Rte 1 North by Kappy's...

By amusings on Thu., 12/13/2007 - 7:49 pm

My husband just called me. He works for a hospital in Boston (not Paul Levy's hospital) and as non-essential personnel he was released at 2:30pm today.

It is now 7:45pm. He just passed Kappy's on Rte 1 North.

Do the math -- 5.25 hours, yes.
But, even more disconcerting is -- Kappy's was closed.

"Think of the amount of booze they COULD BE SELLING to people like me who have spent 5 hours to go less than 10 miles. Think of the revenue! Think of the ... "

Doug was a little upset.

Good thing it only took me 2.5 hours to get home from Marblehead (to Haverhill) and I stopped at the wine store in Georgetown on the way home. Pinot Grigio Awaits.

Good luck to any and all still out there battling the elements. Be safe, not stupid.

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Comments

JP mess

By adamg
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 8:08pm

Lyss wonders: Who abandons a Mercedes in the middle of South Street?

Doug told me there are dozens of abandoned cars on Rte 1.
on the south side of Rte 1 across from Kappys there is a huge accident. So everyone trying to go north is also gawking at the accident. He passed no less than 6 abandoned cars between the Revere Cinema and Kappys.

I suppose if you didn't put gas in your car, you were fucked. long and the short of it.

perhaps french toast alert should be changed to full tank alert. Oh-- i got an oil change the other day and the douchebags put in SUMMER WEIGHT windshield wiper fluid, which is, of course, totally frozen SOLID in the container until the temps rise enough for me to spray some out. THAT made my ride home lots and lots of fun.

dear lord. will the insanity ever end?

Another frustrating commute

By adamg
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 8:13pm

10 miles in 3 1/2 hours:

... I wanted to cry. I had no where I could go. I couldn't turn around and go back to work - that would have been another 2 hours to get back.

No one could get through the lights because people were blocking the lights trying to make it through. So we sat through one cycle after another.. waiting and waiting. Then of course the person in the front of the lane wouldn't go around the blocking cars until they were cleared. UGH All the offices had cars piling out of each driveway which made it worse for us in the back. We just waited and waited while they poured out and someone let them just keep coming. ...

6 hours, 10 minutes

By Dave
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 9:46pm

Natick to Canton
I got 90% of the way home in an hour and a half, and spent most of the next 4:50 sitting still in Westwood [where I saw snowplows riding around with their blades up ignoring the people getting stuck - no doubt waiting for time and a half to kick in] and Canton.

Timing...

By Gareth
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 1:38pm

I got on the road at 12:45, I didn't leave the town of Burlington until 3:15!!!!!!!!!!!!

Timing is everything. I got on the road in Burlington at 12:15, and was safely home in Rozzie at 1 and change. If you'd have left a half hour earlier, you probably would have missed it all.

I came down 128 and in Rt. 9, and the snow started when I passed 2A and was getting heavy by Waltham, but had not yet accumulated on the road. Off Rt. 9, the Hammond Pond was deserted. I saw only one accident on 128, and nobody was slowing down to rubberneck.

And when I discovered we were out of wine (hey, you've got your priorities, I've got mine), I walked down to Solera... and didn't regret a moment of it.

Multiple Escape Routes

By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 8:18pm

If you work in the city, it is good to have a number of ways to escape. When I had a dedicated space and we had more than one car, I left my car in the city, took the T, and had my husband pick me up or took the bus when the weather went sour during the work day.

Today I rode to near-home with a coworker and friend. She's a southwesterner, and kind of nervous about this stuff. Otherwise, I'd have taken the T or had my husband get me at work.

I realize many people don't have these options. For those who do, a having a "snow emergency" plan for alternative routes/modes isn't a bad idea.

the T

By amusings
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 8:21pm

Well, doug actually considered turning around and going back, leaving his car in the garage and figuring out HOW in the universe he'd make it to North Station from Albany Street in less time than it would take to get home. He had me check the MBTA website for train departure times. I think he'd still be sitting in North Station if he had done that.

He was somewhat afraid that he'd make it to Bradford or Haverhill before I had the chance to get home to pick him up.

All told, he should have gone back to his desk and waited until right about ... 4 minutes from now. Then leave.

Or, call our really good friend from college who lives in Rozzie and stay with her.

he weighed his options, gambled, and maybe lost. but at least he's on rte 1. he's closer by the mile. he's almost here. and it isn't the blizzard of 78. he's got a full tank of gas and an all wheel drive vehicle, and he'll be okay.

In praise of the T

By Ron Newman
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 8:45pm

the T was quite good to me this evening. I walked from my North End/Waterfront office to Park Street, just to take in the sights of a snow-covered downtown, waited on the platform for about five minutes, and took the (very crowded) train home to Davis in about 20 minutes.

If I hadn't been able to do that, I had other options -- commuter rail from North Station to Porter Square, or Green Line to Lechmere then one of several buses. I'm glad that I didn't choose the last option, because I hear that buses had trouble all over the city.

welcome home, ron. Doug just

By amusings
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 8:51pm

welcome home, ron.
Doug just got home. 8:51pm.

Glad to hear that

By Ron Newman
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 8:54pm

My guess is he would have been OK on the commuter rail, too. I didn't see anything worse than "30 minute delay" on the T website for various rail lines.

One of Boyfriend's

By Anonymous
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 1:19pm

One of Boyfriend's co-workers was trapped on a train down to Sharon for like 5 hours... he was bored and kept text messaging Boyfriend.

6 miles, 50 minutes

By Brian
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 10:15pm

Left Beth Israel at 9:15. Pulled into the driveway in Dedham at 9:55. There were at least a dozen dead cars along the Jamaicaway, including one abandoned in the middle of the road in front of James Micheal Curley's house. The J-way itself was reduced to one lane in either direction, and when you had someone in a little crapbox who couldn't traction on a hill you had people swerving around into the oncoming lane to get around.

myDedham.org - a community since 1636 and online since 2007!

7-hour commute

By adamg
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 10:32pm

My neighbor left Lowell at 3; was just getting onto our hill at 10. I met him near where my wife had left her car after a 5 1/2-hour trip from Mass. Eye and Ear, a couple blocks down from our houses and down the hill. On the way to her car to try to get it up to the house, there were four cars, stuck, basically, with the drivers trying to shovel out the road (hasn't been a plow on our street since about 2), so both neighbor and I turned around and tried to come up the other side of the hill. I made it up, barely (had to shovel some road myself); he might still be down there with his son doing more shoveling, sigh.

8 hour commute

By Mart
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 12:56pm

It took me 8 hrs from Somerville to Chestnut Hill!
I couldn't believe it! I almost ran out of gas. Has Boston ever seen anything like this before? I'm from Australia, been here 6 years and I have never had a commute last as long as a work day!!!!!!!!

WIN!

By adamg
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 1:03pm

I don't think anybody will be able to top that.

Ouch!

By Ron Newman
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 1:16pm

Even with delays I doubt that would have taken more than 2 hours by MBTA.

So where were all the

By Anonymous
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 11:15pm

So where were all the plows?

I understand the freeways were congested because of the commute home, but why we they not ready at 1pm and doing loops? Usually they're better at keeping the roads clean, but even the highways seemed like they were never touched.

Not ready? Under estimated?

There was absolute gridlock

By Arborway
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 1:26am

There was absolute gridlock in most of the city. Cars, buses, etc were stuck for hours. Plows can't magically er...plow through that.

It's just so brilliant

By BellZ
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 11:20pm

To let everyone out early so we can clog up the streets and bump into each other and make sure that no one gets home for hours and hours. Why the heck does everyone in NE have to have an SUV if we're all so panicked by the snow? Oh right, I forgot. It's not that. We'd rather be anywhere -- including 128 or Mass Ave. -- than at work.

Goddamn selfish pig drivers

By adamg
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 11:26pm

As I was trying to get Nancy's car up our hill, I had Dan Rea on, and he was blaming the mess on what he called "gridlockers," people who rush into intersections even though they can't get out on the other side, thus creating a far worse mess than we should have gotten from just snow alone. I told this to Nancy, she of the 5 1/2 hour ride back from Charles Circle, and she said she could not believe the number of just absolutely stupid people doing absolutely stupid things she saw on the roads today.

Not unique to snow...

By Anonymous
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 12:15am

Unfortunately these morons who block intersections - like the one where Nonantum Road meets Galen Street in Watertown square - do it no matter how brightly the sun might be shining. Every morning (I kid you not) I have to sit through at least two cycles of lights without moving because some moron on Galen St insists on blocking the intersection. People here can't drive - period.

Office in Kendall

By Anonymous
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 2:38am

You wouldn't think these people had ever driven in snow or gridlock before...

Hampshire, Main, Broadway, Portland, Albany...all insane from about 1:30PM until I left around 5:30PM to take the T.

People would pull up to intersections 3 wide where the road is only a single lane in each direction. They'd try to use the intersection as a place to merge causing all directions for blocks in every direction to seize up.

The best ones were the ones who'd get indignant about it all and start honking 5-10 cars back in a pileup...like at 4PM they were the first ones to get stuck behind a couple of idiots in the backup...

I'll just make my own lane!

By SwirlyGrrl Not ...
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 10:12am

What? No lines visible? I'll just go here and be up front.

I have 4wd, so I can go really fast and swerve all over the place while dialing my phone in the Rt 99 rotary. The laws of physics don't apply to me when stopping!

I even saw a guy make his own lane on the left - where there is grass and median - on the Rt16 offramp. On the phone, too.

I just wish we could make it THEM versus LIGHT POLES, and announce it so the sane drivers would know to be off the road. A few webcams and we could watch the Darwin Derby from a safe distance.

You Must Be A Boss...

By ChillGirl
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 8:16am

Perhaps the congestion was made worse by employers releasing folks at the same time but the worst of the commute, in my opinion (and I was definitely part of the slow march home), was due to few plows and the very heavy rate the snow was coming down.

It's a bit of a cynical view to equate the morass with the fact that people wanted to be "anywhere but work." Your comments bring to mind past unsympathetic bosses -- the ones that allowed me and my co-workers to work until 5:30 on Xmas Eve, and wanted to get that last project wrapped up on July 3rd when the rest of the company had gone home. It's not about being "anywhere but work." It's about having a life.

Seven hours in a taxi

By adamg
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 11:40pm

AnnaB reports:

I left work via taxi at 1:30PM and got home a bit after 8:30PM. My route? One end of Waltham to the other. The entire fare was worth $14. Thank God, my cab charged per mile rather than per hour! ...

Stuck in Newton with two kids in a dead car

By adamg
Thu, 12/13/2007 - 11:53pm

Charles Glassenberg reports on what happened to his wife today:

She was stuck on the side of a busy street, cars swerving all around her, two scared, tired little children crying in the back seat, no heat. She called 911, but they were overwhelmed and couldn't help her. Meanwhile I called a nearby (to her) wine shop called Lower Falls Wine to see if they were open, and I asked if she could shelter there. They agreed, and she got the kids out of the car and went to Lower Falls Wine, where they gave them food, access to the bathroom and looked after my girls very well.

My car was in the shop

By Mark B
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 1:11am

My car was in the shop today, and I stayed home to pick it up. Snug as a bug in a rug!

This sounds awful

By Bostonian
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 10:21am

Left my office at 4:30. Went to the gym accross the street. Got on the 5:55pm at S.Station and was in my house by 6:30 and shoveling my sidewalk at 6:35. Talked with numerous neighbors with haggard looks about their 4-hour, 7 mile commutes. All this made me remember why I stubbornly refuse to live in a house or take any job that would require me to drive anywhere. The T may have its low points, but yesterday wasn't one of them.

She wishes to have a word with truck drivers

By adamg
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 11:05am

And that word can't be posted on a family Web site.

Arrested in Brookline

By adamg
Fri, 12/14/2007 - 12:16pm

Brookline Police report on a pair of Massholes around 4 p.m. at 44 Washington St. yesterday:

Police responded to a report of a fight and upon arrival discovered two motorists arguing over a car accident. Both parties reportedly assaulted each other and therefore both drivers will be summonsed to court for Mutual Assault and Battery.