>the 9

West coaster detected

It’s me. Never had really any car accident at all for about 12 years of driving a car. 6 months after moving here I rear end someone in the most nondescript rotary in the suburbs.

Moved out of state for a while, and drivers in the new state more often than not gave me a wide berth once they came close enough to see my Mass plates.

The dependable flow of stories of drivers winding up on the the B or C line tracks always amuses me. IMHO should be automatic permanent loss of license, obviously the person is either too drunk or too senile to be on the road.

The wide fucking open roadscape that emerged during covid. So few cars on the road and the ones out there took full advantage.

There's a special prize to the driver that pulled out of a side street in front of me riding my scooter yesterday morning, stopped, looked at me approaching him, continued to pull out forcing me to stop, and then yelled that he didn't see me, and blamed me for not driving a car.

Just this week, I saw a dad in a minivan get out of his car IN THE MIDDLE OF RTE 9, flag down a school bus in traffic, get his 5-year-old out, march him through traffic, and get him on the bus. Amazing!

The entire post is unreadable after seeing that.

I feel gross

Dood I was building face shields in Charlestown and coming from Hyde Park. 15 fahkin minutes.. unbelievable.

That guy massholes.

Saw a road rage incident that involved a volley of Dunkin Donuts iced coffee off of windshields about 10-15 years ago on a Saturday afternoon.

First driver in a late 90’s Mercury Grand Marquis with peeling vinyl roof cut over the solid white merging line from Leverett to force his way on to 93 SB. Pickup truck with a roof rack on 93 honked, Mercury passenger sky hooked a half full iced coffee that left a buttermilk sheen on the pickup windshield. Pickup driver screamed “Nice f@&$ing Splenda & Cream” and then his passenger tossed (coffee & ice only, not entire cup) their drink onto the Mercury’s windshield and drivers side door.

There was a quick flurry of words that rhyme with “disregard” and “maggot” and then they rolled up their windows and went on their way, exchanging middle fingers and one last blade of the horn as the Mercury cut off another driver and made for the passing lane.

You could feel that they were almost just going through the motions and there was nothing really deep seated and seething about it.

We used to be a proper country.

People that use "the" when referring to a road.

Posted this one before:

Back in the 80s I was coming into Powderhouse circle from South Medford at maybe 2 in the morning on a dead quiet night. I was getting ready to enter the circle when a car, apparently coming from Ball Square, came speeding through a hedge on my left, completely off the road, missed my front bumper by maybe an inch, hit the curb on the other side of the street, blew a tire and just kept going. It felt like something out of a movie. When quiet returned I just sat there for 30 seconds or so, trying to figure if it had really happened or not. Good times.

Clever!

Interesting linguistically. In some regions of some states, that’s the norm (eg. “The 95”) while in other areas of the state, they say the full name of the highway. I’ve never been corrected at any job I’ve worked at since moving here, only snarky comments on Reddit lol

None that come to mind. It's really not that bad.

I saw one the other day that said the I90 West. It's just the Pike.

I was flying every other week starting at the beginning of the pandemic. I could leave Burlington about 40 minutes before my flight took off if I didn't have to check a bag. 20 minute drive, only person in the precheck line, and would walk to the gate as boarding started. Then I would almost always have a full row to myself.

Not about a driver, but I had just moved here from Phoenix with its grid system and wide, straight roads. My GPS told me to "Move into the right lane to turn left to stay on (some street name I can't remember)" and my brain nearly exploded. I took the bus to the grocery store for over two years because I was so afraid of driving.

No “the”. It outs you as a West Coaster.

If it’s a route, say “route + number”.
“I’m on Route 1”. Or “We need to take Route 9 home”

If it’s a highway, just the number.
“I fucking hate taking 93”. Or “Damn, 95 sucks today”.

If its I-90, you say “the Pike” or “the Mass Pike”. Short for Massachusetts Turnpike, which is never said in full. “Look, I’m on the pike right now. Lotta Staties out today, so maybe an extra 10 minutes”. It’s the only highway with a special name and has a “the”.

Once you leave Massachusetts, the Pike is back to “I-90” or just “90” in Upstate NY. Still no “the”. And a lot of folks on the Berkshires will say that version too if they travel back and forth to NYS frequently.

Commonwealth Avenue always “Comm Ave”.
Massachusetts Avenue is always “Mass Ave”.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts is often shortened to “Comm of Mass” or “The State” if you’re ever dealing with taxes or whatnot.

You get it.

For the first few years I lived here (moved from NH) I would only drive in certain areas where I really knew the road.

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I had a job in Waltham about 10 years ago. If I didn't leave early enough, I would get caught in horrendous morning commute traffic. I started using Waze to avoid the worst of the traffic, but the result is that it would take me some strange routes I wasn't always familiar with. One morning, I ended up in a right-turn only lane at a light when I needed to go straight. I was first in line, so obviously a person behind me became irate. I gave him the finger and probably yelled back (I am a Masshole after all). He was screaming and honking at me so much that I decided to just make the turn and have Waze tell me how to fix it. But when I started driving the guy chased me! He followed really close behind me, turned every way I turned. I tried to speed up, took random turns, just to get away from him, but he stayed right on my ass. I actually started to get freaked out, and eventually pulled into a convenience store parking lot (guy pulled in next to me). I got out of my car (crying) and said, "What are you going to do, beat me up?!?" The guy was like, "no no, I saw that other guy get really angry with you, and I wanted to make sure you were okay..."

I knew it was bullshit. I knew that he saw that I was a young-ish woman in tears and was back-peddling. But I thanked him and left. Ugh. The situation ruined my day and it still haunts me.

I have lived in Boston proper, I have worked in Boston in multiple locations, and none of the drivers were as assholish as the ones I encountered in Waltham.

I've lived here 20 years and I've never heard anyone, at any point, call it "The 95." It's "95", "I-95", or "128."

The reason that highways in CA are prefixed with "The" is because they all had names before the interstate highway system gave them numbers. so, it's called "the 5" because it used to be called "The Golden State freeway" and "the San Diego Freeway". That would hold in MA for our named road, The Mass Pike, but here the article doesn't transfer to the number, so if you say "The 90" people will look at you like you just fell off the turnip truck.

I once saw someone manage to pull a 4 point U-turn on the BU bridge, somehow stopping the heavy traffic in both directions. They were headed toward the rotary under Memorial Dr, but I guess like most drivers they couldn't be bothered to do things legally or safely.

Pro tip for OP: if you want to sound like a local, refer to Cape Cod as "The Cod."

In a parking garage in Revere, a long time ago. A young woman was driving a Pontiac (of course) around in circles while her (presumably) boyfriend was spread-eagled hanging on to the hood of the car. Her head with its enormous big hair was sticking out the driver's side window as she yelled at him. "Bahbbie, get off the caah! Get off the cah Bawbie!" Meanwhile she's not slowing down or stopping, and this guy's legs are sliding left and right as he holds on for dear life. No idea if Bobby ever got off the car, but I hope for his sake that he never got back into it.

Technically, I-90 in NY is "the Thruway" all the way from the Mass line to Buffalo. this side of Albany it's the "New England extension of the NYS Thruway." I-87 is also the Thruway down to NYC, and The Northway north of Albany. The L made by I-87 and I-90 and from NYC to Buffalo is all the Thruway and it's one continuous toll road. New Yorkers typically call it The Thruway instead of calling it I-90/I-87. No one calls it "The 90" or "The 87", though.

I grew up in Albany. It's at the intersection of 87 and 90, so having two roads called 'The Thruway' would've been confusing.

Northway as 87 was super common, but I feel like I heard it on morning traffic reports more often than I did when talking to people.
Thruway as 90 was way less common for me. Probably different if you live significantly outside of Albany.

Being a local, that's legit something I would do 😂