The biggest factor was timing, which was described much more professionally than I could here in this T&G article. Essentially, everybody in southern New England tried to go home at the same time.
Another major factor turned out to be anarchy setting in at just about every intersection in town.
The rules of the road include one to prevent gridlock. It goes like this... IF you have a green light BUT you can easily see that you won't be able to go all the way THROUGH the intersection, THEN you are required by law to WAIT UNTIL YOU CAN. This can work, but all it takes is one idiot. Then, everybody goes into "Well! If THEY can do it, then I CAN TOO!"
This morning's 5:45 a.m. frame shot from the T&G webcam shows a placid, quiet, and rather peaceful scene in the center of town. Quite a major contrast to what was going on yesterday around one o'clock, though!One other factor came into play yesterday, and that was the preponderance of vehicles on the road which could not negotiate even the slightest hint of a grade without losing traction. In that wise, Mike O'Risal, over at Hyphoid Logic, has a small tract offering some Advice to Worcester drivers, and also posted a comment here saying, "And yet there were knuckleheads in Cooper Minis and Nissan SX's trying to drive in that. Nearly two hours to get from Clark to my house."
Lee at Pink Granite took a nice pic of the road home, though, and Scott Zoback has a post on Daily Worcesteria about the long drive home.
Some comments in my e-mail this morning include Gabe, who said, "I could see the intersection of McGrath and Myrtle from my apartment and it looked like hell on earth. Just looked like people driving every which way and taking all matters into their own hands for better or for worse. I was very thankful at that moment that I didn't need to go anywhere."; 4rilla, who said, "I left Canton at 1:30pm and rolled into my place at 6:08pm."; and Ms. Crystal, who said, "it took me 3 1/2 hours to get from West Boylston st to Illinois st today. I must have sat thru 15 sets of lights at each intersection thru town...BLAH."
4 comments:
Hi Jeff -
Even some of the ginormous SUVs were driving too fast for the conditions - acting as if they were the only ones on the road!
Yesterday was one of the rare occasions I've had to use 3rd and 2nd in our Subaru Outback, in order to navigate some hilly stretches of the road.
Thanks for the link!
;o)
- Lee
It took the wife almost two hours to get over Bell Hill yesterday. She said she turned left from Lake Ave onto Belmont St at Mr Tux at 1:43 Subaru radio time. She pulled into the garage at Memorial at 3:35.
Kathy and I are on our fourth Subaru, at this point. Even though a typical winter season will only offer a handful of times that the 4WD keeps us from gettng stuck, it sure is worth it!
I traded in my second Subaru for the Jeep in the summer of 2000. If I was still working a real job, though, I would've gotten a Prius by now... but THEN where would I have been on a day like yesterday???
My co-worker left early yesterday, as did I. It took him nearly eight hours to get to his home in North Brookfield, which is normally a 45-minute drive.
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