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18-wheeler rumbles the wrong way down a one-way street in the Fenway, wreaks havoc
By adamg on Tue, 10/06/2015 - 3:37pm
Wrong-way big rig on Hemenway Street
The intersection of Hemenway and Norway streets is shut thanks to the driver of an 18-wheeler, who turned onto Hemenway from Boylston, even though Hemenway is a one-way street into Boylston, then tried to turn onto Norway Street, sideswiping several cars and coming to a halt as police tried to figure out how to get the stuck rig out. Brian the roving UHub photographer shows us the scene.
A heavy-duty tow was summoned around 3:30 p.m.
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Comments
He was headed into Boston
Our city streets weren't designed for 18-wheelers
Blah blah something something professional drivers.
civilization would collapse
We wouldn't have any groceries or anything in stores ever if we didn't blah blah blah something ...
Worth mentioning that Norway
Worth mentioning that Norway St is also one-way into Hemenway.
he passed a sign
He passed a sign that he should have seen,
Saying "shift to low gear, a fifty dollar fine my friend."
Wrong location and song
To continue my earlier post
from Give Me Forty Acres (And I'll Turn This Rig Around)
Songs?
If you're stuck in traffic /
I feel bad for you son /
Boston has 99 traffic problems /
but a bike lane ain't one.
Great driving skills. Just
Great driving skills. Just like the truck driver that negligently killed that biking doctor on Mass Ave which somehow has super secret protection to keep their name and company out of the news.
Could be the same guy
I doubt it, but we'll never know because the BPD's "Sweep It Under The Rug" approach to vehicular homicide did its job ably.
This truck driver
obviously did some stupid stuff but did not hit anyone and leave the scene. C'mon.
What?
He hit a bunch of PARKED cars and only didn't leave the scene as he was stuck there! Did the cars come out of nowhere and were unavoidable?
It's shit like this which makes me blame the driver and not the victim by default. This guy presumably had a CDL and training too.
How good of a driver do you think this guy is when he's not in a truck? Hint: A horrible driver.
BPD: Police protect business interests, not so much safety
Hey they have a few photo ops on bikes and nominal officers on bikes...
The laws have to be changed, but to do that, you'd be against the business community.
And because businesses kick problems down the line, as externalities, it is the job of our elected representatives to legislate new rules, sensible ones, where you know, this is not as routine as it seems
Culture must change before the BPD can at least pretend to do something about vulnerable road users---people on disability scooters, for example...rather than promote the asshats on those segways...
but that's a business, see?
33-Foot Double Trailers Allowed in New House Bill
They are getting bigger too!
A $55 billion transportation and housing spending bill, approved by the House Appropriations Committee, includes a provision to allow 33-foot double trailers on Interstate and other highways, regardless of state laws.
Twenty-eight-foot doubles are currently allowed on Interstates.
The bill, which must be approved by the full House and Senate before becoming law, says: “Section 31111(b)(1)(A) of title 49, United States Code is amended by striking ‘or of less than 28 feet on a semitrailer or trailer operating in a truck tractor- semitrailer-trailer combination,’ and inserting ‘or, not- withstanding section 31112, of less than 33 feet on a semitrailer or trailer operating in a truck tractor- 19 semitrailer-trailer combination.”
The bill also includes provisions to: keep the 34-hour restart rule suspended until a Federal study is completed, revoking it only if the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) impact report shows that “drivers who operated under the restart provisions… demonstrated statistically significant improvement in all outcomes related to safety, operator fatigue, driver health and longevity and work schedules” vs. drivers who had run under the rules in place before the 2013 change; remove funding to implement wireless roadside highway inspections; and prevent the government from increasing the $750,000 minimum liability insurance coverage required for truckers.
http://trailer-bodybuilders.com/trailers/33-foot-double-trailers-allowed...
Twin 33s would only be allowed
on Interstates and other designated highways within the National Network, as well as routes of reasonable access to and from the National Network.
The only thing that changes should this legislation pass is the size of the trucks. The routes that twins use, and the routes of reasonable access to and from the National Network - which are determined by the states, not the Federal Government - will not be changed or expanded under this bill.
Plus, have you ever seen a tandem trailer rig on a city street?
yes twin pups local, double
yes twin pups local, double bottoms stay on Pike'.
According to Wikipedia (it
According to Wikipedia (it must be true!) doubles are only allowed on the Pike and only up to 95, they can't enter city limits so there's a lot there where they can park.
I don't know how they would make the North-South traverse through MA - 495? Though I've seen them on 95, so they must be allowed there as well.
Tandems are allowed on ALL Interstates
in Massachsetts and specific non-interstate controlled access highways as well.
From MGL Chapter 90, Section 19F
As Interstates are automatically part of the National Network, the Wikipedia entry for "National Network' only lists those state highways that tandems are allowed on - the Wiki Massachusetts listing correctly includes all the state highways listed in MGL Ch 90 Sec19F.
They Shouldn't Be Allowed Anywhere
If you have that much stuff, then put it on a train. All freight should be rail only except the very last leg which should be by as small a vehicle as possible.
That's nice dear
Now look at a map of rail lines in the US and note how much of the population lives substantial distances from those rail lines.
Not much of the population
The bulk of the population live very close to NS or CSX lines on the East Coast and Midwest. The population centers of Texas are served by either BNSF, UP, KCS, or a combination of them. BNSF and UP have tracks that parallel I-5 in Washington State down to Portland, and some of the most notable rail passes in the mountains in the US are around Los Angeles. And of course Chicago is a hub for all seven of the class 1 railroads.
I think what you meant to say is that there are large areas of the United States that are substantial distances from major rail lines. And of course the "last mile" aspect of intermodal today means up to 250 miles from when the freight comes off the rails.
We Need to Regress
If you look at a same subject map from say 70 years ago you will see a big difference in coverage. Back then all long distance, overland freight was by train. In Boston we moved all of the freight rails out of cities and use 18-wheelers to get the goods into town. Instead we need to revert to when there were inner city freight yards and we can just distribute from them around the city in sprinter vans or small box trucks instead of the giants roaming the streets now.
Tandem 48's , called double
Tandem 48's , called double bottoms , were restricted to the Mass Pike , and had to be broken in Allston in the yard off Cambridge street. You needed a special permit ,
Large Tandem Unit refers to a tandem unit in which either the semi-trailer or trailer exceeds 28
feet in length.
Large Tandem Unit Permit refers to a permit that the Department issues in accordance with
700 CMR 7.07.
Tandem Pups ( 28' trailers ) can go off the highway to the terminal, and to drop yards basically anywhere. I have seen them dropped on the street , broken, delivered trailer A , then B , and rehooked. These are the trailers that the companys want to replace with the 33' new ones. Both sets have different rules
One could argue
One could argue that twin 33' trailers could be more maneuverable than a single 58' trailer. The only trick is that you have to decouple them to unload them.
I used to see triples(!) when I was a kid - the big grocery stores had warehouses near my trailer park and ran them on the interstates. There were strict qualifications for those who were allowed to drive them, and it showed.
Free 2015 CDL Double & Triple Trailers Practice Test
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/cdl-practice-tests/doubles/
Wheeee!
That was fun. You can get as much as 70% by just understanding physics and hydraulics!
Too bad they don't have trucks on a skidpad for a practice test. That would be great!
Real world only experience !
Real world only experience !
Back when I paid attention to
Back when I paid attention to such things, it seemed like tandems always got dropped in the big yard next to the Allston tolls and railyard. Not sure if it's still there these days.
Local Deliveries
They would drop a trailer, deliver locally, swap trailers, make another delivery ...
They couldn't take the doubles on local roads.
Even if he was going the right way
Would he fit down those two streets? Is he even allowed there?
Double Trailers in an Urban Environment
That chat about double trailers brought one of my favorite chases from Beverly Hills Cop to my mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL1d7QmGDo8
Hooking up a set of triples
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFbooSwEim8
Ricky Bobby
drives a truck?
Well, it's easy to harp on
Well, it's easy to harp on this guy, but I know the other side of stories like this - some average Joe who could barely make ends meet scraped enough money to pass his CDL test and get a big rig job making regional deliveries. Not being familiar with the area and/or due to the way we Massholes drive, he misses his Newton or Brookline exit and now has to figure out how to turn around downtown. Best case scenario, he wastes 2 hours and is late. Worst case, he doesn't notice a cyclist...
Sucks either way you cut it.
They make atlases and commercial GPS
If he didn't bother to plan his route in a known to be troublesome area. and ignored wrong way signs, etc. I don't have much sympathy.
There is incompetence, then there is incompetence in a massive piece of dangerous machinery.
There's no room
for empathy in these comments, apparently.
Empathy is not owed to fools
I feel sorry for the tourists who get lost.
I have no sympathy for a supposed professional piloting a huge and dangerous machine requiring special skills who doesn't even bother to check a map and ignores clear signage.
This isn't an "act of God" here. This is incompetence. This was entirely preventable.
Yeah, but
Bicyclists run red lights!!