New Englanders, speak to me of your driving culture

[politicat]

I'm thinking about doing a meta-study of traffic patterns (to correlate with something else) and I have no idea what driving in New England is like. (I've lived almost everywhere else.) I'm seeing conflicting data on how New England gets classified in terms of traffic patterns, so I'm looking for an indication about which studies to trust on first pass. Some of the questions I'm interested in (but not limited to) are:

- How do people merge into a lane in heavy traffic? Do they follow a zipper pattern or is it every car for itself?
- When two or more cars approach a stop sign at the same time, how does that transaction work out?
- How do most people treat pedestrians and bicyclists?
- How does weather affect driving? In inclement weather, do people drive more cautiously, or does over-familiarity lead to over-confidence?
- Turn signals? In some driving cultures, using turn signals is encouraged; in others, using it marks you as a chump.
- How often do you use your horn?

Thanks!

[graywarrior]

1. Every car and pedestrian on the streets of MA are my enemy

Especially in Boston. lol

[HopeHoops]

3. It's best to just walk in Boston - and run from any car with a duck taped to the front of it.

[graywarrior]

10. Hahahaha, you got it!

[HopeHoops]

11. Oh, like you haven't seen me running away.

[graywarrior]

15. And you haven't see me chasing you!

[HopeHoops]

19. I don't know. There was a HUGE truck with a monster roll of duct tape on it!!!

Then again, it might have been a flatbed with a roll of sheet steel. I'm not sure. I was sort of stoned at the time.

[graywarrior]

20. It was an orange Honda Fit sport.

[HopeHoops]

21. A "Honda Fit" sounds like you got pissed off at a sushi chef.

[graywarrior]

22. That's a Honda Hissyfit!

[HopeHoops]

23. They don't put pussy in sushi!

[sarge43]

25. Duck Tape: It holds New England tagethah. n/t

[HopeHoops]

2. Having lived in NH for ten years, commuting to the Boston area, I think I can answer the question...

- How do people merge into a lane in heavy traffic? Do they follow a zipper pattern or is it every car for itself?

A: Have you ever watched a demolition derby? If you don't know how to squeeze your 16' car into a 2" slot, don't bother trying to merge. Just wait until 3:00 in the morning and then pull out.


- When two or more cars approach a stop sign at the same time, how does that transaction work out?

A: Whoever has the most beat up and worthless car wins. They've obviously had enough losses to deserve to be the winner from then on.


- How do most people treat pedestrians and bicyclists?

A: Get 'em with the door.


- How does weather affect driving? In inclement weather, do people drive more cautiously, or does over-familiarity lead to over-confidence?

A: The worse the weather, the worse people drive. Universally true.

- Turn signals? In some driving cultures, using turn signals is encouraged; in others, using it marks you as a chump.

A: Turn signals? Turn signals? That's like calling your enemy to give them the coordinates for your next troop movement or bombing run. We don' need no stinkin' turn signals, mon.

- How often do you use your horn?

A: There's rarely time to move that quickly.

=== Other points ===

- Rotaries (or circles as they are called in DC) are intended to be used such that those ON the rotary yield to those trying to merge. They work well that way. In reality, every rotary in NE (without exception, and there are a shitload of them) is like a mini NASCAR track and merging is sort of like trying to ride a donkey into a herd of stampeding buffalo.

- Traffic signals in Boston are advisory at best. Plus, MA has like 152 different combinations of combined lights, some steady, some flashing, some double flashing, and absolutely nobody has any idea what the hell they mean. I'm not sure why they bother putting them up.

- Always pass on the right at high speeds, especially 4-lane highways as you are approaching an on-ramp. This prevents unwanted other cars from getting on the road in your general vicinity.

- Always ride in the blind spot on the right side of a truck.

- Reading the paper, eating, talking on the cell phone, applying makeup using the rear view mirror, and drinking coffee - all at the same time - makes you a wimp. There are WAY more other things you could be doing too.

- When in doubt, floor it. That one's very serious. It's far better to get out of a mess than get stuck in one.

- Speed limit signs mean nothing. The speed limit is the basic flow rate of traffic. If you try to stick to the speed limit you're like cholesterol buildup in a major artery.

- If you're late for work (which you will be), everybody else (who are also late for work) are cannon fodder.

- A red light isn't officially red until the side with the green light starts moving in on your territory. The situation reverses in about two minutes.

- Double parking is fine.

- Two inches is an acceptable following distance.

- A four hour commute for a one hour route is not uncommon. Usually it is just two, but I've done a lot of three and fours on the same route.

- Don't bother with flipping people off. Everyone just assumes it.

- Loud music and a lot of coffee helps - anywhere you go.

- Do not have kids in the car at any time. Too dangerous.

- A cowcatcher on the front of the car would be advisable, but the car won't get through inspection that way. It's not for cows.

- "YIELD" means "FLOOR IT!!!"

- "STOP" means "GO"

Now, all of that said, in those ten years I saw relatively few accidents and most of them were minor. The system is about as fucked up as fucked up gets, but it works. It takes a couple of years to adjust to it, but it works.

[Chan790]

4. As a L/T CT resident...this^^^.

Also, there's a reason the rest of NE refers to MA residents as "Massholes" and talk about "Massachusetts Drivers"...it's not because they drive well.

[graywarrior]

17. We're Massholes, lol

[blueamy66]

5. LOL!he

sounds like AZ, but without the weather issues! Okay, maybe seeing 5 cars on the side of the road during the Summer that have overheated.....and the gawkers slowing down traffic may be considered weather issues.

[whistler162]

6. So true in New York but you do realize

that in most states it is now illegal to use ones turn signal unless you are staying in the same lane for 50 miles or more!

Also right on red but only if there is on coming traffic closer than 10 feet from the intersection.

[HopeHoops]

7. I thought that rule only applied to doing 50mph in the hammer lane with the left blinker on.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. You have described San Francisco Peninsula driving.

Perfectly.

[HopeHoops]

9. Yeah, it isn't isolated to any given region. There are a few of them.

[TeamPooka]

13. we had a rotary whjere I grew up in CT and 2 or 3 times a year

I would see some asshole driving the wrong way around the circle.

[HopeHoops]

18. LOL! I've never seen that, but I can see how it would happen.

Curiously, rotaries are gaining ground again. They're much more efficient than traffic lights. Rt. 29 in MD (Baltimore to DC) has replaced a lot of the traffic lights on overpasses with rotaries. One of THE most fucked up intersections in the ENTIRE Harrisburg, PA area (Linglestown, specifically) was replaced with a rotary. It used to be a clusterfuck from hell but it moves smoothly now. It's also a HELL of a lot easier to pull a U-turn using a rotary when you know you took a wrong turn.

[TeamPooka]

12. Boston and the NE college belt is the hellhole we send young drivers into....

so they learn to be bad drivers.
That way when they graduate they go home and screw up traffic in the rest of the country.

[LiberalEsto]

14. The squares in MA are worse than the rotaries

I had the great misfortune to live in Worcester, MA for 6 months in 1971.
It was the first time I encountered the phenomenon known as "the square." I've never found them in another state.

Squares are places where four or five streets all meet with no rhyme, reason, or traffic directions. Everyone piles in at top speed, and prays they escape from it safely, or at least without major damage. Anyone who hesitates is lost.

This is a deep dark secret.
People in Massachusetts are afraid that if people from places with normal traffic intersections find out, they will be too scared to visit the Bay State.

[NoPasaran]

26. Gettysburg, PA has a square

Confederate troops advancing through the town on July 1, 1863 were so confused by the traffic clusterfuck at the square that they delayed, allowing the Union army to rally and hold Cemetery Hill. General Ewell got the blame, but the real culprit was the square.

[LiberalEsto]

27. Is it still there?

I don't think I'll drive through Gettysburg in the foreseeable future.

[kwassa]

16. Driving culture is an oxymoron, I think.

He who hesitates is screwed.

I drove cab in Providence as a part-time driver whilst a college student there.

I recall that the rotaries were referred to as "suicide circles". I took one at high speed one night. My passengers had not properly latched the rear door of the cab. Two fell out due to the centrifugal force on the curve of the rotary. They rolled a bit across the street, but were not seriously hurt. I took them to the hospital, but they refused treatment.

[politicat]

28. There is a dominant pattern in most places.

Call it flocking behavior or group dynamics, but it does exist. (there are ALWAYS individual outliers.) once that dominant culture is identified, there are some other behaviors at correlate onto it and it might be possible to do some predictions. Group dynamics is still an infant science, so we're still refining the mathematical models.

Thanks for the input, though - it really does help me winnow a metric shit ton of traffic studies down to a few hundred pounds!

[sarge43]

24. Rather than answer your individual questions, state by state.

MA: Worst, no contest. Along with the commentary so far, they all seem to believe that tail gating will make the line of traffic move faster, even at 20mph over the posted speed limit. I think they were trained on the German Autobahns.

CT & RI: They're nuts and rules are for wimps.

VT: Two speeds for Vermonters. Summer: Warp Nine. Winter: Warp Eight point Five

ME: Combo of VT, CT & RI

NH: Not bad as long as you stay out of the Iron Triangle of Nasha, Concord and Manchester; they turn into massholes. One warning: On rural roads (every road off freeways is rural) expect to encounter three cars stopped in the middle of the road, usually around a curve and at the bottom of a hill. They're holding a town meetin'.

All NE road signs and directionals are non existent, well hidden or a joke. The only one to take seriously is Dangerous Curve. If a NEer thinks it's dangerous, it'll make you wet your pants, Flatlander.

[krispos42]

29. Yellow means "floor it".

The roads are curvy; this means that on the rare straight roads, drivers still drive like it's curvy.

Dumbasses don't get out of the fast lane. You have to race past them at high speed on the right.

If you can't read the part number of their tail light lens, you're not following close enough. And some fucker will cram his car in front of you as punishment for daring to have a safety margin.

Turn signals are hit-or-miss. I always do it, but it's random. The assholes that weave in and out of traffic generally don't bother.

They're generally decent with letting you squeeze out of a parking lot onto a busy road.

They're generally decent with alternating turns at stop signs.

I'd use my horn more often if it was louder. I've got some sort of wussified POS right now. I need more wattage.

Pedestrians are worth 50 points towards a new toaster, bicyclists are worth 250. Double points if you do an e-brake turn and "bunt" them through an intersection. Quad points if you bunt them through the intersection without them touching the ground.

[KamaAina]

30. "Green means go, yellow means go faster!"

[CaliforniaPeggy]

31. Driving is a blood sport in Boston...

Seriously.

[hifiguy]

32. I lived in Cambridge for three years.

Dorm rat in law school. Close to Harvard Square. There is only one word for Boston drivers and that word is HOMICIDAL.

I had to get to Logan airport quickly once. The cabbie, who sounded just like the guy from the old Seven-Up commercials, went bombing through Somerville in the middle of the day at 65 mph on the surface streets, occasionally down the wrong side of the street. Never came within ten feet of hitting anything and got me to my flight on time.

He popped out of the cab - all 6'5" or so, gave me my bag, and said "Told you I'd get you here on time, mon!" I tipped him BIG.

[politicat]

33. So... I can trust the fictional description in Neal Stephenson's Zodiac?

It's not often I'm seriously, truly thankful I'm a west coast kid, but... whoa.

I've walked and biked that path (I don't drive when I visit the East Coast because I know the flocking patterns are out of sync with mine) and... whoa.