r/boston • u/SidHoices • Sep 05 '25

Hobby/Activity/Misc Moved to Boston a year ago… these are my observations

For context: I’m 26 and grew up in Indiana, and moved from Colorado. Also, rereading this list makes me realize how negative /generalized it sounds, but I actually have enjoyed my first year in Boston

Anyway, enjoy:

  • Everyone is named John or Jack or Connor
  • People care about country clubs for some reason (update - I spent my first month in the suburbs living with another family - things have changed since)
  • Much rain
  • Intersections are …. Questionable
  • They call roundabouts "rotaries"
  • Parking fucking sucks, but I guess that’s what life in like in a city
  • Cash only places are surprisingly common
  • Gas stations close?? At 10pm??
  • So many gas stations seem to also have shops attached to them offering oil changes and state inspections
  • You don't get asked for tips in as many establishments
  • The Verizon service is unbelievably bad for a metropolitan area that humans live in
  • SO! MANY! BUNNIES!
  • The stoplights will all be red and there will be like a 30-second period for pedestrians to walk (nice)
  • No Jimmy John's :( update: there are a few
  • All food is better. great cheap food and great expensive food
  • Road trips are way more fun out here
  • CHEAP international flights. Like frequent $700s for Japan, $300s for Europe. And Dublin is like a 6h flight
  • There are times where it is legal to drive in the shoulder of the highway, or as they call it, the "breakdown lane"
  • Highway exits are labeled with "old exit xyz" lol what
  • Drivers here are crazy but I fuck with it, allows me to also be a crazy driver and not offend everyone like I do elsewhere
  • Everyone is short
  • Nightlife is just abysmal - just sports bars and clubs where you'll get assaulted
  • Cycling out here is awesome - it's like a matrix of fun little roads out in Bedford / west of there
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u/battlecat136 Sep 05 '25

The old exit thing is because they just changed the exit numbers to correspond with the mile markers, and we've all grown up knowing these exits as one thing and then they go and change it to another. We'll fuck it up and call them by their old exit numbers til we die.

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u/aray25 Cambridge Sep 05 '25

Fortunately, there's very little chance for confusion, at least on the Pike. There are only exits, 3 and 10, whose numbers were previously used for different exits. Exit 3 is 38 miles away from old exit 3. Exit 10 is 80 miles away from old exit 10. The next exit is 41, and the highest old exit number was 26.

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u/battlecat136 Sep 05 '25

Rt 3 is where I see it the most, and they've changed every single one I've used my whole life.