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You can take your mask off, but, no, you still can't drive a U-Haul on Storrow Drive
By adamg on Fri, 05/14/2021 - 3:38pm
Schmitt spotted this storrowing aftermath being hauled down a Back Bay street today. What makes it a bit unusual is that it's an actual U-Haul - most recent storrowings have involved anything but U-Haul box trucks.
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We learned this lesson in WWII, actually
Army Air Force, "Pilots keep crashing the B-17 on landing. Can you help us with training so the pilots are less dumb?"
Psychologists: "umm.... you made the switches all identical and all right near each other on the panel, maybe it's the design of the aircraft that's dumb and not the pilots?"
And so modern human factors engineering was born.
Maybe if people keep hitting the Storrow Drive bridges with trucks, the problem isn't that people are idiots? Maybe the warning signs are inadequate?
https://humanisticsystems.com/2018/02/25/human-factors-and-ergonomics-lo...
Nah
Recent transplant to Boston, Storrowings are one of the most charming things about this town.
(My 26’ truck came into Brighton on 90 so I wasn’t tempted to shear its top off on Storrow.)
Not really
If this were the case, they'd be happening more often then. They are happening with people renting vehicles remarkably different than the vehicles they drive on a normal basis, if they drive at all. They aren't used to the height and size of the rental and don't know to check for clearances. I can't believe that U Haul doesn't warn people about Storrow Drive but that would only help local moves - driving here from another city/state wouldn't get the same warning, if any at all. People tend to forget that they're not driving like they typically do as well - anyone driving a rental or towing a boat or something similar will eventually, it they're not careful, start driving as if they're in their own car with nothing in tow. I once watched a guy in an SUV almost flip over from speeding and changing lanes while towing a boat (in December on icy roads).
Storrowing is and continues to be driver error.
relevant
https://youtu.be/nUHf6rklYCg
Yes it’s driver error
Yes it’s driver error, and the b-17 crashes were pilot error… but when one aircraft experiences pilot error accidents at 10x the rate of similar aircraft flown in similar missions, one ought to scratch one’s head and look into it.
As an aside, confirming what you say, the truck rental companies have said to me that day 2 or day 3 are high risk… day one you’re super careful; then you get sloppy and start driving it as though it were your car
again, not really
Again, if it were an expected error due to bad design, it would happen all the time, it would happen more than just around moving time. Driver error.
It DOES happen all the time.
It DOES happen all the time. This is not a rare occurrence.
and the b-17 crashes were
WTF?
Flip side of this, psychologically...
In non-pandemic times, I work as a tour guide, often as what they call a "step-on guide". I get on big motor coaches, which have come from out of state, to give them a tour. Not only do I narrate the tour, I have to give directions to the driver.
Storrow Drive, Memorial Drive, Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay, all of the streets in the North End, and a few other roads are simply not on my radar as navigation options. I don't even think about using them. They don't exist in my mind as possible routes.
Every once in a while I get to give a personal tour for a couple or a family, who have rented an SUV-type limousine from a local company. When the limo driver asks, "Do you want to take Storrow Drive?", I do a mental double take. "Oh, yeah, that is an option, and this is a small enough vehicle that we can go that way." I have to mentally reprogram my entire navigation system.
I've been doing this since long before GPS was invented, so I have my own "mental" GPS. But every once in a while I get a driver who insists on using GPS, instead of following my directions. That can get interesting.
It's a combination of both, imho:
The warning signs are pretty inadequate, and the people who keep hitting the Storrow Drive bridges with trucks are idiots.
Still not the dumbest thing done with a U Haul this week
Not a storage tank, in case you need to be told
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/05/13/man-drills-into-uh...
Boston is healing.
.
Hopefully nothing will ever
Hopefully nothing will ever be done to prevent this from happening because we have grown to identify Storrowings with all that Love That Dirty Water and shit. Saying with much luv. Boston Strong n shit.
Remember the 11'8" bridge in Durham, NC?
It's now 12'4", yet people are still storrowing trucks there.