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Snow blame
By adamg on Fri, 12/14/2007 - 9:11am
It's not like this storm was a surprise. Gosh, it even started just when the forecasters said it would. So why was everything so screwed up yesterday? And imagine if this had been an actual emergency?
The Outraged Liberal tries to figure out what went wrong:
... Plows and sanders were part of the problem this time -- because everyone left at the same time. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a traffic engineer to figure that out. And while Patrick told everyone to take the rest of the day off, it would have certainly been easier if companies thought about staggering those departure time.
This storm was hyped, er, predicted days out. If there was a lack of planning the blame needs to be shared, including those companies that opened the doors all at once.
But Menino and Patrick no doubt are very aware of what happens to politicians seen as falling down on the job when the snow flies (can you say Blizzard of '78?) Not to mention it's bad when the "Urban Mechanic" can't keep his city humming along as promised. ...
Channel 4: Patrick, Staff To Discuss Handling Of Storm.
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Comments
Evacuation
I imagine the streets would look something like they did yesterday if Boston were ever to be evacuated (think big hurricane, terrorism, or BU Biolab blowing up).
It would be significantly quicker to just walk.
Really, yesterday reinforced just how ridiculous our societies love of the automobile is. All those cars carrying one person burning fossil fuel just idylling going nowhere.
Imagine if people actually put significant money towards improving public transit.
Happy T Rider...For Once
I had trouble-free train rides yesterday, and some quick math in my head made me realize that if you added up all the time I spent waiting for trains this year, it probably was about the same as some of the sad sacks last night who took six hours to go three miles.
neighborhoods
Even if people did want to leave their cars parked right where they were, a snow emergency was declared and hundreds of people had to drive to move their vehicles out of snow tow zones so that plows could do their jobs. Back Bay was gridlocked for hours.
Not defending society's love of the automobile or the fiasco created by not staggering early departures - just pointing out that things aren't quite as simple as one might think.
No plowing?
I live in Brookline and part of my rent goes towards the cost of a parking space behind my building. My management company never plowed the lot! I kept thinking I'd be awoken by the plows cleaning it up but when I got up at 6 this morning and called their answering service I just got the typical response that they would send the message out. After shoveling for 90 minutes and clearing out my car and the tandem car I share a space with I called again only to get the same response. Eventually I just gave up as I couldn't hope to shovel out the whole lot. Luckily I got a ride with a co-worker and was only about 20 minutes late. Any ideas on what I can do besides write a scathing complaint letter to my shabby landlord?
IANAL
I Am Not A Lawyer, but:
If it's in your lease that your landlord is responsible for timely removal of snow (and hope that it's listed as to how fast "timely" is or check with a tenant's advocacy group as to current acceptable timelines), then you *could* threaten them with calling your own plow company and withholding the equivalent amount in rent from your next rent check. There are limits as to how much you can withhold and how badly the landlord is screwing you over, but if you check with an advocacy group they should be able to advise you on your full legal rights when it comes to landlord's screwing up and not delivering on their responsibilities.
Fetching Kids
A lot of people had to leave at 2pm because the schools cancelled late-day programs and all of the after school options (YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, etc.) were shut down. The schools weren't running busses to them, so parents needed to be home for the younger ones at least.
That's the Truth
We got a call that Leominster was closing schools two hours early, and then got a call that aftercare was closing 3 hours early. Otherwise, there was no way I would have left at 1:00, which turns out to be the only reason I was able to get my son before 3pm.
My car had zero traction. Zero. What a scary-ass drive.
===========================
From the brains behind http://www.bigdumptruck.com
More discussion on the issue
Jay Fitzgerald posts some thoughts from a reader, who wonders if it's time to get some economists in to study what happens when everybody acts on information at the same exact time - and what sort of penalties could be levied against people who try to game the system (i.e., create gridlock by jamming into intersections they can't get out of).
What I saw
Around Kendall, it was definitely the gridlock creators who were making things sheer hell. Do we need to be as blatantly obvious as New York and start painting big criss-crosses in our intersections with "DON'T BLOCK THE BOX" signs on every corner?
Also, what is it about people who use the unparked shoulder or left turn lane, that they damn well know is painted under that snow, to try and stack the red light and use the already jammed intersection as a merge area?
Sure, there were a lot of cars out there and nobody could get anywhere fast for a little while, but just plain bad driving caused problems to reach a critical mass out there than just having a lot of cars on the road.
Glorious
Let me get all contrarian on you:
They did a fantastic job plowing the Back Bay and South End ... and that's not always true!
Yes, everyone had to move their cars into garages overnight - tough cookies, you can afford it.
But I look out today (cuz I'm still in bed) and the streets are clean as a whistle and cars are able to park in any spot up and down Tremont Street.
I am so relieved!
Oh, and I feel bad for those who were in traffic for six hours.
Well, not that bad. My boyfriend left work in Copley Square at 5:02 and we were drinking hot chocolate (and vodka drinks) by 5:07.
Sweet!!!
hot chocolate and vodka?
hot chocolate and vodka? together at last!
Contrarian contrarian view
They did a terrible job plowing Grew Hill ... and that's not always true!
Unfortunately for me (and my wife, and my neighbor and a lot of other folks), that meant driving a few feet up a relatively steep incline, stopping, getting out with a shovel, digging out the car, getting back in, driving a few more feet, etc.
On the plus side, the road was nice and black when we woke up this morning.
Deval Patrick losing touch with reality?
Jessica Scarpati cannot believe that Gov. Patrick is blaming private employees for not releasing workers early enough:
Blamegame
Here's the thing, how do you expect these "businesses" to stagger and coordinate their release times?
I don't know if there was a way to cope with that "perfect storm" of coincidences: the storm rolling in two hours early.
I'm lucky that my office we can come and go as we please. I still got stuck on 125 and 93 coming back down into the city. 2.5 hrs for a 30min drive. I would leave my car at home (and didn't even have one when I worked in Cambridge) if I could take public transit to North Andover.
I'm willing to bet there's a huge number of people who could take public transit into the city. But we need to seriously invest in the commuter rail. New spokes. More trains on the existing lines. We need to get serious about transportation. And trains are the only sustainable option. Buses just sit in traffic.