaranteed that several minutes will be added to that estimate.

Tip of the day: Add at least 5 minutes to what Google tells you, and be prepared to add a whole lot more when Google realizes it messed up badly while guiding you onto the most congested way home!

Or, call me and we'll chat about ways to do better than Google. I have my bag of tricks, but do not want to reveal them to everyone and thus ruin my own commute :-)

Wisecracks from behind the Wheel #5

All alternative routes appear faster until you take one and get stuck behind a slow-poke who drives on both sides of the road and keeps braking for no valid reason.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

It wanted to see the world.

Here's the shortest way to cross the street: Circumnavigate the earth and take in the sights while you are about it!

I see you...

But I still don't care? With the profusion of such detection technology today, the only cause for badly timed signals is apathy!

 

Actually, there might be another secret reason: vested local interests who want to make it bad for "others" to drive down their streets.

Good, old-fashioned incompetence comes in a distant third.

Wisecracks from behind the Wheel #4

Entitlement: "I've got my morning cup of coffee, and I don't care how many others I block during their frustrating commutes."

This Prius almost got hit by a car turning left. The red truck then had to wiggle around him while we all waited for the light to turn green again. Thankfully, nobody rear-ended the truck during this entitlement episode:

Wisecracks from behind the Wheel #3

Any hard-fought travel time savings attained by switching routes based on Waze or Google Traffic information will be more than negated by tree work, construction activity or poorly timed traffic signals near the destination.

Wisecracks from behind the Wheel #2

When your fuel tank is nearly empty, the cheapest and nearest gas station will be out of order.

Wisecracks from behind the Wheel #1

You know you are in bad traffic when... your FitBit racks up steps while you creep and crawl through traffic so slow you could walk faster...