<p>On my recent trip through Northampton, I managed to incur a flat tire while pulling to the curb just a little bit too sharply while dropping D off after lunch.
While waiting for AAA to arrive, I had chance to talk to a Smith police officer who stopped his car to make sure everything was all right.</p>
<p>After wrapping up about the condition of my tire and how slow the local tow-service is (hint: don't get a flat tire if you can help it), I segued into talking about safety at Smith, saying that I read the police blotter in the Sophian. </p>
<p>The officer laughed. "They go through the logs and pick up the best one's," he said. Still, it's pretty easy duty for him. Unattended laptops occasionally disappearing from the library or an unlocked bike from a House porch are about the biggest problems. He volunteered that the recent lesbian rape incident was really really really really way off the wall and unusual. He said that it was about as safe a community as you could find.</p>
<p>If you <em>do</em> get a flat tire, I recommend Town Fair Tire on King St., about 1-2 miles out from the Northampton Hotel in the city center. Outstanding service attitude and, when the found that the tire couldn't be repaired (for free) and we needed a new one, cut us a deal even though Hertz would reimburse us.</p>
<p>Yes, oddly enough, I felt less worried about my daughter when she was at Smith than I am now that she is home, driving again on roads populated by drivers who have recently been exposed as some of the "dumbest" in the nation. I will probably breathe a sigh of relief in September when she returns to her car-less condition in Northampton.</p>
<p>Pesto, where, may I ask, has drivers i.d.'d as "dumbest" in the nation?</p>
<p>Fwiw, LA drivers are sometimes annoying but as a corps they're very very good...they have to be or traffic would be even slower than it is. The big thing that strikes me about LA after driving in St. Louis and Boston is that, for the most part, LA drivers understand that sharing the roads is a collaborative, not competitive, process. Otoh, they expect you to know what you're doing and not waste any time doing it.</p>
<p>Driving aside, Northampton seems like a throwback with respect to crime, almost like "American Graffiti" in relative innocence.</p>
<p>Hey, TheDad, I just had some general questions (mostly about atmosphere and such) about Smith that I was hoping you or your daughter could answer. Could I PM you?</p>
<p>TheDad: A recent story splashed across the local headlines, if not the likes of CNN et al., rated the next-to-"dumbest" drivers in the country as hailing from none other than the great state of Massachusetts (probably east of the Connecticut River). I believe Rhode Island beat MA as the dumbest. My impression of California drivers from a trip long long ago is that they are surprisingly courteous. I remember stepping onto a crosswalk in the LA area and being stunned when the cars actually stopped for me. </p>
<p>Driving in Massachusetts requires foreknowledge of your route, which lane to be in, what the local attitude is towards rotaries, and a readiness to get into traffic with a minimum of opening. It is not an easy state in which to obey the speed limit.</p>
<p>When we lived on the east coast many years ago we decided that Boston was the Olympic Training ground for Auto Dressage. You drive in one lane, then another lane, stop, do a U turn .... I have seen Boston drivers make left hand turns across 3 lanes of traffic wtih cop cars on the corner, and they didn't get pulled over!! All my friends there seemed to believe that there were very few accidents, but every one of them had been in major accidents. The driving seems to get worse as you get closer to the center of the city. My favorite Boston driving story took place about 30 years ago. David and I were driving from New Hampshire back to Phila. and we were on the ring road around Boston. On the side of the highway was a pick-up truck pulling a largish boat on a trailer. As we drove by it we could see a car sized hole in the side of the boat. We never knew what actually happened but it was grreat for all kinds of speculation on the rest of the trip home.
Ellen</p>
<p>Eclipse, sure you can PM me. My D won't be home until July 2 but I'll do the best I can. Questions I can't answer I will relay to her when next we talk.</p>
<p>As for Massachusetts driving, I <em>have</em> seen the State Police pull over cars on the Pike but relatively few in light of the miles I've driven and speeders seen. Considering that the Mass Turnpike is only two lanes in each direction for most of the way between Boston and Interstate 91, traffic does move almost too fast...I've gone 75 and been passed with some regularity. On a four- or five-lane highway, or some of the desert Interstates, I would not find this remarkable. But the phrase "too fast for conditions" does float across my consciousness when I observe this.</p>
<p>I confess that I pulled an exotic turn or two in Boston myself. My defense was going to be it was the only way I could remotely get to where I was trying to go. There was one frustrating set of directions to our hotel that it took me three cracks to master...the one-way street I was on divided into three parts...with the middle section being a by-pass-the-lights thing that ultimately led to the westbound Pike...and the <em>only</em> way you could get to the hotel was to be in the far right lane.</p>
<p>Pesto, the Massachusetts attitude towards merging traffic is distressing. It's often win-lose instead of win-win.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It is not an easy state in which to obey the speed limit.
[/quote]
You said it, pesto! My brother's family lives in Northampton (sil is on the medical staff at Smith) and we visit as often as we can. One day I had my 3 y/o nephew in the car as I merged onto 91-South, heading for the Holyoke Mall. He quickly became agitated and shouted, "Faster, Auntie, faster! They're all passin' us!"</p>
<p>One slightly exonerating feature concerning Massachusetts and driving is the pesky business of dating back to the 17th century: Many of the roads, especially in and around Boston, were originally cart paths, and there has never been room to expand them much. Trying to negotiate these non-rectangular street systems (indeed, "system" is really a misnomer) often results in creative/outrageous driving shenanigans (when you see some of the worst of these performed by Boston's finest, you really have to wonder). I avoid driving in Boston at all costs, relying instead on a combination of walking, the T, and commuter rail. Outside of Boston, one must simply keep one's wits about one. Somehow I have managed to get through 30 years of driving in eastern Massachusetts -- with all its crazy attitudes towards merging, lane use, speed limits, yellow and red lights, yield signs, stop signs, etc. -- without a single accident (knock on wood). And there are pockets of civility here and there, mostly once you get off the main highways and onto the roadways of the smaller towns. </p>
<p>Driving too fast is not a problem unique to Massachusetts. I would say that the whole northeast corridor suffers from this problem. Yesterday we drove down to southwest Connecticut at a speed no more than 5 mph above the speed limit and were passed endlessly by cars bearing license plates from New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. And I've seen some of the most egregiously inconsiderate driving ever on the beltway around Washington.</p>
<p>Washington, D.C, poses its own special problem for drivers: whatever predominant "local" style of driving there is is obliterated by the constant stream of transient residents from the 50 states bringing their own local way of driving with them. They may slowly assimilate but towards some kind of "norm" but they're often gone after 2, 4, 8, 10 years and constantly replaced by newcomers.</p>
<p>Pesto, if I lived in Manhattan, I wouldn't own a car. If I lived in Boston, I would have a car but do most of my getting around in the city via the T. As for Los Angeles and the prospect of no car...well, my dear fellow, what <em>have</em> you been smoking?</p>
<p>Frazzled, yeah, getting on the Southbound 91 at Exit 18 can be a bit of an adventure if your timing with respect to vehicles already on the road is unfortunate.</p>
<p>Speed enforcement may be lax elsewhere in Mass, but if anyone happens to take the Massachusetts Turnpike westward toward the Berkshires you'll find some pretty enthusiastic state troopers, especially in the Exit 2 region. I've never driven that route without seeing at least one car pulled over. </p>
<p>pesto, I think you're a brave soul, and I wish more drivers were as mindful of the speed limit as you are. But in certain areas of CT, particularly in Hartford, you're taking your life in your hands if you do only 5 miles over the limit. The posted speed is 45 mph on 84 through Hartford, and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone, even little old ladies on their way to the chiropractor, doing less than 60.</p>
<p>frazzled: I wonder if the police officers in the Mass. Turnpike Exit 2 area have a lot of time on their hands. We went X-country skiing at Canterbury Farms in the Becket area this winter and locked the keys in the car by mistake. My husband ended up calling the police for assistance, after not succeeding in breaking into the car with a coat hanger himself, and an obliging police officer arrived within 10 minutes and broke into the car in 45 seconds! (Of course, that was the local Becket police and not the state troopers, but still...I expect it's a pretty sleepy area by Boston standards except during leaf-peeping or Tanglewood season.)</p>
<p>The Merritt Parkway is what really scares me in CT -- the speeds at which people drive with only two lanes each way and NO lanes for entering traffic. Talk about scary merging situations.</p>
<p>Thanks for the story about your nephew! </p>
<p>TheDad: I grew up in Washington! It was quite a shock when I returned as a driver many years later. I don't think it was like that 40-50 years ago. Washington was a sleepy backwater town, just on the edge of being southern. Now it just feels like any other northeast megalopolis.</p>
<p>Pesto,
I grew up in DC too. I am one of those rare native Washingtonians. Since I now live in WA. State I tell people I am a native Washingtonian, just the other Washington. I got my license in 1973, when the test was done in downtown and you had to drive through tourist traffic and metro construction. You failed if you couldn't parallel park. I think driving in DC is better then Boston or Philly (where I think they don't believe in street signs) but not by much.
David grew up in NYC and got his license at 37 just before we moved to California.
Ellen</p>
<p>Jersey drivers have to some of the most inconsiderate, stupidly competitive ones on the road. In northern NJ at least, there simply aren't enough lanes to accomodate the incredibly dense population of commuters. Add in swarms of suburban jerks in SUV's twice the size of the actual lane and you've got a pretty interesting driving experience. Try driving on 17 South and you'll see what I mean. NYC drivers are in a class of their own. I have come close to being roadkill more times than I can count on two hands on the streets of Manhattan. And even if I could drive, I would never brave the Cross Bronx Expressway.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I have seen Boston drivers make left hand turns across 3 lanes of traffic wtih cop cars on the corner, and they didn't get pulled over!!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Pulled over? No way. </p>
<p>That maneuver is called "the Boston left turn". You inch out, progressively blocking as many oncoming lanes of traffic as possible and then stop waiting for an opening in the far lane. Even a novice can block two lanes of oncoming traffic, but blocking three is pretty normal.</p>
<p>A more advanced scenario is multiple drivers making "Boston left turns" simultaneously from different sides of the road. This can literally cause a situation where nobody can move in any direction.</p>
<p>Boston driving--The weekend after the big snow in January, we found ourselves at New England Conservatory at pick-up time for the precollege students and observed multiple cases of cars facing eachother in the SAME LANE resulting in one line of cars having to back up so the cars leaving Northeastern/NEC could get out. S and I had taken the T to check out the environs before his audition, so thankfully, WE were on foot.</p>
<p>Funny how a thread on safety at Smith has morphed into a riff on driving in Massachusetts! This is kind of like trading fishing stories.</p>
<p>Re getting one's license in Washington: I remember there being a sort of automatic first-time failure, and the parallel parking requirement tended to do people in. I waited to get my license till after college -- in Rhode Island -- where parallel parking wasn't even included in the driving test. And I was somewhat shocked at the ease with which my daughter got her license here in Massachusetts. I overrode the state of Massachusetts and restricted her to the local roads for quite a while because I didn't think she was ready yet for things like the Boston left turn. No wonder there is so much bad driving in MA and RI if the gatekeepers aren't doing their jobs. </p>
<p>By contrast, the police in Washington were sometimes extravagantly tough on us young 'uns. I was once given a $5 "walking" ticket for crossing the street when the light was red (I wasn't even jaywalking!). I was absent-mindedly following some elderly person across the street -- they got away with it and I didn't. But then those were the days of anti-Vietnam protests and Nixonian paranoia, and anyone -- male or female -- with hair past the shoulders might be a seditious SDS member or worse. Ah those were the days...</p>
<p>Yeah I remember those days. When I was about 12, and a budding WAPAC member (ok can you guess what that stood for, remember I lived in DC) I gave a peace sign to a cop. He stopped got out of the car and gave me a lecture on how a peace sign was un-american. I believe I stood there with my jaw hanging down at my knees. The more time goes by, the less the world changes.</p>