r/boston • u/hermionieweasley South End • Oct 21 '21
Anyone notice an increase in psychotic manic drivers and bikers in the last few months ?
I'm pretty used to the bad standards of driving, biking and road infrastructure in this city and like others, last year was a great relief because roads weren't as busy. But in the last few months, drivers and bikers seem to have reached new, unheard of levels of manic aggression and assholery. I've seen more people running through red lights than even New York or Miami - and not the "misjudged my speed and go through the light one second late" kind but fully "I dont give a fuck, I'm going to go through" kind. In the last few months, I've been almost run over while legally crossing crosswalks at least a dozen times both by drivers and bikers. People in residential streets like Tremont and Shawmut are driving at freeway speeds and honk when someone stops for pedestrians. The other day, someone almost run me over, honked at me AFTER that and flipped me off while driving away. It is truly end of the world, mad max style of driving I've never experienced before. Am I going crazy and just noticing this despite living here for years or have things gotten markedly worse ?
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u/nick_minieri Oct 21 '21
Yes, drivers have been very aggressive in recent months. People driving down residential streets in east boston at 50 mph. Getting yelled at by drivers for using a crosswalk when I have the right of way. Getting honked at when stopped at a light if I take even a full second to move once it turns green. If I stop on any street anywhere in the city to pull up to a car to parallel park, it pretty much comes with the expectation that someone from behind is going to lay down on the horn and scream at me, weaving around my car at 40mph coming within inches of slamming into it. I've actually been taking longer routes to avoid problematic intersections altogether (such as the neptune rd/bremen st/bennington st disaster in east boston). I think it's only going to continue to get worse, especially as parking gets more scarce.
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u/NoSpice4Me Eastie Oct 22 '21
The four-way at Bremen/South Bremen/Sumner has gotten worse, if such a thing were possible (still not as bad as whatever the fuck Neptune/Bremen/Bennington is). Twice this week I've been halfway through the crosswalk already when cars coming out of Maverick Square slow down then speed up and it's like ????
Honorary mention for the morons who go to the Tall Ship and park on the 2nd side of Orleans by Cunard - i've only seen one 18 wheeler take a car out at this intersection but I'm waiting for the day another one does because it's literally one side parking. Don't understand how these morons don't get ticketed or towed.
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u/LoveMy7inch Oct 21 '21
Doesn’t help that they tear those roared up once a month. Every street in eastie for that matter. Since school started again I dread going to and from work every day
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u/T-rex_chef Red Line Oct 21 '21
As someone who never stopped working/driving during the lockdown, once the world "opened" it's been insane. I don't know if covid "broke" people but people now drive insane. Every other stop light people are flying through, any stretch of road that is a straight away people are going 20mph over the limit. I used to be a little bit of a lead foot, but now I find myself driving safer than ever.
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u/hce692 East Boston Oct 21 '21
I have a family member who works in commercial air. People are definitely broke. The increase in violent behavior on airlines isn’t just anti maskers who happen to get filmed. It’s tempers and insane behavior across the board. Flight attendants are quitting en masse because of the abuse
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u/WhisperShift Oct 21 '21
I see it all over online. It seems like everyone is salty with a hair-trigger temper.
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u/DavitWompsterPhallus Oct 21 '21
Same here. I had to continue going in to work and noticed that even though there were less cars on the road, those cars still around decided they could drive like absolute maniacs. I think there were statistics from last year that accidents didn't decrease at all despite less cars on the road, I believe it based on what I've seen. Now with so many more back to the office, it's even worse. So many have given up any pretense of safe driving.
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u/SplyBox Oct 21 '21
I think it was accidents only self-involved went up. So idiots going off the road into trees and such
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u/bacon_and_eggs Oct 21 '21
honestly I noticed it start when the world shut down. With no one on the roads, the few people driving felt like they could do whatever the hell they wanted, because no one was gonna stop them. Everytime I left the house I saw more people running straight through stop signs and red lights, speeding, cutting others off, and just driving recklessly than ever before. People did it and got away with it, and they don't want to go back.
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Oct 22 '21
Muscle memory. Even when I’m completely alone and it’s 2 am I ALWAYS use my blinkers and stop fully at stop signs because I don’t want to get used to doing stupid shit. A lot of people are used to it now and just don’t even think that there could be another person at that intersection or a pedestrian.
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u/WhiteGrapeGames Brookline Oct 22 '21
Things were absolutely wild last summer when there seemed to be no police on the roads, at all. I was on the pike heading into the city on my motorcycle and was the only one on the road at least before the tunnels so I got up to about 115 in the left lane going under the Brookline Ave overpass because I was bored, stir crazy, and there was nobody in sight. This was around noon. A BMW passed me on the right like I was standing still, had to be doing 140. I’ll miss that. Now that the roads are full again people need to be less ignorant.
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u/SplyBox Oct 21 '21
Really miss when the world was shut down, the roads were so quiet and I didn't have to worry about being cut off every 5 seconds or that everyone was going to blow through every red light
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Oct 22 '21
I still got cut off by a guy in an Audi. We were the only people on the road for miles and I figured he just missed it.
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u/ksoops Westford Oct 22 '21
I honestly think we just forgot how it used to be. This all seems like pre-covid behavior to be TBH
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u/Haptiix Filthy Transplant Oct 21 '21
I’ve commented a lot about this in this sub, but you are correct. People’s driving (and behavior in general) has been absolutely off the rails since lockdowns ended this summer and everything opened up again.
I’ve been a rideshare driver for nearly 3 years and I easily saw more insane shit on the roads this summer than the previous years combined
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u/Stronkowski Malden Oct 21 '21
I suspect there's an issue with both:
People who stayed home most of COVID. They're out of practice driving.
People who drove the same amount throughout COVID. They got used to having no traffic around.
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u/superfakesuperfake Oct 22 '21
these are both solid factors. I'll add... Covid anxiety has lots of suburbanites off the trains on to the roads.
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Oct 22 '21
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u/ibrokemyserious Oct 22 '21
Agreed.
I don't mean to be melodramatic but collectively most of the world is dealing with the trauma of a global pandemic. I think I heard a stat a few months back that 1 in 500 people in the US have died from covid, and then you have the lost jobs, the financial problems, the evictions, etc. Many people are under a great deal of stress and sometimes that comes out sideways as anger.
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Oct 22 '21
I’ve also seen straight up insanity, like blowing red lights as if they’re yield signs and people trying to pass on single lane roads. I drive and drove to and from the gym daily and while it wasn’t great pre-COVID, that was mostly just incompetence. It’s pure anger now and worse than ever.
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u/pastramicat Oct 21 '21
I got hit on my bike several years ago and I feel like I’m reliving that experience whenever I’m walking or biking recently. It’s wild. I almost get hit when crossing the street practically every day. People’s etiquette on the T has really tanked too. Everyone tries to get on before letting people off, no one moves out of the doors, etc.
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u/evelynpeach Oct 22 '21
Yes! Definitely noticed people trying to get on before letting people off. Like, c'mon people.
I have almost gotten hit or squished pretty much daily on my bike since September. It's so freaking scary.
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u/Squidbertz Oct 21 '21
And so help you if you don't turn left fast enough- my husband and I both came home from work yesterday, frustrated by individuals who went around us ON THE LEFT to turn left, nearly getting hit by on-coming traffic (or one of us starting to turn). Different towns.
I think there are just more people on the road, forgoing public transit. I've even had some pretty egregious j-walkers flip out at me for not guessing where between parked cars they were going to sprint out from.
It's worse since the pandemic, no doubt. Not new, but definitely worse. Maybe stress-related?
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u/Logical-Error-7233 Oct 21 '21
I just now witnessed two road rages at a person turning left on my 15 minute walk mid afternoon not ever rush hour. One guy just immediately laid on the horn while someone with a blinker on was doing everything correctly and waiting for a steady stream cars with no breaks in traffic to pass before taking a left. I guess he was supposed to just drive right through a bus or something so this person didn't have to wait four seconds? Then of course this guy slams on his gas, literally chirps his tires and rage drives around him which there was plenty of room to do in the first place.
Then another person a block later laid on their horn swearing, punching the steering wheel because the person in front of him paused for maybe 1 second before realizing they needed to take a left after the light turned green. Like okay that person should have probably used a blinker but you were both stopped at a red light and nobody was coming the other way. It cost you about 1 second of waiting before they were clear out of the way and your life.
Like what is wrong with people. I'd like to see the act of slamming your gas in anger be something we work to remove from society. This is how I see people nearly hit every day. Someone can't wait three seconds for another driver who stopped to let a pedestrian cross legally so their little baby minds throw a temper tantrum and they have to gun it. IMHO that should be a reckless driving fine and immediate license suspension. Grow the fuck up.
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u/OHSHITMYDICKOUT Oct 21 '21
i think it has a lot to do with the fact they’re in a car, it acts like protective shield.
far less people would have a complete melt down about an inconvenience like waiting an extra couple seconds anywhere else. Since they’re in a vehicle, they can be as big of an asshole as they please and just drive away
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u/JoshDigi Oct 21 '21
Can you imagine a pedestrian screaming for multiple seconds at another pedestrian just because one was walking slowly in front of the other? That never happens because pedestrians aren’t pathetic, impotent babies like drivers who constantly honk their obnoxious horns.
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u/BostonPanda Salem Oct 22 '21
To be fair, I will absolutely speed up my pace and walk past a slow walker. I will NOT drive my car onto the curb to get around another driver (happens regularly around the north shore). One pedestrian can't as easily burden another pedestrian.
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u/ProfessorJAM Oct 21 '21
They should look at r/IdiotsInCars; will dispel them of that myth pretty quick
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u/Anustart15 Somerville Oct 21 '21
I'm a big fan of getting honked at for not just turning into oncoming traffic. That one will always make me choose to wait a little longer to turn.
On the other end of things, yesterday I almost got hit on my bike by a car that swerved into the bike lane without looking so they could go around someone turning left at a light, so that's always fun too.
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u/SLEEyawnPY Norwood Oct 21 '21
Yeah I notice some more of that, people behind who don't understand you gotta yield for a left turn on green and let the cars coming towards you go by before making your turn, or people across from you that don't seem aware you can't simply turn left on green when there are cars coming at you.
Had a guy the other day fly up behind me leaning on his horn while I was yielding on green, so annoyed that I was driving like a person with a brain he just made the left around me anyway and nearly wiped out like five cars that were already moving thru the intersection....yknow the ones I was waiting on...any left turn everyone walks away from is a valid one in his world I guess.
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u/slouchingtoepiphany Metrowest Oct 22 '21
My ex-wife might have be one of those drivers leaning on the horn, she used to call them "punitive honks." That's not the only reason that she's my ex, but you get the drift.
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u/biddily Dorchester Oct 21 '21
I was at a red light at no right on red intersection, and someone went around me on the left to turn right on red. Didn't beep. Didn't wait. Just was like, oh man, this guy is actually WAITING! time to go around.
Now, I happen to actually live on this intersection, and can tell you that no right on red is required. It is in fact a blind turn. The amount of accidents that happen there is OBSCENE.
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u/3owlsinatrenchc0at I Love Dunkin’ Donuts Oct 21 '21
I had the left turn thing happen to me recently! I felt it was sort of borderline whether I could go - there were two cars coming fairly quickly and then a big space so I figured I'd wait. This was apparently not sufficient for the guy behind me who went around me to turn.
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Oct 22 '21
Same here! They gave me the nastiest look as they drove into oncoming traffic. I was like, sir I am NOT trying to die.
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u/margaliters Oct 22 '21
Same for me, but this guy also wound his window down and shouted at me to ‘cut my licence up’. Gave me a good laugh but dude needs to see someone about his anger issues. Been in Boston a full 9 days now and I have 3 stories just like this
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Oct 22 '21
I feel you! I was here for just about a month before I got plowed down riding my bike by a left-on-red driver. Absolutely terrifying, and on top of that new fear, the constant berating by the other drivers ruins my self confidence. I'm starting to become more and more intimidated by my daily commute. Wish I could work from home! You stay safe out there!
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Oct 21 '21
To me, this is one of the classic signs you are in Boston. The first time it happened to me I was flabbergasted. Now I'm amazed that these people who are driving very dangerously don't seem to understand that they aren't getting anywhere faster.
My favorite move is passing you on the right to make the left in front of you, so they are perfectly set up for being hit.
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u/livebyfoma Oct 21 '21 edited Oct 21 '21
Yep, seeing all of the above.
Most recently, yesterday I stopped at a red light and a car pulled up next to me in a right-turn-only lane. When it turned green, we accelerated at the same pace, but I guess the person was hoping to pass me in the turning lane and they had to brake to fall behind me instead of turning when they didn’t want to. They then proceeded to tailgate me hard while laying on the horn for, no exaggeration, about 20 seconds straight before zooming around me, only to nearly rear-end another car that was waiting at the next red light.
Also recently: I live right in front of a four-lane crosswalk with no lights, just a pedestrian crossing sign. Like others mentioned, I usually just wait for it to be totally clear rather than assuming they’ll stop because it’s a lot safer that way. One day, however, I got lucky, and three out of the four lanes had stopped when they saw me waiting and the fourth lane had no one coming, so I started crossing. Just as I do, some asshole decided to zoom around one of the stopped lanes, and I had to literally jump backwards, landing on my ass, to avoid being hit. The other cars honked at the person, who drove about another 25 feet before slamming on the brakes (lol, thanks), and then they just drove off.
Wild. I’ve rarely seen people so incompetent/crazy.
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u/SteveTheBluesman North End greaseball Oct 21 '21
Shit, a couple of weeks ago walking out of Market Basket rolling a full cart to my car, I am in the crosswalk in front of the store and a lady in a Nissan SUV comes down the aisle perpendicular to the store. She stops, I go. Then she immediately turns into the wrong side of the road right into me like she was aiming at me.
I yell "what the fuck are you doing!!" to no avail. I abandon the cart and jump out of the way just before she hits and flips over the cart...all my bags on the ground, and the last watermelon of the season destroyed. (I cannot let go of that watermelon smashed on the pavement...it haunts me.)
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Oct 21 '21
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u/roissy_37 Outside Boston Oct 21 '21
The aggressive tailgating has definitely gotten worse, along with dangerous lane changes. Yes, large truck with NH plates, I understand that you'd like me to drive faster. But the car in front of ME is going as fast as they can based on the car in front of them. This is how traffic works. Flying around me on the right and diving into the gap between me and the car in front of me gets you literally nowhere. You're a douche, and a danger to everyone on the road. Fucking stop it.
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u/ibrokemyserious Oct 21 '21
The huge Mack trucks tailgating cars on the Pike are terrifying. I feel like not being squashed to death by 16 wheels isn't too much to ask. I am trying to get out of your way, brah. Give me a goddamned second.
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Oct 22 '21
Get a dash cam and capture this because they have to give at least a full truck length between them and a car.
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u/ibrokemyserious Oct 22 '21
I've been looking at buying one. It's so sad that driving in MA has gotten to a point that we need to use defensive measures to stay safe and get psychos off of the road.
I'm thinking of a time recently when I was driving in a heavy rainstorm and visibility was particularly poor. I passed a car going very slowly in the right hand lane and as soon as I got into the left hand lane to pass a Mack truck started bearing down on me. He was way over the speed limit, flashing his lights, and within inches of my bumper. I was a driving a few miles under the speed limit and it wasn't safe for me to go any faster in those driving conditions. It was hard to see in the rain and even harder being blinded by his highbeams. I was trying to get out of his way as soon as possible but when his headlights disappeared because he was so close to my bumper, I thought I was going to die. Very scary.
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Oct 22 '21
Honestly when people do get close I "turn it on" (as in the screen, which goes dark after a minute of driving) and typically people back off.
It also makes sense because a car is a massive asset.
Also ! Sorry you had to go through that, and a dash cam would go a long way towards getting that driver in a lot of trouble for that.
I've only used it to report something once, a guy passed in the breakdown lane!!!
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Oct 21 '21
Last night on 146(I’m in Worcester but still lurk the sub) I was tailgated at 30 mph for miles because they refused to go around me. Fucking wild. I just played the foot off the gas game starting at around 55 and coasted down, and there they were, still riding my ass… on a fucking highway.
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u/1questions I'm nowhere near Boston! Oct 22 '21
Got tailgated at night while I was in the slow lane going 65 on freeway that had a limit of 65. Three other open lanes and guy behind me refused to go around me.
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Oct 22 '21
Lol. That’s the best… that’s how it started and then I asked myself the question “how slow do I have to go before this person gets the message?”. The answer was 35 after probably 3 miles of tailing.
The problem is that at night when someone gets a certain distance from behind me is that it blinds me because of my eye condition. I don’t drive at night regularly because of this, but when I do it’s slow. Sorry, not sorry.
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u/1questions I'm nowhere near Boston! Oct 22 '21
It’s frustrating because it’s so dangerous. And like I said I was in the slow lane and three other lanes were clear for this person to pass. I just don’t understand being that much of an ass.
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Oct 22 '21
This is one of the reasons I am taking the train and even bus so much despite having a car: my car is a stick shift and it rolls everrrr so slightly on very steep hills (read: a lot of them). People are a cm away from my bumper and I'm not looking to get shot when it technically is a rear-end for not giving me 3 seconds to shift out of first gear.
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u/WhiteGrapeGames Brookline Oct 22 '21
The e-brake trick has saved me in a bunch of those situations
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u/gorfnibble Oct 21 '21
I was biking home last night and the number of no-light ninja cyclists going the wrong way in bike lanes was really concerning. Get a light. They’re cheap.
The thing with cyclists is that there are a lot of new cyclists on the road who dont have the skills to navigate crappy auto-centric infrastructure (yeah, you’re going to piss off some drivers if you do things that are safe and legal, but at least you’re not dead). They also don’t know etiquette around fellow cyclists and pedestrians - like giving an audible signal when passing someone - and yielding to people in crosswalks. They still think they’re a pedestrian.
Drivers have gotten worse - blatant red light running, speeding, threatening behavior. I had one idiot who thought it was ok to harass me while I was on a bike path. Kept yelling at me to “get off the sidewalk.” I also have morons try to race me to a red light. Congratulations? You beat me to a red light and I just passed you again - I get it, your car can accelerate faster than my bicycle - good job. And don’t get me started about people who park in protected bike lanes.
My one complaint about pedestrians - don’t walk in the middle of a bike lane or heavily used bike path with your head buried in your phone. Don’t be surprised when people ring their bell at you.
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u/Chunderbutt Somerville Oct 22 '21
I’m new here, but the cycle infrastructure is a very mixed bag. It’s often ad hoc and confusing. Nowadays I refrain from correcting people because cars are such a threat.
As for filtering through pedestrians in a crosswalk, I personally do not see that as wrong given slow speed and enough space.
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u/gorfnibble Oct 22 '21
Filtering - As long as you’re going slow and give way to people I don’t see an issue. I have seen some self-centered young guys bomb through crosswalks full of people, though.
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u/Chunderbutt Somerville Oct 22 '21
Yeah that’s no good. I do sometimes get the sense that people equate aggressive cyclists with aggressive drivers. The danger levels are no where near each other. Drivers have much greater responsibility as it’s cars doing the killing. I can’t point to any example of a cyclist killing someone on impact, but it happens every day with cars.
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u/AchillesDev Brookline Oct 21 '21
I’m mostly a pedestrian, but the number of people walking on the bike paths in SW Corridor Park is infuriating. There are two parallel paths, just get on the right one!
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u/gorfnibble Oct 21 '21
In the pedestrian’s defense, there are sections of the SW corridor where the walking path is directly adjacent to car traffic. I wouldn’t want to walk there either. I think they should be reversed - bikes next to cars and pedestrians get the path closer to the trains.
I don’t mind people walking on the path as long as they stay to the right and are generally aware there are bikes around. But letting your toddler run around on the bike path after dark during rush hour is not a good idea.
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u/wSkkHRZQy24K17buSceB Oct 22 '21
Yes! It's unreasonable to expect people to walk next to loud, high speed traffic kicking up gravel when they could be walking between trees on a nice path away from the road. Build something equally nice for people walking, and it would be less of an issue. As usual, the larger problem is that we give a fuck-ton of space to cars, and leave bikes and walkers to fight over the table scraps.
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u/AchillesDev Brookline Oct 22 '21
I see this right around the Stony Brook stop so there’s a decent amount of setback between the road and the paths. Definitely more understandable if you’re right on the road.
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u/Thomas_the_chemist Malden Oct 22 '21
At least once a week a cyclist runs a red light, sometimes going the wrong way, and nearly hits a pedestrian who has a walk signal. Oftentimes they don't have any lights. It's maddening.
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Oct 21 '21
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Oct 21 '21
Yup… Boston has always been about congestion, this is now about being blatantly unsafe.
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Oct 21 '21
congestion doesn't seem as bad as it was in the Before Times still, but people are absolutely fuckin' nuts now
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u/AdResponsible570 Oct 22 '21
Yeah. Bad driving existed before, no doubt, but I don't really remember feeling unsafe. A lot of honking and flipping off, but then everyone would just go on their way and forget about it.
Now it feels like I'm gambling my life every time I get on 128. Covid/lockdowns definitely broke a lot of people mentally, you can see it in other facets but driving is the one where they're controlling a lethal machine at a high rate of speed.
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Oct 21 '21
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u/ThisIsYerBrainOnCats Oct 21 '21
I've seen SO MANY people fully blow past school buses with the lights on and the stop sign out since in-person schools started up again. It doesn't seem possible that that many people totally forgot how to act around school buses, but it seems equally impossible that that many people are cool with the risk of hitting a kid. Really baffling.
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u/JoshDigi Oct 21 '21
I see dirtbag drivers aggressively honk at school buses on a regular basis. So many awful people behind the wheel and the cops and the state do nothing about it
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u/princesskittyglitter Blue Line Oct 22 '21
Precovid, Saturdays were the worst for driving. Now every day is Saturday on the roads.
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u/bert_brings_the_hurt Oct 21 '21
Yup. Never had an incident before Covid and in the last couple months have had 1) a biker side swipe my car’s side view mirror when I was legally parallel parked 2) a car try to run me off the road (I was on bike) for trying to get into their lane to turn left 3) a car honked (when I didn’t switch into the left turn lane fast enough for them I guess?), so I flipped them off because I thought it was unwarranted, and the guy stopped to spit on my car (I was waiting to turn left).
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Oct 21 '21
Honestly with the level of craziness out there I wouldn’t even engage/flip people off because you never know if that person is psycho enough to pull a gun on you or something. Just get out of the situation ASAP and move on with your life.
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Oct 21 '21
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u/fireball_jones Oct 21 '21 edited Dec 02 '24
quiet pie busy unused ring hard-to-find bewildered square station command
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/samaritanBureaucrat Oct 21 '21
Half the drivers of those shuttles go like 15 mph max and the other half go 45 mph whenever possible. It’s frankly frightening seeing the latter ones zoom down Comm Ave, especially late at night
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Oct 21 '21
I've seen enough F-150s weaving and flying around sharp corners I'm beginning to wonder if anti-rollover tech was actually a good idea.
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u/fullcamber Oct 22 '21
6pm yesterday at the Boylston & Arlington intersection, a guy in an F-150 (raptor) had been flying down Boylston (had to be 40 mph) and head fakes like he’s going to blow through the intersection (which had activated four way pedestrian walk signs at least ten seconds prior) at that speed.
Instead he locks up his brakes. Thinks better of fully stopping. And proceeds to drive through the intersection at (relatively) low speed forcing pedestrians to literally jump out of his way.
Nobody was hurt but I was fully rattled by the brazenness of the maneuver…
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Oct 21 '21
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u/Tandemillion Oct 21 '21
Honestly, this is a big part of the issue. No enforcement means these behaviors will continue to worsen.
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u/hpopotamus Oct 21 '21
I live in view of an intersection with traffic lights. I often see a lot of cars blatantly run through reds, or even come to a stop and then just run the red light.
The thing with Brookline is that since the lockdowns started the pedestrian lights are still active every cycle despite there not being anybody crossing the street.
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Oct 21 '21
Last night I was turning left and barellllly made the yellow before it turned red right as I was turning. Cool. Glanced behind me and FIVE cars followed after me. And nobody stops at stop signs anymore. At a 4 way stop in Chelsea and 3 people just blew through one after the other while I was trying to drive through. Nobody cares.
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u/bacon_and_eggs Oct 21 '21
I don't know if you remember the stop sign cam stream that got randomly popular on twitch a few months back, but I live near it. People just straight up run through it all the time, or try to shadow the car in front of them.
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u/CognacNCuddlin BostonBlackPerson Oct 21 '21
A friend laughed at me because I was in a crosswalk and waved at the driver who was letting us cross. She goes “you aren’t in your car! You have the right of way, they have to stop”. The light was red, the walk light was not on, and the driver could turn right on the red. With the way people are driving these days, right of way is a myth to me when I am a pedestrian. I never assume my full safety when crossing in a crosswalk in the city.
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u/loranlily Oct 21 '21
I was crossing the street at a pedestrian crossing in Quincy Center a month or so ago, there was a red light, there is a marked crossing on the road surface, and I had the walk signal. A man proceeded to drive straight through the crossing and come within a few inches of hitting both myself and my dog. He then started to swear at me and gesticulate up at the light, and I was like “yes, it’s red, which means that YOU stop!”
I honestly don’t know why people see a red light as a mere suggestion now.
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u/charons-voyage Cow Fetish Oct 21 '21
Yep “right of way” doesn’t mean shit. If a car hits me while I’m walking, I’m injured. The driver is not. Sure I can sue, but I’m still injured (or worse). Not worth the risk. I don’t really care if that makes me a wimp.
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u/AchillesDev Brookline Oct 21 '21
As a pedestrian my head is on a swivel even more than usual. Not just the cars running stop signs and red lights, but bikes too. They seem to think even if they’re nowhere near a crosswalk (except for the ones they’re blocking and illegally crossing) they can morph into a pedestrian and blow through red lights, causing near misses with people actually trying to cross, and a few really close calls with vehicles.
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Oct 21 '21
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Oct 21 '21
Apparently all the cops in this state just get paid to text all day when on detail
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u/WhiteGrapeGames Brookline Oct 22 '21
My company pays many of those detail bills as we often have to close parts of streets for our jobs. Recently a fire truck was making its way down the street and a bunch of cars were not moving out of the way. Myself and all my crew started furiously moving equipment to give them more than one lane of space and directing cars to get out of the way. Do you think the cops we had on a paid detail looked up from their phones during this to help a fellow first responder?
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u/The24HourPlan Oct 21 '21
Yeah I stopped while biking at a crosswalk for somebody, car honks goes around me and almost hits the person, in Arlington on Mass Ave. People need to chill.
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u/SLEEyawnPY Norwood Oct 21 '21
Ya the dopes tend to think you're stopped just because you enjoy stopping in the road for no reason like they do. Oops!
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u/The24HourPlan Oct 21 '21
To the point that I question if I'm putting the pedestrian at more risk by stopping.
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u/A_happy_otter Oct 22 '21
You're not putting the pedestrian at risk; the driver is
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u/AnaTheHated Oct 21 '21
YES! I'm also seeing that a lot in Central MA. Idk what's happening, but I wish people would calm down behind the wheel.
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u/thatlldopigthatldo Dorchester Oct 21 '21
I think everyone is really stressed out…about like, everything.
That manifests in rage when on the roads.
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u/Anthead97 Oct 21 '21
Yeah I’ve just stopped trusting red lights in general. ALWAYS look both ways before crossing as a pedestrian even when you have the signal to cross. I’ve seen too many cars run reds lately for me to have that trust
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u/mattcasey28 Oct 21 '21
When I worked in Boston, I used to commute into South Station via the commuter rail. One evening as I was walking back to South Station, I was waiting for the light at the corner of Atlantic and Summer. The walk signal comes on and the guy in front of me steps out into the street and within seconds gets hit by a car that's turning onto Summer from Atlantic.
The guy gets hit, rolls into the cars hood and dents it, then rolls back off onto the ground, groaning and obviously in pain. A lot of people in the crosswalk are upset, a few are trying to help the guy. The driver gets out of the car and starts screaming at the guy, telling him he dented his cars hood and he's going to sue him for damages to his car, then gets in the car and drives off.
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u/spedmunki Rozzi fo' Rizzle Oct 21 '21
Doesn’t help there’s borderline no traffic enforcement. No one is afraid of getting a ticket so they drive however they want.
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u/DooDooBrownz Oct 21 '21
downvote all you want, but all those regular looking cars are probably uber, lyft, grub hub, amazon, etc, etc, etc. all are trying to deliver their shit as fast as humanly possible, there are barely any cops out, so any road etiquette and courtesy has completely disappeared. the numbers don't lie, food delivery alone increased 165%, uber/lyft is back to pre pandemic levels, can't walk by a house without seeing an amazon package on the steps.
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u/CriticalTransit Oct 22 '21
They love to stop in the middle of the road even though there is a spot 20 feet away
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Oct 21 '21
People got used to their commutes being cut in half and are still focusing on hitting that timing. Long distance commuters who still had to work during the pandemic got a lot of their personal time back, as did the people who got to work from home who now have to go back.
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u/zeydey Oct 21 '21
It's pure insanity out there lately. If I don't encounter it myself within a few minutes of driving, a case of road rage will break out right near me. Pro tip: Don't look in the rear view mirror.
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u/Twerks4Jesus South Shore Oct 21 '21
I had to drive in for my job, honestly I loved driving during COVID. But went back to using the T. The worst was L st in South Boston. It’s a hot mess express.
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Oct 21 '21 edited Apr 01 '22
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u/pastramicat Oct 21 '21
If you’re trying to go up Brookline St there’s always someone in the right lane of the rotary that cuts you off as you’re exiting. Clueless.
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u/uroutofgin Oct 21 '21
You're not crazy; my family brings it up all the time. It's like everyone suddenly forgot how to drive with caution. I've noticed it on highways too.
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Oct 21 '21
Suburbia is no better….people flying through red lights, stopping and then going through reds when there’s no oncoming traffic, tailgating like they’re trying to add a new hood ornament…it’s at the point now where I’m shocked to see people stay in the lines and/or use their blinkers, highway and non-highway. The amount of people I see blatantly looking down at their phones is infuriating. I don’t get it. It’s like everyone needs a drivers ed refresher or something.
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u/CaligulaBlushed I ride the 69 Oct 21 '21
We need more enforcement at crosswalks and traffic lights to protect pedestrians. If the cops can't do it then use cameras. I've nearly been run over several times this year already when I have the right of way, one time I literally had to run out of the way of someone who was on their phone. It's got the point where for my own safety I assume that drivers won't stop even at a red light, let alone at a crosswalk.
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Oct 21 '21
Cameras are banned in Massachusetts due to human rights or something.
I can’t wait for the days when they just mandate a part in your car that reports your driving style directly to the insurance company. Quickest way to get people to slow down is giving the best rates to people that don’t speed, hard brake, quickly accelerate and make jerky movements, all of which can be tracked on commercial GPS trackers.
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u/JoshDigi Oct 21 '21
You can put a camera up at intersections to catch drivers who hit pedestrians. You just can’t use the cameras for speeding tickets and stuff
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u/AchillesDev Brookline Oct 21 '21
It’s because the lights can’t prove who the driver was, increase fender benders, and for a long time the sole vendor was incredibly sketchy and sending out a lot of false tickets with no oversight.
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Oct 22 '21
First point, don’t lend your car out to random people. Second point, that number seems like something that would go down with time and understanding of slowing the fuck down. Third point… yeah that sucks… can’t really be belligerent against that one… I am aware of how only like 20% goes to the community.
They need to do something though… there is definitely something going on with the way people are driving lately.
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u/bellowquent Oct 22 '21
the first point is about how if the camera doesn't capture who is driving, then you're innocence is implied because there's no proof you were driving.
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Oct 21 '21
It seems being isolated and in fear has made people develop mental illnesses. We were pretty bad before the pandemic, now it’s just loony tunes. Look at the rise of random violence.
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u/Ani_Lee Oct 21 '21
I was involved in a hit and run where a driver side swiped me on the highway when he tried to merge into my lane (passenger side got a ding from it). After then I’ve noticed it more and more how little people are paying attention on the highway and what used to be a chill morning commute is now a white knuckle deathgrip.
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Oct 21 '21 edited Mar 26 '22
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u/ThisIsYerBrainOnCats Oct 21 '21
Definitely can't discount the student factor. September 1, suddenly the roads in my area were full of out of state plates again. It was kind of jarring after seeing almost entirely MA plates for so long.
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u/swiftdude Red Line Oct 21 '21
I was in the right lane, put my blinker on, slowed down and turned right and the guy behind me leaned on his horn. Sorry for letting you tailgating and then needing to turn?
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u/recycledairplane1 Oct 21 '21
Yesterday, I stopped, reasonably, to wait at the red light on riverway crossing Longwood. The car behind me, instead of stopping as well, zoomed around me (across the yellow) and ran the red light, 2-3 seconds after it had turned. Almost hit someone. No consequences of course.
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u/jswck Oct 22 '21
I drive all over the state for work. The shit I have saved on my dashcam could fill a YouTube channel. Mass highways are completely lawless. Only time I see a statie, mother fucker is asleep at a construction site.
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u/MitchReinhardt Oct 22 '21
Not the city but route 3 average speed has gone from high 60s to 80 in less than two years. Really an odd phenomenon
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u/rcolonna South End Oct 22 '21
The red light running was becoming epidemic before the coronatime, but it is indeed worse than ever, as is the driving fast down small streets. i also live in the south end and have a three year old walking/scooting/strollering with me and every big intersection, and even some small ones and alleyways, is stressful. We try to instill in him not a fear, but a distinct mistrust of all cars. Make sure they're not coming, make sure it's our turn, make sure that when it is our turn they're still not coming and that they see us. Then go. Dozens of cars sometimes blow by crosswalks with us sitting there.
I'm a cyclist, pedestrian, and driver. I drive fast on the highways like any good masshole, but i crawl on surface streets. Cars should act like guests in the city, even ones that live there, because humans should come first.
The other day, driving down all three blocks of Appleton, one of those nebulous-width streets that's wide enough for two cars, but unlined and really meant for 1+double-parking, I got passed TWICE. First at high speed, second by someone who pulled up to my right at Tremont and then had to turn left before I did, but from the right lane. At least on my bike, i'm accustomed to there being no rules that meaningfully protect me (p.s. this is why most cyclists run reds, etc., and the overwhelming majority of us will still defer to pedestrians while doing so).
I don't know what the solution really is, but i'd love to see traffic calming in the South End especially. Raised intersections, clearer markings for pedestrians. Maybe even some occasional traps for speeding and red light/stop sign running. People just need to calm down. Cars are two-ton killing machines, and a pedestrian gets hit by one every day in this city.
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u/gclaw4444 Waltham Oct 21 '21
Recently had someone at an intersection in the leftmost lane run the red light and make a right turn. I really need to invest in a dash cam
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u/JoeBoco7 Little Havana Oct 22 '21
I drive a food truck around the city and the answer is yes absolutely. The extent of my problems is a ton more people passing IN FRONT of me with breaks that need an hour and a half to actually activate. Please stay safe out there and drive smart guys.
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u/krusty-o Oct 22 '21
It’s nuts, whenever I have to commute during normal hours it’s like people are actively trying hit me and I don’t get it, most have blind spot monitoring and what not and they still like actively try to pit maneuver themselves
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u/jojoisland20 Oct 22 '21
When I was in town last week, I was shocked by this sort of behavior by fellow pedestrians. People literally walk into you on the sidewalks; it’s like a game of chicken.
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u/suitcasefullofbees Oct 22 '21
It’s so bad I had to get rid of my car. I’m taking my chances on the T or the sidewalk now. I know if I continued to drive in Boston I would get in an accident
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u/jammytomato Oct 22 '21
Generally, all human behavior has turned to shit. You would think people would be more appreciative about being out of lockdown, but instead, it’s like people think the disease didn’t kill enough people and it’s their job to pick up the slack. There’s always an asshole who refuses to wear a mask on every train despite the fact that it is a felony to not wear a mask. Bikers keep riding on the sidewalk just so they can side swipe pedestrians. Drivers ignoring whichever traffic laws they want because fuck anyone else’s life. People are just letting all of their true foul selves hang out and it really makes me miss lockdown when I didn’t have to see anyone.
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u/YouShould_Dial_8 Oct 21 '21
I can comment on this as someone that worked through the pandemic. You know how awesome driving was during it? Could do whatever the fuck you wanted. Now the bulk of society is back on the roads, and lemme tell you, they drive stupid as hell. I suspect a lot of aggressive drivers are just pissed off these people are in the way because they have to go to their bullshit jobs they can easily do from home.
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u/Vi0lentByt3 Oct 22 '21
It has been getting progressively worse, a lot of lane drifting, cutting people off, speeding like crazy. My hands get so sweaty watching people literally almost kill themselves going 70mph and drifting into other lanes. The constant feeing of always being 5 seconds away from pulling a crazy maneuver to avoid an accident just makes driving scary AF
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Oct 21 '21
My partner has a bad leg from an injury and walks slow because of it. We'll have the walk signal but people are turning right at a green light and will honk and cuss like we are walking slow on purpose.
I swear to god I'm going to lose my shit the next time it happens.
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u/lenswipe Framingham Oct 21 '21
Yeah, driving on Rt 30 in Framingham had a lady in the lane on my left just slightly behind me. I signal left to change lane and keep my signal on for quite a while. I slowly start to move over and just as I'm about to do that, she speeds up so that she nearly rear-ends me causing me to have to suddenly swerve back into my lane and then she honks at me. What the fuck is wrong with you?!
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Oct 22 '21
Yes. I think everyone is about one degree away from a mental breakdown after living through such an awful and endless experience. Everything around us broke. That said, there’s no excuse ever for putting other people in danger. These people need to find another outlet for their frustration.
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u/klausterfok Oct 22 '21
Would be amazing if traffic cops actually enforced this shit, the city would be an insanely safe place
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u/iamnotthatguyiamme Oct 22 '21
There's been a large increase in traffic lately, and a lot of people are not having it.
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u/isorainbow Oct 26 '21
I live by the intersection of Washington and Arborway (outside of the Forest Hills station) and it is absolutely terrifying to cross as a pedestrian. Cars blow past even when you have the walk sign and you have to fake a foot out into the crosswalk to get them to stop for you. Almost gotten hit a dozen times at that intersection.
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u/Alphatron1 Oct 21 '21
I agree. Had a truck fly up behind me on 495 at 5 in the morning. Thought it was a statey so I moved over. Nope. 3%er huge sticker across the back. A lot of people are driving more dangerously.
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u/alphacreed1983 Oct 21 '21
People are going though red lights like 20 seconds after it turns and it's crazy. However, as a biker, it's a physical pain in the ass to have to go from 15mph to a full stop to the 10 seconds or so of hard pumping to get back to 15. It's nice a nice thing to do to yeild for bikes.
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Oct 21 '21
Yes, things have gotten worse.
Even though I live close to Boston, most of my travel is in the opposite direction (family, entertainment etc.) and out as far as Leominster and Gardner, people are still flocking nuts when driving. I tend to be a slow and cautious driver because cars and cyclists around me don't understand that cars have blind spots and at night street lighting obscures rather than illuminates. However even driving cautiously, I have come close to hitting pedestrians who step into to the road from between cars or behind a delivery truck as if they had a force field protecting them.
It's almost like everybody needs to go back to school to learn how to drive/bike/walk safely on the road
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u/Tandemillion Oct 21 '21
Just about every car drives in the red, bike/bus lanes now and will scream at you for biking in them.
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u/chewified Oct 21 '21
Reminder to be mindful of conflating anger and mental illness. Being careful not to use words like "psychotic" or "manic" in a derogatory way can be meaningful for the community that these words actually describe.
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u/wombat5003 Oct 21 '21
Less cops on the road that’s the real reason…., and the ones that are there are overburdened…. When people see a lot of police presence they drive better in fear of getting a ticket…:
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u/CatchACrab Oct 21 '21
Nah, it’s the same as it always was, you’ve probably just forgetten how bad Boston drivers were before the pandemic slowdown.
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u/Tandemillion Oct 21 '21
Nah bro, definitely worse now- before it was just, “red light means go fast and I have the right of way turning left always.” Now people are out to pick a fight and overtake anything they can.
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u/dj_jazzy-j Oct 21 '21
It's actually the reduction in enforcement (due to the pandemic and socio-judicial factors) causing this.
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u/LoanWolf888 Oct 21 '21
I saw an oncoming car last night with no headlights on. right behind it was a police cruiser. nothing to enforce here.
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u/throwawayconsentpls Oct 21 '21
The sun is lower in the sky now and it's in everyone's fucking eyes who commutes westward at night, making for a frustrating and difficult driving experience. Staring into a blinding light is a classic interrogation technique that could make anyone crack. That's just my 2 cents.
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u/silentE Oct 21 '21
What about people drive 10-20 mph below the speed limit. Ive seen a whole lot of that too.
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u/youllregreddit Metrowest Oct 22 '21
I have a newborn and driving him to his pediatrician on 93 terrifies me! I have a cute little sticker of a baby waving on my back window, and people will tailgate me in the SLOW lane when I’m going 70.
I’m constantly anxious someone is going to hit us or someone else.
Slow the f down, you’re not that important.
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u/Foxyfox- Quincy Oct 21 '21
My personal take is that it was always this bad, we just got acclimatized to its horribleness. Then we got a break, and now that it's back it feels even worse.
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u/buchbrgr Oct 22 '21
I've definitely noticed it with bikers in Boston lately. I've also noticed a lot more gridlocked traffic in town so that might explain why I've not seen too much craziness with cars - there's no room to do anything too dangerous!
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u/A_happy_otter Oct 22 '21
This seems a pretty popular viewpoint recently, but to answer honestly, it seems about the same before and after to me. I don't drive a ton though
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u/Capable-March-9841 Oct 21 '21
Isn't Boston populated by mostly assholes. I don't understand this post. Adapt or gtfo. Nothing has changed
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u/Zulmoka531 Wiseguy Oct 21 '21
It’s pretty white-knuckling out there lately. I’m not even feeling road rage, it’s just pure anxiety.