Boston driving

I had my first adventures in driving the streets of Boston today. I felt like I was prepared. I had my trusty GPS system to guide me on my way. I felt like it was going to be a fairly easy proposition.

The plan was to make a simple run to the local supermarket. After looking up the address on the Internet, I entered it into my GPS and went merrily on my way. I managed to arrive safely without incident. The supermarket is located alongside the Massachusetts turnpike. Part of the store actually extends out over the turnpike. It was an interesting looking building.

After I bought my groceries, which cost quite a bit more than what they cost in Utah, I headed out to the car. My groceries were loaded into the trunk at a drive-through service. I never had to leave the car and they insist that there be no tipping. What a concept! I had done this once at Harmon's in Orem but it didn't involve driving down under the store through a drive-through tunnel.

Well I had programmed my GPS to return me safely back to my apartment. My trusty companion, she's female, with a British accent, was giving out directions but sadly she doesn't know which lanes to tell me to use. She simply says "stay right" or "stay left". I got off the freeway at the right exit and stayed to the left as instructed but unfortunately I was too far left and ended up missing my turn. (The sad thing is that I did the exact same thing yesterday when I arrived and ended up having to make a few detours) I then had to get new instructions from my GPS companion. I was motoring along and once again I was not in the right lane at the right time. I ended up back on the turnpike but this time I was past my exit. Now not only was I heading in a totally wrong direction, I had entered the toll portion of the road. It cost me $1.25 to get off the toll road and get turned back around. I finally got going in the right direction and made it home! What an adventure!

The drivers in Boston remind me of the drivers in Lima. They are only slightly more courteous. When you come up to a toll booth, there are usually 4 or 5 booths for two lanes of traffic. The problem happens when you leave the toll booth and there are 4 or 5 cars headed for two lanes of traffic. It is a free-for-all. You have to be aggressive to get your spot.

Boston drivers like to use their horns. The streets are fairly narrow and the lanes are not always well-marked. There are also some places where there is a stoplight and then not more than 25 yards away there is another stoplight. One reason I discovered for this was intersections that don't exactly intersect properly. Driving in Boston can be interesting.

I have decided that unless my trial run on the bus/subway to my job goes totally bad, I will be sticking to public transportation for my most of my inner-city travels.

Happy motoring!!

PS Later in the day I made it to Staples and back, and to a convenience store, where they sell bus passes, and back without incident.