Codman Square is a mess, a multi-car smashup shut the Forest Hills overpass, my wife was thrilled when she got all the way up to 4 m.p.h. on Washington Street near Roslindale Square. So how's by you?
School bus driver at the BTU flat out refused to drive down Patten St. after witnessing a sedan slide into the curb. It was understandable but he basically blocked in eight or so other vehicles because he wouldnt get off the corner of Wachusett for 25 minutes. Numerous spin outs, bumps and sidelined vehicles all over Hyde Park Ave. The Walk Hill area was a huge mess due the the inclines. Where are the sand trucks? Been getting calls from the schools saying that buses will be at least an hour late.
Just back from a walk around the Back Bay. We had to walk with care even wearing good snow boots. Most roads untreated. We watched a car lock-up and slide at Exeter and Commonwealth.
Good day to wait until all the cars have actually come to a stop before stepping into the crosswalk.
to Roslindale (normally a half hour drive). Lots of cars sliding on hilly streets in Brookline and JP that hadn't been salted (as far as I could tell). Belgrade Ave. was all backed up beyond Walworth St. heading into Roslindale Square (or Village).
... driving back to Watertown from Somerville, when I had to make a WholePaycheck Cambridgeport pit stop. Circa 3pm.
Everything else (McGrath/O'Brien, Storrow, Soldier's Field, Nonantum) was clear.
I saw above me on the Pike WB approaching the Allston/Brighton tolls an ambulance/tow truck/wreck mess, and was glad not to have tried the Pike going home.
128 is normally a cluster-f anyway, but my neighbor reported seeing 4 accidents one after the other, and that was before rush hour really even kicked in.
On the way in to work my bus driver remarked that a lot of people must be away on vacation this week, what with the short week and all contributing to the *lighter* than normal traffic levels. Well, so much for that theory.
Apparently with all the almost-hype about the almost-storm that hit, nobody saw fit to salt the freakin roads. They usually over-react with the first snow of the year, closing schools and all. They did the opposite this time around.
Trying to get from Sullivan Square to East Boston took about an hour thanks to some sort of mess deeper down into the expressway. Police and flatbed tow trucks fighting to get through it all. whadda mess.
Three-and-a-half hours from Rochester to Quincy (45 minutes normally). Only thing that made it marginally tolerable was seeing all the Mommy Assault Vehicles off the road or stuffed into the barriers along 24.
It took me all of 2 hours to go from West Newton (Blue ribbon bbq) to my kids' school off of hyde park ave...police shut the road between the arbo and peters hill which added 45 minutes through Roz sqaure to get back on washington to cummings...Brutal!
The 66 bus took half an hour to get from Brigham Circle to Brookline Village. Once we turned off Huntington/Route 9 thing started moving a lot better, but it still took about 90 minutes all told to get from Brigham & Women's to Allston.
Heading East on Fairmount (yes, that really steep hill), I got the light at Truman Parkway, only to see two vans chasing each other sideways down the hill at maybe 10 MPH, sliding into the intersection.
They stopped, sideways, and I put Olaf my old Volvo into second and turned left. In front was yet another minivan, which fishtailed at super-slow speed up the hill until my right turn.
This was the day for a heavy sedan. I saw SUVs and vans at low-speed slides all over Hyde Park. I just kept it in 2 and kept a straight line.
My wife had to go out in her van and returned to say it too had its own skating routine, even at low speed. There were lots of bumper cars and low-speed accidents down here.
Put snow tires on your car in the winter. It really, REALLY makes a difference. They aren't even that expensive, if you buy crappy steel rims and non-top-of-the-line tires.
Take your vehicle out to an unplowed lot and cut loose. Get used to all the ways that you can lose it, and all the ways you can recover control without hitting anything.
You will be glad you did.
We got a storm like this when I first went from a manual transmission subcompact that I could threshold brake to a mid-size minivan with ABS. I was at UMass Lowell, and the parking lot was empty when I went to my car after class. So I started cutting cookies, making crazy handbrake turns, and getting used to just stomping the brake instead of downshifting and feathering. The campus cops wondered what I was up to, and I explained. As I was leaving to drive 30 miles home in the snow, they were breaking the cruisers out to have some fun themselves.
Car handling skills are all well and good, but completely useless if you don't have the proper equipment for the job, and half-bald all-season tires are not proper equipment. In some states you're required to have M+S (Mud + Snow) rated tires, legally, during certain seasons. Damn fine idea...but then again, the state allows all sorts of shitboxes on the road, so like that will ever happen.
Snow and ice are unlike any other surface (pavement, gravel, dirt)...once you've lost traction, it's completely gone until you get it back; there's not much progression, and you can't just hoon your way out of trouble in snow/ice, especially if your tires aren't designed for snow. So not getting things sideways to begin with (with good tires and a sense of what your car can/can't do) is the ticket.
Also, "just take your car out into the lot and mess around in the snow" is both extremely common and not very helpful advice. It will give you some idea, but you're just not going to learn anywhere near as much as you would with an instructor. So go to a winter driving school.
Lastly: ABS doesn't prevent you from threshold-braking, which is still the fastest way to stop. In fact, it's great for helping teach threshold braking, because it gives you feedback and a safety net.
Ever since I got my car, I had put snow tires every winter and it always helped me out on the city roads no matter what. I think it depends on whether the tires do a good job in pushing the snow out of its trends so that the rubber can grab the asphalt. It also depends on one's skill in driving. Too many people lock their brakes and not know how to correct the slips when they happen.
Tell that to everyone who has crashed their car in the city because they had bogus "all-season tires" and slid in the snow. Would it help if they were better drivers? In some cases, maybe, but not everyone has that skill, or the time and/or inclination to develop it. Snow tires are easy, bolt-on accessories that dramatically reduce the danger of driving in snow and ice.
Both of you anons make decent points. Folks who don't have certain driving skills should probably not drive during conditions when those skills are needed. Snow tires generally will make driving in snow safer, regardless of what skills a driver possesses.
Logic does not equate to meanness, nor is the other point a total fail. But, if you'd like to insult each other for our entertainment, I'm up for it.
MIL took three hours to cover 60 miles from Falmouth to Weymouth. Her 98 year old mother was calling every 10 minutes ...
Meanwhile, my son had the best possible commute: <10 minutes straight through the Fells from school to home in gore-tex hiking shoes. Probably more like 10 minutes, since he had his camera with him and kept "blissing out".
I'm glad I decided to try getting to the new job by commuter rail today. It may have cost me about $15 all told, but it probably saved me a bit of time overall. Saw it was a near standstill both ways on the Pike coming into South Station. And missed the Red Line delay.
Someone needs to explain why the Framingham line switches tracks in the evening though (inbound train is on the outbound track). I was warned about it, but the conductor on the way out didn't seem to know about it.
ICE, 26 degrees, and NO sand or salt on Roslindale Streets made for a treacherous crawl down Washington Street and Cummins Hwy, this afternoon. Saw a 3 car crash at Washington/VFW Parkway and 2 cars do an almost 360 in front of Roslindale BPL. Buses fishtailing. Solid iced intersection.
I have brand new tires on my car and it made no difference. Just threw car into low gear, prayed going down Cummins Hwy to HPA that I could stop. Prayers answered, green light and finally off hilly terrain.
Worst ride home ever. Not like no notice on this storm. Another missed storm nightmare in Boston.
From the financial district to South Bay - ouch - word to the wise - skip the surface road alongside the highway - it loads up with people trying to get on the expressway through that poorly timed light right in front of South Bay (that whole street is an engineering disaster - perhaps due to space constraints -but what a mess). Take the Mass Ave access road to Mass Ave and at least you only have to deal with local traffic and lights.
I rode my bike, as usual, so I didn't experience any delays in Boston, Cambridge, or Somerville. Did however notice that drivers were extra careful and polite during the storm, which was nice and made me feel very safe.
Comments
Just covering ground in Newton
Two-minute car clean up required. Just enough to slip on, if you wore sneakers to work, which I did. Duh.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
School bus driver at the BTU
School bus driver at the BTU flat out refused to drive down Patten St. after witnessing a sedan slide into the curb. It was understandable but he basically blocked in eight or so other vehicles because he wouldnt get off the corner of Wachusett for 25 minutes. Numerous spin outs, bumps and sidelined vehicles all over Hyde Park Ave. The Walk Hill area was a huge mess due the the inclines. Where are the sand trucks? Been getting calls from the schools saying that buses will be at least an hour late.
slippery here
Very slippery here in the hills of Hyde Park. Had to run out and move my car from in front of my house to avoid a sliding mail truck.
Readville is pretty hairy
As was Roslindale- I drove past an accident with at least one injury on West St about two hours ago. The hills are pretty treacherous.
Back Bay is slippin' and sliding
Just back from a walk around the Back Bay. We had to walk with care even wearing good snow boots. Most roads untreated. We watched a car lock-up and slide at Exeter and Commonwealth.
Good day to wait until all the cars have actually come to a stop before stepping into the crosswalk.
Took an hour to get from Cambridge
to Roslindale (normally a half hour drive). Lots of cars sliding on hilly streets in Brookline and JP that hadn't been salted (as far as I could tell). Belgrade Ave. was all backed up beyond Walworth St. heading into Roslindale Square (or Village).
Taunton
Took 2.5 hours to get from Taunton to Roslindale. Saw a lot of bad accidents, ambulances on sight.
Was it just me or were there ten times the usual number of vehicles on the road?
Cambridgeport was slippery...
... driving back to Watertown from Somerville, when I had to make a WholePaycheck Cambridgeport pit stop. Circa 3pm.
Everything else (McGrath/O'Brien, Storrow, Soldier's Field, Nonantum) was clear.
I saw above me on the Pike WB approaching the Allston/Brighton tolls an ambulance/tow truck/wreck mess, and was glad not to have tried the Pike going home.
128 a slippery cluster-F
128 is normally a cluster-f anyway, but my neighbor reported seeing 4 accidents one after the other, and that was before rush hour really even kicked in.
On the way in to work my bus driver remarked that a lot of people must be away on vacation this week, what with the short week and all contributing to the *lighter* than normal traffic levels. Well, so much for that theory.
Apparently with all the almost-hype about the almost-storm that hit, nobody saw fit to salt the freakin roads. They usually over-react with the first snow of the year, closing schools and all. They did the opposite this time around.
Central Artery Coronary
Trying to get from Sullivan Square to East Boston took about an hour thanks to some sort of mess deeper down into the expressway. Police and flatbed tow trucks fighting to get through it all. whadda mess.
Uhm..nothing seems to be sanded.
Today's commute
Three-and-a-half hours from Rochester to Quincy (45 minutes normally). Only thing that made it marginally tolerable was seeing all the Mommy Assault Vehicles off the road or stuffed into the barriers along 24.
drive time 4hrs
Ugg....I took me 4.5 hours to drive from Rockport to Rozi....I'll take that cocktail now.
Were we not expecting a big storm?
South End to Mattapan Square: 2 hours. Not a sanding truck in sight, nor a trace of salt on the road.
Burlington Mall area i like a
Burlington Mall area i like a parking lot.
Newton to Rozzie 2 hours!
It took me all of 2 hours to go from West Newton (Blue ribbon bbq) to my kids' school off of hyde park ave...police shut the road between the arbo and peters hill which added 45 minutes through Roz sqaure to get back on washington to cummings...Brutal!
Longwood Medical Area...
is a complete traffic jam/mess. I haven't seen a plow or sanding truck all day. I'm trying to wait it out since cars are sliding all over the road.
66 Bus
The 66 bus took half an hour to get from Brigham Circle to Brookline Village. Once we turned off Huntington/Route 9 thing started moving a lot better, but it still took about 90 minutes all told to get from Brigham & Women's to Allston.
Winter Sports in HP
Heading East on Fairmount (yes, that really steep hill), I got the light at Truman Parkway, only to see two vans chasing each other sideways down the hill at maybe 10 MPH, sliding into the intersection.
They stopped, sideways, and I put Olaf my old Volvo into second and turned left. In front was yet another minivan, which fishtailed at super-slow speed up the hill until my right turn.
This was the day for a heavy sedan. I saw SUVs and vans at low-speed slides all over Hyde Park. I just kept it in 2 and kept a straight line.
My wife had to go out in her van and returned to say it too had its own skating routine, even at low speed. There were lots of bumper cars and low-speed accidents down here.
PROTIP!!!
Put snow tires on your car in the winter. It really, REALLY makes a difference. They aren't even that expensive, if you buy crappy steel rims and non-top-of-the-line tires.
Protip #2
Take your vehicle out to an unplowed lot and cut loose. Get used to all the ways that you can lose it, and all the ways you can recover control without hitting anything.
You will be glad you did.
We got a storm like this when I first went from a manual transmission subcompact that I could threshold brake to a mid-size minivan with ABS. I was at UMass Lowell, and the parking lot was empty when I went to my car after class. So I started cutting cookies, making crazy handbrake turns, and getting used to just stomping the brake instead of downshifting and feathering. The campus cops wondered what I was up to, and I explained. As I was leaving to drive 30 miles home in the snow, they were breaking the cruisers out to have some fun themselves.
protip #3
Car handling skills are all well and good, but completely useless if you don't have the proper equipment for the job, and half-bald all-season tires are not proper equipment. In some states you're required to have M+S (Mud + Snow) rated tires, legally, during certain seasons. Damn fine idea...but then again, the state allows all sorts of shitboxes on the road, so like that will ever happen.
Snow and ice are unlike any other surface (pavement, gravel, dirt)...once you've lost traction, it's completely gone until you get it back; there's not much progression, and you can't just hoon your way out of trouble in snow/ice, especially if your tires aren't designed for snow. So not getting things sideways to begin with (with good tires and a sense of what your car can/can't do) is the ticket.
Also, "just take your car out into the lot and mess around in the snow" is both extremely common and not very helpful advice. It will give you some idea, but you're just not going to learn anywhere near as much as you would with an instructor. So go to a winter driving school.
Lastly: ABS doesn't prevent you from threshold-braking, which is still the fastest way to stop. In fact, it's great for helping teach threshold braking, because it gives you feedback and a safety net.
Snow tires are for hilly rural roads
there's not much need for them in the city. I certainly never found them necessary when I had a car here.
Always made the difference for me
Ever since I got my car, I had put snow tires every winter and it always helped me out on the city roads no matter what. I think it depends on whether the tires do a good job in pushing the snow out of its trends so that the rubber can grab the asphalt. It also depends on one's skill in driving. Too many people lock their brakes and not know how to correct the slips when they happen.
Tell that to everyone who has
Tell that to everyone who has crashed their car in the city because they had bogus "all-season tires" and slid in the snow. Would it help if they were better drivers? In some cases, maybe, but not everyone has that skill, or the time and/or inclination to develop it. Snow tires are easy, bolt-on accessories that dramatically reduce the danger of driving in snow and ice.
Um ...
Then, maybe they should get off the roadways until they learn to drive, or stay off in bad weather?
Fail.
My point stands. Snow tires
My point stands. Snow tires are an easy way to make your car a lot safer. Why are you such a mean person?
Sheesh
Both of you anons make decent points. Folks who don't have certain driving skills should probably not drive during conditions when those skills are needed. Snow tires generally will make driving in snow safer, regardless of what skills a driver possesses.
Logic does not equate to meanness, nor is the other point a total fail. But, if you'd like to insult each other for our entertainment, I'm up for it.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Ridiculously Sublime
MIL took three hours to cover 60 miles from Falmouth to Weymouth. Her 98 year old mother was calling every 10 minutes ...
Meanwhile, my son had the best possible commute: <10 minutes straight through the Fells from school to home in gore-tex hiking shoes. Probably more like 10 minutes, since he had his camera with him and kept "blissing out".
By rail
I'm glad I decided to try getting to the new job by commuter rail today. It may have cost me about $15 all told, but it probably saved me a bit of time overall. Saw it was a near standstill both ways on the Pike coming into South Station. And missed the Red Line delay.
Someone needs to explain why the Framingham line switches tracks in the evening though (inbound train is on the outbound track). I was warned about it, but the conductor on the way out didn't seem to know about it.
Where was the DPW today?
ICE, 26 degrees, and NO sand or salt on Roslindale Streets made for a treacherous crawl down Washington Street and Cummins Hwy, this afternoon. Saw a 3 car crash at Washington/VFW Parkway and 2 cars do an almost 360 in front of Roslindale BPL. Buses fishtailing. Solid iced intersection.
I have brand new tires on my car and it made no difference. Just threw car into low gear, prayed going down Cummins Hwy to HPA that I could stop. Prayers answered, green light and finally off hilly terrain.
Worst ride home ever. Not like no notice on this storm. Another missed storm nightmare in Boston.
It's Christmas week - don't
It's Christmas week - don't be a busybody.
Sure
You're right - the magic of Christmas will keep motorists from crashing into each other, and pedestrians from slipping on icy sidewalks.
amazing how little snow it took
I was driving around Roxbury right as the first covering stuck. You're right, there was no salt on the roads, and right away it was pandemonium.
Over an hour
From the financial district to South Bay - ouch - word to the wise - skip the surface road alongside the highway - it loads up with people trying to get on the expressway through that poorly timed light right in front of South Bay (that whole street is an engineering disaster - perhaps due to space constraints -but what a mess). Take the Mass Ave access road to Mass Ave and at least you only have to deal with local traffic and lights.
I rode my bike, as usual, so
I rode my bike, as usual, so I didn't experience any delays in Boston, Cambridge, or Somerville. Did however notice that drivers were extra careful and polite during the storm, which was nice and made me feel very safe.