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In battle between Memorial Drive overpass and box truck, overpass wins
By adamg on Fri, 06/09/2017 - 5:04pm
Lilac Scoring forwards a couple of photos of some height impedance leading to some boffo storrowing on Memorial Drive at Mass. Ave. this afternoon.
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Comments
"Low clearance bridges have got to understand,..."
"Box trucks are going to hit them."
Perfect Score
10/10. Made it entirely through, destroyed the truck, forced the closing of both lanes. Many try, few succeed.
If you're gonna do it...
...Do it RIGHT!
That's how you Storrow a truck!
Perhaps Its Time
In the late 1600's and early 1700's Boston supposedly used to chain pirates to Nixes Mate as a warning against pirates to clean up there act.
Perhaps we chain a few of these guys who have committed Storrowing in the First Degree to some lampposts outside of HBS or from the railroad bridge under the BU bridge for a few hours.
Word might get around to our transport intelligence deficient. Amnesty International might be a tad perturbed, but then again, maybe they might be cool with this not happening so much.
Great idea
Officer: Why didn't you notice the low bridge and stop in time?
Trucker: Because I was distracted by the bodies strapped to the light poles in front of the bridge.
And if StreetView is still accurate, then the signs at the last escape ramp clearly need some help (you need to cut and paste the full link into your browser):
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3564665,-71.0944968,3a,75y,87.5h,118.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sf5ncm6x2odA7sij8CB3Ktg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
I'll spare everyone my usual comments about whether the signs meet proper standards, but I hope everyone can agree that the panels (especially the right side one) clearly leave much to be desired in the legibility department. Especially how today's weather conditions are almost identical to when the Google guy shot this.
Wow, cannot even read the
Wow, cannot even read the sign in the picture.
Asking this again
Where are these mythical low clearance bridges that are never hit because their perfectly compliant signage prevents inattentive truckers from hitting them?
I have showed the Storrowing pictures to a friend who conducts DOT training and certification for truckers. She doesn't blame the signs for this.
Where? Not here, obviously.
Where? Not here, obviously.
And this is a problem where 'compliant' is too low a bar. A DOT professional would look at the signs and say 'yep, those are perfectly compliant' which is the root of the problem.
On The Other Hand
I look at these bridge hits and I go, yep if you're not from here and/or don't know any better you shouldn't be driving. If anything I would propose more obstacles that only those "in the know" would be able to avoid. Like random land mines and caltrops that you can only avoid by knowing which lane to take when.
A DCR employee would look at those signs
and say "yep, those are perfectly complaint'. But I doubt any DOT professional, especially those responsible for signing, would agree with them.
Perhaps you shoud show your friend
pictures of the signs. Then she might understand the problems.
Happy MIT graduation day!
Physics at work.
Sorry to nit pick but wouldn
Sorry to nit pick but wouldn't this count as a Memorialization rather than a Storrowing? And just in time for MIT commencement. The physics at work here are much more complex than the tried and true piano drop.
Webster says
Storrow (v): to drive an oversized vehicle under any low-clearance overpass in the Boston area such that the vehicle strikes the overpass, closing the roadway and damaging the vehicle.
Storrowing (n): the event in which a vehicle storrows itself.
Note that a storrow will be featured on Universal Hub, and some on UHub will absolve the driver of due responsibility because the huge signs hanging down and hit the top of the truck are not MUTCD compliant, as if that would make any difference.
It's a tough decision
But I've been using "storrow" to describe trucks being peeled back like a sardine can at finer overpasses across the Boston area, including Westwood and, yes, Cambridge.
Hope the driver is ok looks
Hope the driver is ok looks like the cab was hit.
Gonna fix the signage anytime soon?
Would that help?
Looking at the amount of destruction, this guy was going at a fairly high rate of speed when he
hit the bridge. This wasn't a "Hmm, I'm not sure, maybe I'll make it?" tentative approach; this
was "Damn the torpedoes! Pedal to the metal!" time.
Some times no about of signage can fix stupid.
The signage as it stands
The signage as it stands today is illegible and far too limited.
Go drive the Merritt parkway and get back to me. Note the signage on the ramps and before each low bridge.
I beg to differ
The Merritt on ramps just have a small white sign that says "No Commercial Vehicles", nothing about any height limitations. The low bridges themselves have no markings whatsoever for aesthetic reasons. You'll find just a single small diamond-shaped sign listing the bridge height, often a quarter mile before the bridge.
The Mass Ave bridge has a huge overhead warning sign, another warning sign on the bridge itself, nine additional metal warning signs, and two heavy rubber "cars only" signs with cowbells that will smack your vehicle and make a huge racket if you are overheight. I honestly don't know how this driver didn't notice the rubber sign smack his windshield right in front of his face, or notice that the upcoming masonry bridge was at roughly eye level.
What part of " 9'- 0" Clearance" ...
Is illegible? Is unclear?
The part that says
"NO TRUCKS", apparently. This guy managed to ignore that sign before he even got to the height-restriction one.
Long ago, the truck exclusions on Storrow and Mem Drive were strictly enforced. And by strictly, I mean that vans and pickups were barred from using those roads. Likewise, vans and pickups were prohibited from the left lanes of multilane highways. Then, cops and legislators started driving those kinds of trucks, and they magically became cars.
Now it's common to see some entitled Gomer driving his XtraWide pickup down the far-left lane of any major highway, while pulling a trailer full of snowmobiles. Because, you know, he has to be allowed to pass all those vehicles that are already going faster than he should push that rig.
Pickups have changed a lot
Pickups have changed alot since then and are now an everyday vehicle for a lot of people. And, why would you ban a pickup, but allow an SUV that is based on the same frame, i.e. same vehicle, different body?
What's the #1 selling vehicle in the US? Ford F-series pickup
What's the #1 selling vehicle
Point is....
My point is that pickups did not have the sales figures they now have. People use them as everyday vehicles now.
I wouldn't
I wouldn't. If one is a truck, so is the other. Just how have pickup trucks "changed a lot since then?" That they are popular doesn't make them safer, or less of an obstacle, or whatever than they used to be. They may be those things, but popularity doesn't make them so.
Pickups are more comfortable these days
Long ago, pickups were very utilitarian. They drove like crap, had few frills, and were almost exclusively owned by people who used them as work trucks.
That has changed a lot. People use them as everyday vehicles now and they have almost all the amenities of the fanciest cars. Look at any parking lot and you'll see a number of non-commercial pickups. They are simply more comfortable to drive than they used to be. You can easily spend $60K+ on a decked out pickup now.
Look, I'm not saying a pickup is my dream vehicle - NFW. But, I am saying that there a lot more of them on the road these days.
Oh yeah, one more thing
Most SUVs are classified as trucks
...only for emissions
...only for emissions purposes. For all other purposes they are 'cars'.
US DOT classification
I'm using the US DOT classification. Which legal definition are you using?
As someone who drives large 7
As someone who drives large 7 and 8 feet commercial vans for a living how the f does this happen!!!!
I just really dont understand. I almost shit myself going under mass ave with the 7 footer my first time thinking the bridge was going to clip my head off forget the roof of the truck.
Oh, good christ!
Seriously...what the hell is going on here? Don't people ever learn?
People learn, but then new
People learn, but then new people who haven't learned yet show up.
Has any person ever Storrowed more than once in their lifetime?