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Citizen complaint of the day: The Deck ramp walker
By adamg on Sat, 03/19/2016 - 2:34pm
A concerned citizen, who took this photo in his or her rear-view mirror, expresses the hope somebody can get this guy off the ramp from I-93 to Sullivan Square before he gets flattened:
This guy is always asking for change on the exit ramp and he's going to get killed one day because someone's gonna fly down here. Please have him stopped.
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Comments
Been ramp walkers for ~18 months
I'd say there have been an increasing collection of ramp walkers at the end of I-93N, Exit 28 for the past 18 months.
Same concern. Eventually someone's not going to be paying attention and one will be struck. However, I did see one of them (about 8 months ago) deliberately jump into traffic on Cambridge Street with no regard (and possibly looking to be struck). As a result I ended up installing a dash cam as "extra insurance", though I haven't seen that particular individual since.
This also occurs in Cambridge at the east end of Route 2 near Thorndike Field and Little River.
There seems to be some
There seems to be some regulars down the street from there at Mass Ave and Route 16- I feel like I've seen group meetings and shift changes passing through there on a regular basis- reminds me of the old Warner Bros. cartoon with the sheep dog and wolf punching the clock
Passing out in traffic
The day after the coldest night in a half century, I was driving down Alewife Brook Parkway with my boys, headed for the store. It was brutally cold, but several of these intersectional panhandlers were out working the Mass Ave. Intersection.
One woman was fading out, but dropping her sign seemed to wake her up. She bent down, picked it up, and proceeded to stand there in front of my car, swaying and her eyes opening and closing. I pulled the parking brake and put the flashers on and called 911 as she dropped to the pavement.
Her friends appeared and hauled her off to the side of the road, and the cars around stayed put until they did so (I was told not to move her, but they did before I could send the boys out with the car blankets). The dispatcher told me to clear the area if she was out of the road (so the ambulance could get through).
This is a huge problem - these folks are out there in all sorts of weather, and exposure plus substance abuse rarely ends well. I don't know what this particular woman's problem was - simple hypothermia was a possibility - but there are increasing numbers of people working intersections like this and it seems like the more dangerous weather brings even more of them out.
Was it the young-ish type
Was it the young-ish type woman with the Ugg-like boots?- feel like I've seen her the most of the regular panhandlers out there recently- even when it was pouring the other day
The off-ramp/ intersection phenomena seems to be something I had only seen in 1980's NYC/ Atlantic City and when I lived in California in the 90's- seems to have only expanded around these parts in recent years
Back around '08
there was a regular guy who worked where Rt 2 let out onto Alewife Brook Pkwy just down from where Swirly's incident happened. I went through there every day around 2pm, so I got a good look at the guy and his favored approach to working the traffic.
Then one day this other guy on crutches shows up and starts working the same intersection.
Well, the first guy wasn't happy about it, but what's he gonna do, beat up on a guy with crutches with all them witnesses that know his face from driving through there every day?
So the next day I'm going through there and what do I see? I see the new guy with the crutches, and the old guy, *also* with a crutch, waving it around to show off how pitiable his station in life is...while sprinting like hell to get out of the way of the traffic as the light changed to green.
Mass Ave and Route 16
The hawkers at that intersection used to sell Boston Globes (and maybe also Heralds) to passing drivers, but I haven't seen them do that in a few years now.
No risk
no reward
Honestly Though, Isn't That Ramp Always Jammed With Traffic?
( Google Maps Street View — September 2014 )
Learn from my mistake...
I saw a guy walking down the pike one day and thinking I was being a good samaritan called the State Police to report him. The operator hastily told me to call 911 instead (she was quite displeased with my choice of notification). So apparently when you see someone walking on a highway don't hesitate to call 911.
I've encountered this many times
It's psychological egoism. People trying to hide their selfish motives behind the facade of a false concern for others. If they truly cared about the value of human life they would instead demand that traffic laws be enforced, something that would benefit everyone. Perhaps the complainant is afraid he or she might end up being the one under scrutiny or maybe just does not want to be reminded of our truly mixed up broken economy.
Not quite
This is a highway off ramp. It's not like we are talking about Methodone Square (Melnea Cass and Mass Ave) or Dot Ave and Columbia Road. There is a real risk of injury or even death. If that were to sadly happen, so regulars here would be quick to blame the drivers, so let's keep that from happening.
That's how you characterize
That's how you characterize it but I characterize it as exclusivity. Coffee Buster never got arrested, to my knowledge. Somebody is in the space you want to claim as your own and even if it doesn't impede you in the least it makes you uncomfortable. Get along, go, move, shift.
You need a clue biscuit
Seriously. Most of these places are in areas where pedestrians are not allowed, with good reason.
I'm sure you would defend swimming in open sewers, though.
The woman standing between
The woman standing between the traffic lanes on the Exit 18 off ramp from the Pike into Cambridge at 6PM was absolutely impeding traffic, as well as endangering her life. Everybody wants to be in a different lane than they're in right there, and people aren't looking for a person wearing drab clothing standing still in the middle of the road.
Don't project your feelings on me
I don't care either way about these folk. I don't give them money, but I don't begrudge people who do. At least they aren't those sob story folk who corner you on the T asking for $8 to get to Plymouth or whatnot.
No, guy walking on highway offramp is a public safety issue regardless of why he is there. I'd say the same thing if he was selling apples or collecting for youth hockey or just there for fun.
Traffic laws?
What traffic laws are you suggesting drivers are breaking in this situation?
There are laws governing pedestrians too, you realize.
https://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/17/docs/pedplan/D.PDF
This guy
...who has a passing facial resemblance of Pookie from New Jack City (not trying to be crass, he really does), has been there at least a year weaving in and out. He is one of the more polite pandhandlers I have encountered for what its worth but got comfortable and is taking risks, which is not fair to people who drive there and risk hitting someone. There are random people that stand at the intersection where the Gilmore Bridge starts at Austin as well. Bad spot because the island is very skinny and the cars move fast if there is no red light. They don't seem to last long, so maybe they are being shooed away? The pandhandling is something I have noticed increased all over the city since Long Island shut down.
>not fair
>not fair
haha im sorry, but why do you think youre entitled to exactly?
most empathetic people would say its not fair that youre trying to remove the only means of income from these people, all because you dont want to see poor people.
Reading comp?
There's nothing here that says anything about "not wanting to see poor people"--it's the risk of hitting and killing said poor person if they are working an patently unsafe stretch of roadway. Oy...
Just exercising his First
Just exercising his First Amendment right.
Not 1st Amendment right if
The ramp is a "no pedestrian, no bicycles, no horses, no scooter" zone.
Maybe you can call 911 about
Maybe you can call 911 about it.
You wanna see him disappear
You wanna see him disappear real fast? Give him twenty bucks.
Being 'poor' isn't the real problem here;
These folks are afflicted with:
Serious substance abuse issues
and/or
Serious mental illness
Our psych hospitals were closed, primarily due to court rulings from the 70s, and then various governments realizing they could save $ by providing mostly outpatient services and drugs, then releasing them back to their life on the streets. "Progressives' were pleased because the mentally ill got their right to refuse treatment and live on the streets as they choose, pharmaceutical industry and outpatient care providers got their piece of the pie. At the end of the day, mental illness and it's consequences for individuals and society as a whole is not a sexy subject or hot topic for politicians, so they avoid it. As long as doesn't cause major problems for voters in "nice" areas, and isn't a daily in-your-face issue in, for example, the suburban sprawl of metro west, the status quo won't change.
But again, please don't cop the line that's it's due to them being 'poor'.
We need to make our off ramps
great again!...