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Storrow Drive isn't the only place in Boston big-rig drivers shouldn't go
By adamg on Fri, 07/31/2020 - 9:14am
Eileen Murphy reports the driver of a tractor trailer somehow wound up on East 2nd Street last night, where he clipped a park car and then basically wrapped the trailer around a hydrant as he tried to make the 90-degree turn onto M Street.
Needless to say, he didn't make it and eventually a BFD crew familiar with the narrow streets of South Boston arrived to help get the behemoth extricated.
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Comments
I am reminded
I am reminded of the friend who bought a used full-sized school bus for some reason, and decided to drive it into one of the smaller streets in the Back Bay one night. Alcohol-enhanced confidence. It didn't fit, what with the cars parked on both sides. Bystanders were probably amused, but he wasn't.
One of those things doesn't belong...
"Alcohol-enhanced confidence" and driving a school bus don't really belong together.
Perhaps the driver was thinking
"Come On Get Happy".
well, for the general truck drivers defense.
Maybe not in this case, but you know those signs that say 'no parking here to corner'. There is almost always a good reason for it! Cars that get clipped or crushed in those spaces deserve it.
The principal reason for providing
NO PARKING HERE TO CORNER signs is to improve visibilty of traffic on the main street for traffic exiting from the side street, also to improve visibilty for pedestrians if there is a crosswalk at the intersection. These signs are typically located about twenty feet from the intersection, which is not adequate space to accommodate the overhang of a turning tractor trailer.
If an intersection is found to have a sufficient volume of turning truck traffic, the corner radius should be designed wide enough to accommodate overhang. For intersection design, there are standard templates based on different sizes of trucks that designers use to determine these dimensions.
Of course, incidents like these illustrate the need for providing not only properly signed truck prohibitions (but ONLY where clearance or geometric limitations exist), but signed truck routes as well.
The most important reason for
The most important reason for parkig bans near intersections is so fire trucks don't get stuck.
There was a tragic incident in Southie a few years ago where a fire truck got stuck due to illegally parked cars and people died. After that, the city posted signs at the corners and cracked down on double parking and sidewalk parking.
Yup they were installed in my
Yup they were installed in my neighborhood after the fire trucks kept getting stuck
Yup they were installed in my
Yup they were installed in my neighborhood after the fire trucks kept getting stuck
Obligatory reference
">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDxVJ471hyg[/youtube]
you know what was awesome?
When your home builders (who built your building), furniture stores, and every body else did their jobs with bicycles. Or small trucks. Or maybe they didn't?
Obviously a smaller truck is needed in parts of the city, but I also imagine this was a regular working guy who's just learned a big lesson.
Straw man much?
Straw man much?
Who are you arguing against? Nobody in this thread said anything about banning tractor trailers. Let alone bicycles.
And I'd be very surprised if a home builder got materials delivered to the site in a tractor trailer, unless it was steel beams for a large apartment building, which there aren't too many of in eastern Southie. Nor furniture stores or big-box retail in general.
However, not far from 2nd and M is the Conley Terminal. It's very likely that's why the truck was there. They built a new entrance road from Summer Street to keep trucks out of the residential area. I hope they do a better job of communicating where trucks should and shouldn't go.