Driving

Boston Ward 4 Dems snapped the latest BU Bridge/Grand Junction casualty: A truck whose driver apparently and rather suddenly lost the ability to read, right in the middle of the evening rush hour today. On the eastbound side, at least.

Roving UHub photographer spotted this special parking space behind 50 Staniford St. today.

Apparently, the state's decision to replace the collapsing Casey Overpass with surface roads was racist. Who knew? Oh, JP.

Mike the Mad Biologist explains it was an attempt to cut into the business of the streetwalkers who used to ply their wares at the corner of Marlborough and Arlington in the 1970s:

People would hop off Storrow Drive and drive around the block, find, erm, a 'friend', and drive off. Not exactly the kind of tourism the city was hoping for, so the traffic pattern was changed. Hard to believe today, since the penthouse of Zero Marlborough (the corner of Arlington and Marlborough) recently went for $8.8 million.

He actually wrote that as an aside in a post about the new traffic lights that are going in at that intersection, which means the former red-light district is, finally, going to get some red lights.

This van, which Mike the Mad Biologist spotted on Comm. Ave. in the Back Bay.

Alexandra Sear photographed a stuck truck at McGrath Highway and Washington Street in Somerville this morning.

Bravo, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, for defying national "standards" on what makes a good highway exit sign.

Just because the entire rest of the country indicates exits with white lettering on green signs doesn't mean motorists on Hammond Pond Parkway and Rte. 9 in Newton need suffer such boring uniformity. Take that, people who think brown signs are just for noting the location of historic or scenic sites! Well, unless DCR is telling us that the new and rebuilt malls on Rte. 9 are historic, or that the faux stones painted on the Chestnut Hill Mall retaining walls are scenic.

Bonus points go to DCR for finally re-using the bold layout of the old MDC Metro Parkways signs, some of which can still be found on our local parkways. Can we expect DCR to re-paint those signs in brown, though?

Boston Police report a woman, 80, died of head trauma after being hit by a car at Stuart and Charles streets around 6:20 a.m. on Sunday.

The driver said he did not see the woman.

At present, the cause of the accident is still under investigation and no violations have been issued at this time.

And the Pru tunnel on the turnpike is reopened. But Lower Allston takes its turn his morning going without power.

Rob Colonna and other inbound commuters had a sour experience on Storrow Drive this morning due to an epic battle between a milk truck and a bridge. As ever, the bridge won - one wonders how the driver failed to realize the bridge would skim the top off his truck. No word if he received a ticket for a mooving violation.

Oopsies. Truck came to a stop on Brookline - on both sides of the road. Photo by ParquetOverIce.

The driver of a truck that had just offloaded steel to that new building under construction at Longwood and Brookline cut a right turn just a bit too closely around 1:30 p.m. and took out a traffic light at the intersection before it came to a halt.

Traffic through the intersection quickly came to a halt itself. Boston Police tried to keep traffic out of the Longwood Medical Area by blocking cars from Brookline Avenue at the Fenway and on Longwood at Avenue Louis Pasteur.

One person was injured in the smashup: A doctor who knew just what to do for the two cuts on his arm - he walked over to Beth Israel.

Kara photographed what happens when a boat falls off its trailer, in this case on Morton Street just past Blue Hill Avenue on the way towards Dorchester around 6:20 p.m.

Dev photographed this umbrella-wielding scooter rider on Mass. Ave., scooting away from Boylston during the morning rush hour.

Ed Hatfield captured the scene yesterday on the entrance to Storrow Drive from the Bowker Overpass:

I would hate to drive in any big city in anything bigger than a sedan. Why doesn't GPS warn these guys? I think this guy was trying a U turn and got stuck. There is a very small cut through just to the left.

At least he didn't plow into an overpass, sending 33 of his passengers to the hospital like the last guy.

Copyright Ed Hatfield. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Gradon Tripp managed to photograph the giant cloud of doom about to crash down on 128 north around 4:30 p.m.

Well, maybe if you were assigned a mini-van from the city motor pool, you'd be grumpy, too, but in any case, a blocked-in citizen reports from a parking lot on Commercial Street in the North End:

Spots were available, yet the school employee chose to block the whole lot, didn't respond to honking, and then yelled at the people he had trapped in the lot when he finally came out.

Our municipal cone crisis continues. A concerned citizen (ed. note: Please note I did not write "cone-cerned" again) reports somebody used steel wire to attach a traffic cone to a tree on Charter Street.

The city replies a worker removed the cone, but this earlier report suggests whoever tied the cone to the tree will do it again, since they've done it before.

A story to make any pedestrian's heart glad.

The scene. Photograph by Cory Gardner.

Updated with MIT info.

Kanako Miura, 36, a visiting scientist at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, died this afternoon when she was struck by a dump truck, MIT and Stanley Staco report.

Boston Police report the victim was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after the 3:30 p.m. incident.

A mangled silver and black bicycle, believed to be hers, was found several blocks away on Bay State Road at Silber Way, Brian D'Amico reports.

Aston Martin Lagonda and an Aston Martin dealership in Waltham are racing at each other full speed in a dispute over whether the car company - whose cheapest model goes for $122,400 - can open another dealership in Wayland.

Aston Martin of New England on Linden Street in Waltham, says the plan would cut its sales dramatically and wants $3 million in damages. The dealership is currently the only place in all of New England to buy a new Aston Martin.

At a public meeting, MassDOT released some opinions on the McGrath Highway.

MassDOT has recommended that the McCarthy Overpass portion of McGrath Highway be grounded and the roadway developed into a Boulevard that reconnects East Somerville, Union Square and Brickbottom.

The recommended plan preserves continuity at Washington Street, while enhancing pedestrian and bicycle connections. The removal of the overpass will allow for wider sidewalks, bicycle paths, added green space that will help spur redevelopment and enhance existing uses along the corridor.

Now, if only we can figure out why there is an extensive McGrath rehab in progress when MassDOT intends to remove it.

They were towing cars off Copenger Street on Mission Hill today, apparently for getting in the way of street sweepers. Only problem, AMO notes, is that the signs declare "No Parking" for the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month and today is the third Wednesday.

Mayor Menino says he wants to reduce injury rates among bicyclists by 50% by 2020. This report examines current bicycling trends in Boston and offers some suggestions, including looking at mandatory helmet use for all bicyclists, greater enforcement of existing traffic laws among both motorists and bicyclists and continuing to expand bicycle-friendly facilities and lanes in the city.

The report identifies specific problem routes and neighborhoods; perhaps not surprisingly, these tend to be centered in densely packed areas of the city, in particular those heavily populated by students, such as Comm. Ave. and Allston/Brighton.

WBZ reports.

At Edward Everett Square in Dorchester.