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Sorry, sir, but the Downtown Crossing Bath and Body Works doesn't have a drive thru
By adamg on Tue, 12/01/2015 - 9:32pm
It must've been National Ignore All the Signs Night in Downtown Crossing, because behind this guy getting a ticket for driving down Washington Street shortly before 7 p.m. was a whole line of other motorists who seem to have figured oh, what the hell, let's go for it.
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Comments
"Oh, what the hell"
"Oh, what the hell" pretty much describes both the attitude of drivers towards driving through DTX, and the attitude of police towards non-commercial vehicles with no apparent legitimate reason to be there. Even so, this circus parade is pushing it.
indeed
THE DUDE: Ah, fuck it.
THE BIG LEBOWSKI: Sure, "fuck it!" That's your answer! Tattoo it on your forehead! That's your answer to everything! Your "revolution" is over, Mr. Lebowski! Condolences! The bums lost!
[As the Dude opens the door.]
THE BIG LEBOWSKI: My advice is, do what your parents did! Get a job, sir! The bums will always lose -- do you hear me, Lebowski? THE BUMS WILL ALWAYS--
[The Dude shuts the door on the old man's bellowing]
Those pesky cyclists
At it again, right Mark?
How were the drivers supposed to know that was a sidewalk?
The pedestrians weren't dressed like traffic cones!
Do you enjoy rants against
Do you enjoy rants against bicyclists?
If not, why do you bait for one where it's not at all relevant?
Its Boston, every day is
Its Boston, every day is Ignore All the Signs Day and Ignore all the Traffic Laws day. And the city/police do next to no enforcement. If the guy driving on the sidewalk had hit a pedestrian he could have avoided the ticket.
If it's paved like a road, wide like a road, curbed like a road
people are going to think it is a road. Especially in this dark, rainy, poor visibility weather, drivers are paying attention to pedestrians, vehicles, and danger risks more than the countless store and other signs.
Precisely why we need to do
Precisely why we need to do away with the stupid taxi exemption and just put barricades around DTX.
Barricades are bad for EMS responders
Perhaps medical, police, and fire emergencies can be handled by pedicabs then?
Sure, because no one invented
Sure, because no one invented collapsible bollards in your make believe universe.
Bollards would not last very long
given all the EMS responses for muggings and drug ODs, police responses for shoplifting/robbery/assault, and various MBTA and utility service visits in your pedestrian and bicycle Nirvana.
> MBTA and utility service
> MBTA and utility service visits
I mean, honestly, have you ever looked at how a collapsible bollard works? They have a hinge, so that utility companies can fold them down without destroying them...
And even then, there are plenty of bollards that aren't destroyed by emergency vehicles driving over them. They pop right back up after you drive over them. They just act to tell cars that they're not supposed to drive down a street in a more visible way than just a sign.
Welcome to the 21st century!!
There would be a lot less
There would be a lot less need for ambulances if entitled dangerous drivers stopped hitting pedestrians.
MarkKKK's right - people are
MarkKKK's right - people are dropping like flies in traffic free centers of major European and Asian cities.
Bollards: the silent killer. We can end death by bollard in our lifetime.
Not to mention
...Many American shopping malls, and office buildings that don't allow access to emergency vehicles. Outside of the posted delivery hours, that section of Washington St should be no more accessible to auto traffic than the corridors of the Prudential Center or the Burlington Mall, etc.
People can think it's a road
They can think that all they want, but even a 17 year old fresh out of driver's ed knows that just because it's a road doesn't mean you can drive on it. Most drivers (not you, perhaps) are aware that they must also pay attention to signs and traffic signals, and not drive on surfaces which, yes, are roads, but no, are not there for them to drive on, as indicated by signs and signals. These include busways, one-way streets when approached from the wrong direction, private ways, and restricted access pedestrian areas.
For someone who's such a fan of driving, you give frequent evidence of needing a basic refresher in the rules of the road.
Last night was unusual
You missed my point about the poor visibility and drivers concentrating more on pedestrians than signage. If you want to lecture on signage like DO NOT ENTER, start with bicyclists.
Unusual?
In what way? It was dark? It was rainy? Gee, that sure is unusual in Boston in December.
You need to quit with your weaksauce "driving is haaarrrrrrd" whining all the time. It's a pedestrian area. Pedestrians are allowed to walk there. You are NOT allowed to drive there. If numerous signs and a large pedestrian presence are not enough clues for you, you need to admit that you're just not up to the task, turn in your license and get off the road.
What's with the you?
I don't drive there. I avoid Boston and especially Cambridge as much as possible and choose to spend my time and money in less hostile environments.
have you considered...
...Montana?
Hear that noise?
The populations of both Boston and Cambridge, in their entirety, just breathed an enormous sigh of relief upon learning this.
Yeah, not me
I live in Watertown, and I imagine every jerkoff who almost runs me down in the crosswalk (with the walk light, mind you) to be a member of MarkKK's er, clan.
The bike lane at the corner
The bike lane at the corner of Mass Ave and Columbus at around that same time:
Know what's much worse than
Know what's much worse than those two cars in that bike lane?
The 20+ cars parked in the bike lane on Centre Street before the Holy Name Rotary every weekend. Every single weekend.
What I don't see are bicyclists
on the crappy, rainy night in that photo. No harm being done, except perhaps to the bollards.
i park in handicapped spots
when the coast looks clear too
no harm no foul!!!!!
Yeah, because bicyclists need special treatment
and can't simply use regular roadway lanes while disabled people are so much more adept at overcoming minor obstacles.
rules
are rules, was my point, but i'm glad you so adeptly didn't bother arguing that you pick and choose which of them you'll decide are worth following.
hopefully somebody exercises the same lack of legal integrity as you and throws your computers etc into a bonfire
When cyclists ride in the
When cyclists ride in the street lunatics like yourself yell "get out of the road!" and sometimes even purposely hit them like the guy in Cambridge recently. Drivers are so spoiled that they think they can have it both ways. Time to start taking matters into our own hands and keying the hell out of cars that park in sidewalks and drive down pedestrian zones like the fools in the photo above since the cops do nothing.
Just because they're not in
Just because they're not in the photo doesn't mean they don't exist. I was out biking that night and I saw plenty of other bicyclists out too, including on Mass Ave.
Looks like he/she was pulling over
for not a long time (looks likes lights are on and engine perhaps running?). I can see if she/he was parked there for any length of time (if so, than call the police) but this pic gives me no indication that this was the case.
Cars will usually pull over along side the sidewalk since they can't stop in the middle of the road and yes, this means, at times, bike lanes will become blocked.
Since cars happen, why not just take the full lane, which, by law, you are allowed and go around the temporarily parked vehicle?
Why is it unthinkable for a
Why is it unthinkable for a car to stop in the driving lane but totally reasonable to park in the bike lane? Why is it OK for a driver to screw over cyclists but unthinkable to treat other drivers the same way? Is a car a bike to you? Is a lane a parking spot to you? Why literally go out of your way to put cyclists at risk? Why is it OK for cars to break the law? Why should cyclists have to die trying to swerve around cars in the bike lane just because drivers don't feel like finding a parking spot?
Your dumb post brings up a lot of questions and is a perfect example of how uneducated, dangerous and entitled the average Boston driver is.
Is Whyaduck Anakin Skywalker's mom?
Only asking because that was the last time I saw somebody get owned.
Not a parking spot
Bike lanes are not parking spots. Even when it's "just for a minute". The rules apply even when it would be more convenient to ignore them.
Those cars should be ticketed and perhaps towed. But since that doesn't happen to the double parkers on any other road in Boston, I'll skip holding my breath.
Exactly
The signs there say No Stopping, not No Parking, not No Standing. No Stopping. The cars have no business being there.
I've been looking at this picture off and on for 12 hours now
And I still am perplexed by what appears to be a policeman actually writing a ticket, which could actually lead to a driver facing consequences for their idiocy
I live on one side of DTX and
I live on one side of DTX and work on the other, I traverse it several times daily. I get, I suppose, a kick out of the typical comments here
which sound like people who have not actually been at DTX since the 80s.
The neighborhood is well over the hump of an amazing metamorphosis, you may or may not like the new DTX but it's thousands of professionals, Roche Bros, the Millennium tower. The remaining dilapidated storefronts are now quite valuable, laying fallow until landlords get their rents.
Incidentally I see BDP writing errant cars tickets for driving in DTX *all* *the* *time*.
Taxis are not the majority of traffic, it's commercial vehicles that serve the stores.
DTX is one of the few places in Boston that actually looks and feels like a vibrant city, including some diversity. I'd not swap it in a million years for e.g. the antiseptic and soulless Copley.
Man, someone really loves candles
I get it - you don't want to miss out on the big sale but chill out. I'm sure there are plenty of three wick candles in flavors like Sweater Weather and Jingle All The Way to go around.
The answer is obvious
Open the DTX section Washington Street to traffic like it was meant to be before they changed it in the late 70s. It is 2015 and the "Downtown Crossing" experiment of the late 70s/early 80s clearly failed. With all the new development and residences in the area there is no need for the old pseudo suburban walking mall model. The "encouraging people to linger" idea didn't work. Look at the people who lingered. Let it be a vibrant through street once again.
Another one
Another one who's clearly never been to DTX. How do you think that area residents get around? They're sure not driving around the neighborhood. Go by the area at lunchtime some time, or during morning or evening rush hour.
Sidewalks are sufficient
Ever hear of sidewalks? People, residents included, do not need both sidewalks and the middle of Washington Street itself to get where they are going. The point is not that people in the area should get around the area by driving. The point is that the closing of Washington Street to traffic in the late 70s achieved the opposite effect of what it wanted to do. It did not create the promised blissful, flower strewn, outdoor strolling, shopping and lingering atmosphere. It achieved a run down, dirty, junkie infested wasteland. And I'm someone who is at DTX every day and doesn't own a car. Funny as it sounds, with all the revitalization of that area, traffic moving through is just what it needs.
Have you ever even been down there at rush hour or lunchtime?
Yes, they do.
This entire comments section
Is gold. Pure gold. I love you all.