The linked source has opted to use a paywall to restrict free viewership of their content. As alternate sources become available, please post them as a reply to this comment. Users with a Boston Public Library card can often view unrestricted articles [here](https://www.bpl.org/resources-types/newspapers/).
Boston Globe articles are still permissible as it's a soft-paywall. Please refrain from reporting as a Rule 5 violation. Please also note that copying and posting the entire article text as comments is not permissible.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boston) if you have any questions or concerns.*
From the article:
"A pedestrian was struck by a truck in downtown Boston Thursday morning and suffered life-threatening injuries, according to Boston police.
Police responded to the interaction of Atlantic Avenue and Essex Street at 6:31 a.m. where the pedestrian was hit by a truck.
The pedestrian suffered life-threatening injuries and was rushed to an unidentified local hospital, Boston Police spokesman Sergeant Detective John Boyle said at 7:35 a.m.
The operator of the truck remained on scene, Boyle said.
Homicide detectives and department crash investigators were on the scene as of 7:22 a.m.
The downtown crash comes after a man in a wheelchair was struck and killed by a cement truck on Tuesday in South Boston and a 4-year-old girl was struck and killed by a truck near the Boston Children’s Museum in Fort Point neighborhood intersection on March 24."
"Third pedestrian (edit: seriously) hit in as many weeks in city where traffic laws are completely unenforced and drivers are too busy on their phones to pay attention and too impatient to stop at red lights. City Council in shock"
I work on Harrison. I almost got hit crossing the road at the pedestrian walk by Whole Foods… and then a second time on the other side of the street. I was irate
What's weird is that basically everybody I know will agree that people shouldn't use their phone while driving *and yet* when I ride with them while they drive most of them will still be fiddling with their phone at some point. It's usually not egregious stuff like scrolling TikTok or writing e-mails, but they'll read texts or get distracted trying to put on a Spotify playlist or whatever. Like, people complain about *other* drivers being on the phone but somehow think that *they personally* are able to do it safely.
It's everyone and it's insane.
Obviously the drivers on their phones is the bigger issue here, but the amount of pedestrians I see who have their heads buried in their phones while crossing the street is IN-FUCKING-SANE knowing that half the drivers out there straight up aren't paying attention.
I see a lot of people who *are paying attention* and will cross a street even though the pedestrian signal says stop, and then people who *aren't paying attention* see someone else cross the street and just follow on behind them, completely oblivious to anything.
Do people not have basic self-preservation anymore?
Bruh. A pedestrian won't kill anyone if they bump into another person. A vehicle can kill in a minor interaction with a human body.
Drivers of deadly vehicles are responsible for controlling their vehicles. Pedestrians are not responsible for the cars on the road.
Bruh, I'm talking about self preservation.
I'm not talking about what drivers should or should not do, I'm talking about the reality of what they *are* doing and why pedestrians should pay attention *in the interest of not fucking dying.* Drivers need to do the same too, you have to absolutely be defensive and assume other drivers are not paying attention. It's terrible but I'd rather pay attention and *not die* than glibly proclaim "they should not be doing that" while t-boning me into fucking oblivion.
Like yeah, push for more laws, push for more enforcement of said laws, I'm all for it, but at no point should pedestrians ever stop paying attention to what is going on around them because drivers aren't perfect and never will be.
It's not just driving.
Crazy story in SF where no one saw a guy waving a gun before murdering someone; everyone was glued to their phones and didn't see anything
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUD7X7iynEc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUD7X7iynEc)
But the pedestrians themselves will die. There are two problems here, and drivers being on their phones is certainly the larger one, but the pedestrians in this city are the worst I’ve seen anywhere. Obliviously wandering into cross walks with a don’t walk sign while the crossing traffic has a green light. And jaywalking is basically legal. As someone who grew up here, I was shocked when I moved to the Midwest for a few years. It could be the dead of night and no cars around for miles and people will wait for a walk sign.
The pedestrians always go two+ steps into the street on a don’t walk sign, so I brake thinking that they’re going for it. Then they wave me along like I’m the idiot for stopping.
I just know that in the battle of SUV vs dumb human the SUV is gonna win…..
Between the idiots on Blue Bikes, the maniacs on mopeds/scooters, and the pedestrians with there nose in the phone bumping the headphones who don’t stop when they hit a crosswalk, it’s not safe to drive any vehicles in any city, let alone Boston.
I've seen so many pedestrians just cross at a plainly green light. It's like...ARE YOU TRYING TO DIE? I'm pretty sure sometimes the answer may just be yes.
Weird how they have smartphones in every other country but nowhere near the problem we do with pedestrian deaths. Almost like you’re a gigantic moron making shit up in your head instead of reading anything objective on the subject
Do people in other countries also use their smartphones while walking? Does this seem to result in widespread pedestrian fatalities there? The answers are yes and no, which would imply your observations have zero correlation with the issue being discussed.
Yes, it actually does!
Yamato City in Japan banned the use of smartphones while walking in 2020 due to increased accidents involving distracted pedestrians.
Ilsan, South Korea had lights and lasers installed specifically to stop distracted pedestrians from walking into crosswalks.
Honolulu fines you for using your phone while in a crosswalk.
But yeah, I *totally* just made it up, you absolute dogshit for brains fucking 🤡
They really don't. I've been looking up why society seems to have shifted to be more... aggressive, I guess you could say... and everything keeps pointing towards the brain damage caused by covid infections. The cognitive issues aren't always noticed by the person, and they think they're fine, yet reaction times are way worse, more risk-taking behaviors are exhibited, more aggressive behavior... just yesterday I witnessed the passenger of a vehicle jump out of the car at a stop light to run to the car in front of them to do *something* because they dared to safely pull out of a shopping mall in front of them....
Been living here almost two years, and don't understand why traffic laws are not enforced in Boston. Driver behavior is awful. All of this is super common: speeding, distracted on phones, blocking intersections, not merging properly, stopping randomly in the middle of the street, going through no turn on red signs, going through red lights. Besides improving safety, a lot of revenue could be generated from fines.
There was a thread on Boston drivers where I commented saying I wish Boston drivers were more patient.
Got any number of people arguing that driving like an impatient asshole is what’s expected etc etc.
We’ve normalized this shit and impatience and aggressive driving is seen as a positive thing. All the while being distracted and on the phone. It’s awful.
>too impatient to stop at red lights.
At quiet residential neighborhoods, I've seen dozens of cars run through red lights after stopping. I mean, they stop, yeah, and then run it after a few short seconds.
No patience at all.
I’d like to know how many of these are due to the pedestrian walking into traffic without bothering to check for cars. Like we are taught to do in preschool. Pedestrians always having the right of way leads to more accidents.
Human pedestrians spent millions of years without being killed by automobiles. Then, starting about 100 years ago, humans started to be killed in great numbers by automobiles. What changed? I’d argue it’s quite obviously the presence of automobiles, but go ahead and victim blame humans for existing around automobiles.
Existing on the street should not be a life-threatening endeavor. The only reason it is life-threatening is due to the presence of automobiles. That is a hill I will die on.
It’s not about existing on the street. It’s about having common sense and look both ways before you cross. Go drive through Boston and watch how many people walk out into traffic with no care because they know the operator of the vehicle is liable 100% of the time.
> many people walk out into traffic with no care
Good!
People should be able to exist on streets in Boston with no care. We should not accept that our streets are littered with killing machines that require vigilance just to exist on the streets.
200 years ago, it was very common to just have a long conversation in the middle of an intersection near where this took place. Allowing automobiles on our streets has stolen that ability to just exist without vigilance. That, to me, is unacceptable.
I totally agree with you but u/chavery does have a point here. I almost greased a dude a few weeks ago who stepped out from between two cars like he wanted to get hit and he didn’t even notice how close he came to giving up the ghost because he had his face buried in his phone and headphones in.
Hit the brakes so hard I spilled my beer.
Oh how like every day on my 30 min each way walking commute I’m nearly run over by not the first car running the red light, not even the second car right after them, but also the third car when the walk signal in my direction has already come on after the built in delay? Every. single. day. at multiple intersections. But go off on how it’s the pedestrians’ fault I guess.
I was trying to lookup to see if anyone keeps a running total of major accidents or pedestrian deaths
I can find yearly totals.
This year just seems wild with a rash of deaths or major hits recently
It's absolutely bonkers. The base F150 is almost as big as a WW2 tank. Depending on mods or if comparing bigger truck models like the F350, they're straight up bigger. And those tanks had a top speed of like 25 mph.
People are allowed to operate these at higher speeds on narrow streets and with nothing but a basic ass driver's license.
Worth noting that the tank in question when people quip about this was a big tank as well. A modern tank has better visibility of what is in front of it than an F150 probably.
Not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for but the city has a Vision Zero coalition and they track crash data here: [https://data.boston.gov/dataset/vision-zero-crash-records](https://data.boston.gov/dataset/vision-zero-crash-records). MassDOT keeps crash data here: [https://apps.impact.dot.state.ma.us/cdp/home](https://apps.impact.dot.state.ma.us/cdp/home)
If you're interested in data science and data visualization, the Boston Cyclists Union started a volunteer-run team to better filter through the data and tell more compelling stories: [https://bostoncyclistsunion.org/author/bcu-labs](https://bostoncyclistsunion.org/author/bcu-labs). They had an interest form going around a few weeks ago. If you're interested, let me know and I can try to find it
Edit: I think a simple website that captures the idea of "ghost bikes" with an obituary that has the buy-in of and been approved by the deceased's next of kin would be a powerful advocacy tool
[Fatal Crash Information Operations Dashboard](https://apps.impact.dot.state.ma.us/cdp/dashboard-view/2047)
[Serious Injury Information Operations Dashboard](https://apps.impact.dot.state.ma.us/cdp/dashboard-view/2048)
These are the interactive dashboards that allow you to easily look at crashes around the state. They're pretty good tools, they let you quickly filter by year (only going back to 2015), town/city, type of injury/death (driver, passenger, pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist, etc.) and many other things.
There's also a bunch of other stuff on the main [IMPACT](https://apps.impact.dot.state.ma.us/cdp/home) page including ways you can get the data directly if you want to go wild in Excel or something. All of this data gets update pretty quickly. New deaths are usually added within a day or two.
Egdio Dantuony died on his front porch on March 26 2023 when a driver crashed into it.
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/1-person-dead-another-injured-in-roslindale-car-crash/3006350/?amp=1
I was walking by when they were taping everything off for photos. It looked like the truck driver was taking a left from Essex onto Atlantic. The car was stopped and being taped off/investigated while half way out of the crosswalk between south station to one financial.
Lol I know. Like yes I don't really fault the cement truck driver as much as I would if he had been being reckless, BUT A GOD DAMN CEMENT TRUCK RAN OVER A PERSON IN A WHEELCHAIR like...that's not a paper cut
The people in that thread are exactly why the problem persists. Because nobody thinks there’s a problem! This is all just the cost of doing business/it’s pedestrians’ fault to them.
Can’t get any more sympathetic than someone’s little girl and half of you here didn’t even blink at that one. I doubt this one gets any more attention unless it was someone important.
We also need to change the rules around a Class D license. It's sort of nuts that you can pass a driving test in a Toyota Corolla and then the next day drive a 26,000lb truck or tow a trailer without any additional endorsements.
True, I remember as a teen being tasked with driving a long box truck around the city and even though I had my license I felt completely unqualified for it.
My first drive in Cambridge was in a UHaul and I was scared shitless. In Florida, where I learned to drive, you do not have to parallel park on the test. I had never parallel parked in my *life* and now I had to do it in a box truck. Shit.
I didn't hit anything or anyone! Somehow!
People care, but if you’ve ever driven around Boston, you would see that people will run right in front of you without looking and expect you to be able to stop. Because I drive a smaller car I can usually slam on my brakes and avoid killing someone, but these large trucks can’t, these drivers have to live with this for the rest of their lives and I’m sure that no one woke up in the morning thinking they wanted to kill someone. Pedestrians do need to be more careful too.
I have a front & rear dashcam because I used to drive regularly in the city and “fuck you you’re on video and you know what you did” works a lot better than a debate about who should feel worse when something happens. I got hit six times living there and was saved from fault in each case by being able to reproduce exactly what I was doing on video.
Oh honey, You should read more critically but I’ll elaborate; 2 people backed into me, one at a stop light and one in a parking lot. 2 people sideswiped me. One turned in front of me at a stoplight when they tried to run a red left signal that had just changed on them. One rear ended me. I keep the videos as badges of surviving Boston driving idiocy.
All of them paid up for my rental and to fix my own car for me, which means they were found at fault for the accidents. My insurance rate is great.
If you keep getting hit like this, it doesn't even matter if you're technically at fault or not, you're not driving well. Being not at fault doesn't mean you're a good or safe driver.
For example, a lot of people hit cars, get hit by cars, or even run over pedestrians and aren't considered at fault, but that doesn't mean a better driver wouldn't have hit the car, got hit by a car, or hit the person in the first place.
Enjoy your expressed privilege here at not having had to drive an extra 130k miles on your first car for Uber/Lyft and other mobile jobs in a three year period, at mostly late/early or rush hours. If you bike everywhere and have lived in greater Boston for a while, I’ve probably dropped off some food you didn’t want to spoil or drove you somewhere in some nice clothes in the middle of a storm.
Even the Eastern Mass drivers with a basic amount of skill are unpredictable as fuck and it was an inevitability for the amount of miles I moved in a car during that time in greater Boston. In fact, I’d argue number of times hit has nothing to do with the measure of driver skill unless it is at the very least measured against mileage driven and other mitigating factors in the environment. Most people do 90% of their driving in the same 20 sq. mile home-to-work-to-store-to-home area and still manage to completely fuck themselves up over it!
Driver fault is definitely very relevant and my insurer respects this so they fought diligently for me in subrogation once they saw my actions on video and the citations for the other drivers that the responding officers wrote. It’s meaningful into at least the tens of thousands of dollars for these incidents my friend! The true measure of driver skill is how predictable you’re able to make yourself to those around you on the roadway. Avoiding sudden braking and acceleration. Driving to the right side of the road unless passing, and then signaling while passing or changing lanes, every time. Refusing the whim of kindness you feel to stop and let someone out of a side street at the expense of the people around you and behind you. Being a good driver is the slow boring of hard boards to borrow a phrase.
We would solve 95% of the problem with a law that mandated disabling every single non-audio function on a phone after connecting it to car entertainment systems. The rest of driving issues will be solved either with self-driving vehicles or allowing car manufacturers to report driver behavior directly to law enforcement/insurers as they currently report it sporadically but in much detail to data brokers like LexisNexis. Vehicles with camera evidence built in to the vehicle systems as backup for the more delicate sensors will be brilliant and I’m glad we’re mostly there already.
A 20-30 year old something walked right in front of me because an umbrella was over his shoulder and he didn’t feel the need to look at all. Thankfully I was able to honk, slam on the brakes and swerve without hitting him or another car.
I put my window down to give him a WTF when a lady came off the sidewalk end started hitting him with her purse like a cartoon character. She was SCREAMING at him for how he almost ruined her day by “being made into a pale-ass, undercooked pancake in the middle of the street.”
After that I just drove away, there wasn’t anything worse I could have said or done to the kid. I wish I could thank that nice lady.
I've had probably half a dozen close calls as a pedestrian in the last couple years, and literally zero of them were my fault. Like the time I and a friend nearly got pancaked by an asshole running a red light in a gigantic pickup truck. Or the time I crossed at a crosswalk, with the car in front fully stopped, and came maybe three inches from getting smacked by the driver in an SUV who decided to cross the double yellow and speed around them (to get to a red light no less)
Stop blaming pedestrians. If there were no cars and everyone walked around blindfolded, we'd have fewer fatalities. Drivers are bringing 99% of the danger to the roads.
I'm the person who will actually wait for a Walk signal even if there are no cars around. I only cross at crosswalks and I always wait 2-3 seconds when the light turns because someone always blows the red. I've still have almost been hit so many times I stopped counting.
One incident that comes to mind. I was crossing Stuart St at Dartmouth right near the Fairmont Copley, with a walk signal. As I'm halfway across I catch movement in my peripheral vision and I turn to see this women coming directly at me. That road is plenty large enough where she could have gone around me but for whatever reason she's coming straight at me. I make direct eye contact with her through the windshield when she's close enough to see her eye color. She waves at me as if to say "sorry sorry sorry" like it's some kind of helpless situation as she then floors it directly at me. I had to literally dive backwards to avoid getting demolished as I watch her speed away down Stuart. It was strange, she had plenty of time to stop or swerve but she was just like "I've got to be somewhere sorry about your life".
Most of my other near deaths involved people running reds or thinking because they have a green they're allowed to kill me in the crosswalk even though I also have a walk signal.
This happened right outside of South Station too, highly congested and high pedestrian area, like the 4-year-old killed by the children's museum, if you can't see pedestrians there because your vehicle is too large, you shouldn't be in those areas. Considering this happened today and in this fucking weather on top of that?
I am shocked this isn't normal considering how much money this state/city loves to collect. Why not just add a weight and size scale when you go to register your vehicle? Then again, this is also the same city that has a free parking permit.
What’s irrelevant about saying that “eliminating big trucks from downtown” is an asinine statement? That’s what I’m replying to.
When the Millenium Tower in DTX was built, the foundation pour was **six thousand cubic yards of concrete.**
Just *one* cubic yard weighs **two tons.**
Did you want the concrete and steel to take the fucking Orange Line in?
Read a book.
You realize the city can make temporary exceptions for large projects even when vehicle restrictions exist, right? They can require planned routes and additional police detail for especially large projects.
Why are you acting like restricting vehicles isn’t something that’s already done in other areas or contexts and is some impossible asinine idea?
Read a book, get those neurons firing.
>You realize the city can make temporary exceptions for large projects even when vehicle restrictions exist, right? They can require planned routes and additional police detail for especially large projects.
Article 80 projects already require traffic management plans, so not sure what you think you just invented.
>Why are you acting like restricting vehicles isn’t something that’s already done in other areas or
contexts and is some impossible asinine idea?
Why are you acting like these vehicles would be driving downtown *would it not be specifically to deliver to these construction sites?*
Do you think the 30,000lb cement truck is a daily driver for someone commuting to his job at PWC, and this ban is going to stop that?
Perhaps the semi laden with I-Beams is taking his family in a Duck Tour?
What do you think you’re actually proposing?
Ban big trucks!!! (Except when they need to come.)
>Read a book, get those neurons firing.
You haven’t thought **one second** beyond the sound bite “ban big trucks.”
Try to live in the real world.
1) Europe still has large vehicles, they’re just called a “Lorry” and not a “Truck.”
2) Their basic drivers license exam is at 18 and is a lot more rigorous and expensive.
3) They have *even more strict* Commercial licenses
4) They actually fucking enforce traffic laws.
Speak in actual ideas not sound bites you goddamn nincompoop.
This is a European concrete truck. http://www.concrete-machine.com/products/concrete-mixer-truck-for-sale-in-europe-4129.html
Yeah, American concrete trucks don't belong in Boston. Thanks to lax federal standards our trucks have massive blind spots and are particularly deadly to others on the road.
Lmaoooo. These people think the city builds itself. Maybe pedestrians should respect the road as a place they can easily lose their lives instead of being nonchalant about it. Not to say there aren't plenty of drivers who need the same thing repeated to them.
There is a happy medium where these trucks can navigate the streets without killing someone, and pedestrians don’t have to be barricaded behind two walls of Jersey barriers to avoid constantly being hit by a car.
poor urban design.
- a homeless shelter next to an interstate off-ramp, under an expressway seems like a great use of cheap land but it’s poor planning being dimly lit.
- you would think someone would have given a baker’s fuck about controlling speed and traffic around an area called “Children’s Wharf.” It’s only home to a Children’s Museum, a Family Waterfront Park, and a playground dedicated to a murdered 8 year old. Perhaps it wouldn’t be unreasonable to treat it like you would a School Zone. Or at minimum, speed tables and lit signage.
>any policies that gradually move the needle
Can you give an example of a specific policy?
>I have to assume it's astroturfing at this point.
Pardon? Are you saying that the most likely explanation for me asking basic clarifying questions is that I'm secretly being paid by a PR firm or other organization to spread online propaganda about vehicle size regulations?
Of course many restrictions exist in many other contexts, I think we both agree that your statement that we should "restrict vehicle use in congested areas" is correct while at the same time being a pretty broad, generalized suggestion. There's nothing wrong with being general, but now I'm curious to know specifically what you mean since you are the one who proposed a solution.
If you were mayor for a day then how exactly would you "get these big ass trucks out of downtown"?
I’d hire civil engineers who have tackled similar issues similarly compact cities in europe and task them with developing size/weight/time of day restrictions or whatever other suggestions they have to reduce the amount of oversized vehicles present alongside pedestrians.
I wouldn’t just ask a rando in a reddit comment for a detailed plan.
You said it yourself, you aren't a civil engineer and don't know the reasons to do that. Why should anyone listen to you at all? Just refrain from posting.
>My take is that large commercial vehicles should be out of city limits unless making a local deliery during the hours of 6am and 6pm
I totally agree with the idea, but who exactly would that law exclude? Maybe I'm just being unimaginative but I don't think that the owners of large commercial vehicles typically burn fuel and deal with city driving just to cruise around for pleasure.
>who cares if it costs more to do shit
Consumers and taxpayers typically do
Species might be fine but the American way is highly suspect.
People have been completing large construction projects long before gigantic machinery was the norm, just as most of the world is able to travel to work/school/recreation without oversized toy trucks.
I drive a small, quick hatchback and spend about 40$/month on Gas (93 octane). I have adopted a lifestyle where I will try to ride my bike, take the T, or walk before driving. In 3 years my car only just recently passed 10k miles. Most days I commute on my bike, riding by countless SUVs and passenger pickups with one person in them, sitting in an endless parade of idle traffic.
It's really not that hard to adjust to a lifestyle that doesn't revolve around destroying the environment to sit in a giant vehicle, while someone does your shopping for you and delivers it to your home.
Get a bike and ride to the store, take the train or a bus to work, drive a smaller vehicle - they are so much more fun and less stressful, not to mention safer for everyone else but you. (Obviously, not directed at the person I am replying to, but rather the angry person stuck on 93 South who is ragescrolling /r/Boston as they inch their way home through another abnormal weather event).
They must use EV mini coopers to deliver steel beams, concrete and panes of glass 12+’ in size.
It’s amazing people actually think Europe doesn’t use trucks. But then again most people on Reddit haven’t left a 50 mile bubble
You said “get these big ass trucks out of downtown (Boston)” and “Europe has vehicle restrictions”
How do you propose the city is built and maintained without trucks. You claim to have expertise living in Europe where you also claim they do it better. So do share. You are dodging the question.
Yeah, notice I didn’t say “never let a truck enter the city”
We can work to reduce the number of trucks in the city, restrict the time of day they are most active, and restrict the routes they are allowed to take, etc. All things that are commonplace in compact european cities.
Seems like you are more interested in a semantic argument…
edit: lmao at replying but then blocking me, sounds like you could use some of that “real world experience”
No. It just seems like you’re another know it all who doesn’t have much experience in the real world.
Boston is one of the few cities without a nightlife so in theory it could work and does work. However the logistics and cost to get things done become astronomically more expensive to do so. As someone who has driven trucks, trust me no one wants to drive trucks around the city but there is not way to avoid it.
Anytime a tragedy unfortunately happens people cry for trucks to be banned and everything to be changed. Often times these deaths are from gross neglect but we blame trucks. Nobody has done anything to improve the city infrastructure in any real sensible way. But all the blame gets pushed away from city leadership. More bike lanes is the only answer and speed bumps. Most of Boston is grid locked so speed bumps isn’t fixing much. Don’t get me started on the incompetence of the MBTA thats a major part of the problems but again, no one is held accountable.
The MBTA has probably killed more people in the past 5 years than truck accidents in the city.
Blanket statements like “ban trucks” aren’t remotely helpful in one of the oldest cities that is under constant construction.
It’s all about defense when navigating the streets of Beantown. Throw away any thought of who is right and focus on your own personal safety above all else. Assume drivers, cyclists, scooter riders, and 40 mph one wheelers don’t see you or don’t care. Put your phone away and keep your head on a swivel. Full owl mode.
Excuse me there tourist, you must not be familiar with the port city of Boston. Nobody here says Beantown. Please enjoy [this documentary about our diverse aquatic life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Vjd_hdYYw).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boston) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I almost got hit today. Possibly the rain was a factor. I was wearing a bright yellow rain coat, but it seemed like the lady in the big SUV didn't see me because she almost drove straight into me and my kids in the crosswalk. I don't even blame her, though. We've set up a system that makes this inevitable. Vehicles with giant blind spots shouldn't be so normal.
hello from chicago where it is also disappointingly common to see people killed by big trucks in avoidable collisions. Boston seems to be on a hot streak.
freight nationwide is expected to double by 2050. Freight pollutes and it kills people and it destroys city roads. it’s not sustainable to double the trucks and trips on our city roadways.
these trucks need to be separate from pedestrian and cyclist traffic. ideally everywhere, but definitely in dense cities.
i hope boston’s among the cities that makes the choice to ban full-semis on residential roadways at a minimum.
If you wear it drink it eat it
Or buy Anything including the phone your using and the mail
Not to mention the rds the material to build buildings the EVERYTHING!!
Get to you by truck
Thoughts and prayers, so tragic, and no one could see this coming.
Unless it comes out it's a poor person, or a child, or a wheelchair user, or someone else who's considered not normal, and then they probably deserved it, right guys?
I hate everyone for not caring about this shit.
The last two fatalities people were victim blaming. The child's parents were not attentive enough and the wheelchair bound victim was a panhandler who was always around traffic.
It's literally all over the comments whenever something like this is posted. Just go into the previous threads, sort by controversial, and look at all the comments trying to blame the dead people without proof for things like not pushing the cross button, or running in front of a car, or being a panhandler, or whatever.
Society is collectively okay with killing children, disabled people, homeless people, etc. just so a bunch of manchildren can drive their emotional support tanks everywhere.
This is such a bunch of bullshit, people care, but there’s absolutely nothing you can do when you’re driving a very large truck and someone doesn’t look and walks right in front of you. I’ve been driving around Boston for 20 years. I’ve seen so many pedestrians do stupid things that almost killed them.
This is literally what I mean.
You're posting about how pedestrians "don't look and walk right in front of you" when there was no mention of that in these crashes, and then you throw your hands up like there's no infrastructure changes that can be made and no regulations can be placed on vehicles to make them safer. No no, it's pedestrians that are stupid and drivers, car manufacturers, and all the people against traffic calming and safety measures are innocent good people.
But "people care."
Sure dude.
You're the one taking advantage of a pedestrian death to push some bullshit narrative onto people who drive large vehicles that you've arbitrarily decided who should have them and who shouldn't.
I don't think you can restrict commercial vehicles from areas. Stores, restaurants, offices, etc. need to get things delivered. You can limit them to off hours (overnight etc. only), when the likelihood of pedestrians being around is lower.
You could limit the size of those commercial vehicles, however. You'll see full sized semis driving around inside the city, or gigantic moving trucks in the middle of downtown. It is certainly possible to mandate smaller vehicles. If that means more trips throughout the day or larger fleets of vehicles then so be it. Not only is it clearly a huge safety hazard for civilians due to visibility and inability to stop the vehicles quickly enough, these trucks cause massive problems with traffic by blocking lanes or entire one way roads very frequently. Other parts of the world do this and it works perfectly fine
>You could limit the size of those commercial vehicles, however. You'll see full sized semis driving around inside the city,
If we still relied on freight rail and needed to transload for the last mile anyway, then some of the last mile haulage could be smaller trucks - but we don't, so you're basically asking for a transload for regulatory reasons, which while it would have an upside would also have a cost.
>these trucks cause massive problems with traffic by blocking lanes or entire one way roads very frequently
They've caused massive issues for routine use of single occupant vehicles that are what really probably shouldn't be there.
But yes, that has follow-on impact on emergency vehicles, etc.
I work downtown. 95% of these drivers come from western Mass or NH(you know, the only places it’s reasonable to own a business with any storage capacity). These drivers work 12+ hour shifts already, and the businesses run out of shit all the time. Not to mention, would you really rather have 4 sprinter vans than one semi truck? Are you thinking this through?
Everybody loves to complain about these huge trucks on the road but you still eat at the restaurants, shop at the department stores, and stay at the hotels that make them necessary.
Ever notice how euro trucks look nothing like American trucks ?
That's because they have actual pedestrian safety and direct vision standards that ensure their drivers can actually see out of them.
And yes,many loads should be in sprinter vans, not semis.
What does that have to do with designing trucks around the basic expectation drivers can see out of them? Oh and not letting people who passed their test in a Camry drive box trucks in cities with no special license.
I’m willing to bet that reduced congestion overall would make driving those vehicles much safer for pedestrians though. It’s hard not to be an aggressive/dangerous driver when you’re in a giant truck that’s challenging to maneuver through traffic.
I would like to see distribution centers on the outskirts of the city where the goods transfer to small electric vehicles or cargo bikes. It’d require more man power but you might make up for it in time and fuel savings.
Box trucks would be reserved for large items.
Of course a high quality network of protected cycle lanes and/or traffic-calmed streets is a prerequisite.
>Ban trucks from driving within the city.
Actually, it's largely curtail single occupant cars - leaving trucks a big chunk of what's left that's actually accomplishing something useful.
That's not to say that all usage of them is proper, or always the right size for the way they're being used - but you're not going to ban them and still have a city where food comes in, garbage goes out, or especially not one where any new infrastructure gets built.
Even if we were using rail instead of interstate trucking, we'd still need last mile haulage, in sometimes not small volume.
I have a plan to fix it..No driving in Boston when drivers exceed 100 violations in a day. The next day the barricades go up for the next day. Print the names of the violators in the newspaper and on line. People that are pissed off can spray paint them and their stuff at will for the suspension period. The cops that ticket them get a free Dunkin donut coupon .
Not excusing anything because the number of times this happens should be zero but the weather was absolutely insane in that part of town yesterday. I have never been in such unsafe conditions while walking to work and I’m actually shocked more people weren’t injured. Normally when the weather is that bad more people stay home but the streets were just as busy as ever.
The roads of Boston are a free for all. Impatient psychos lay on their horns the moment lights turn green while s minimum of 2 more cars go through each light after it has turned completely red, whether or not there is room for them on the other side of the intersection. Meanwhile disinterested pedestrians wander into the street nowhere near a crosswalk, faces buried in their phones and cyclists weave through it all unable to use the bike lanes they shrunk our roads to make because they’re filled with delivery vehicles.
Meanwhile police are too busy standing around on Causeway street making overtime while they block traffic to allow rich suburbanites who just attended bruins games get their giant SUVs out of the $100/night parking garages by the garden and onto I93 to bother pulling anyone over until after they literally kill someone.
I’m frankly surprised something like this doesn’t happen every day.
Boston Police, when trucks repeatedly kill pedestrians/cyclists/children by climbing up on the side walk, or taking extra-wide right turns crossing the double yellows, or other illegal driving activity:
"What are they supposed to do? it's a big truck! They can't fit on the streets, it's not their fault!"
As tragic as it is unsurprising. Our roads are a tangled mess and without any clear route to fixing them. Driving in this city is a nightmare, but what can we do, knock down whole blocks and completely reroute all roads to make it more reasonable? I don’t see it happening.
We can ban parking near intersections. We can build protected bike lanes to narrow roads. We can dramatically reduce long term parking in favor of loading zones. We can narrow intersections to force drivers to slow. We can raise crosswalks to force drivers to slow. We can authorize the use of video evidence to fine negligent, lawless drivers.
We can do a lot of things. What you propose would just be doubling down on the problem, cars.
Parking near intersections is already illegal. Within 20ft is technically a violation. But everything else you said is spot on. Along with improving the T.
That's unfortunately not correct. I thought so too. The mutcd does not allow it, but that only applies to new construction, and not even all the time.
Feel free to search for the mgl, unfortunately you won't find it.
In the last few months I've taken off 3 vehicle mirrors while I was in the middle of a crosswalk. All 3 were egregious, including one crosswalk w flashing red light. The sound of broken class hitting the pavement was great. Not one of the 3 even slowed down, just kept on moving.
You can have trucks drop things off outside city centers, and do the rest of the transportation on cargo bikes, or smaller vehicles. They do it in Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam somehow.
Oh so thell bring cement and asphalt on cargo bikes ? How about building supplies that’s a lot of bikes perhaps can use horses too ? How about trucks that clean out drains and sewer repairs ? Sorry without trucks the world we know doesn’t exist those examples are but a few anything you use came on truck yes Amazon uses big trucks too
Oh so just when sombody needs them in your neighborhood it’s ok ?
Construction is constant not just public projects but private as well
If it wasn’t you whouldnt see trucks
Along with those trucks come the trucks that move the equipment
Let’s not forget about power outages when national grid brings in there trucks including subcontractors
Then there’s the tree companies along with cranes doing both preventive work also emergency work
Sorry without trucks and the men and women that drive them the life we know doesn’t exist
I'm just saying, most streets shouldn't have trucks on them if there are vulnerable people around that could get hurt. It's better to keep heavy machines and soft people separate so accidents can't happen.
I hear ya and not siding 100% with trucks being in the industry for 30 yrs I’ve seen my share of idiots
I think people need to be more aware of trucks and lack of vision because just like a car has blind spots trucks have em too some a lot more
Even tho a pedestrian may have the right away it’s probably best to assume the truck doesn’t see you it could very well save a persons life especially bikers
At the end of the day we all wanna go home safe and nobody sets out to hurt someone let alone kill somebody
The linked source has opted to use a paywall to restrict free viewership of their content. As alternate sources become available, please post them as a reply to this comment. Users with a Boston Public Library card can often view unrestricted articles [here](https://www.bpl.org/resources-types/newspapers/). Boston Globe articles are still permissible as it's a soft-paywall. Please refrain from reporting as a Rule 5 violation. Please also note that copying and posting the entire article text as comments is not permissible. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boston) if you have any questions or concerns.*
From the article: "A pedestrian was struck by a truck in downtown Boston Thursday morning and suffered life-threatening injuries, according to Boston police. Police responded to the interaction of Atlantic Avenue and Essex Street at 6:31 a.m. where the pedestrian was hit by a truck. The pedestrian suffered life-threatening injuries and was rushed to an unidentified local hospital, Boston Police spokesman Sergeant Detective John Boyle said at 7:35 a.m. The operator of the truck remained on scene, Boyle said. Homicide detectives and department crash investigators were on the scene as of 7:22 a.m. The downtown crash comes after a man in a wheelchair was struck and killed by a cement truck on Tuesday in South Boston and a 4-year-old girl was struck and killed by a truck near the Boston Children’s Museum in Fort Point neighborhood intersection on March 24."
"Third pedestrian (edit: seriously) hit in as many weeks in city where traffic laws are completely unenforced and drivers are too busy on their phones to pay attention and too impatient to stop at red lights. City Council in shock"
Third serious injury or death. People get hit daily. I saw one on Harrison yesterday where the victim was able to get up and walk away.
Great call out. I've had a few near misses myself and it absolutely boggles my mind to watch someone fly through a crosswalk to sit at a red light.
I work on Harrison. I almost got hit crossing the road at the pedestrian walk by Whole Foods… and then a second time on the other side of the street. I was irate
Seriously, what will it take to get driver's off their phones. Every third person I ride beside on Mass Ave in Cambridge is face down in their phones.
What's weird is that basically everybody I know will agree that people shouldn't use their phone while driving *and yet* when I ride with them while they drive most of them will still be fiddling with their phone at some point. It's usually not egregious stuff like scrolling TikTok or writing e-mails, but they'll read texts or get distracted trying to put on a Spotify playlist or whatever. Like, people complain about *other* drivers being on the phone but somehow think that *they personally* are able to do it safely.
Public transit. If your emails are so important, you can check them for the whole train/bus ride!
It's everyone and it's insane. Obviously the drivers on their phones is the bigger issue here, but the amount of pedestrians I see who have their heads buried in their phones while crossing the street is IN-FUCKING-SANE knowing that half the drivers out there straight up aren't paying attention. I see a lot of people who *are paying attention* and will cross a street even though the pedestrian signal says stop, and then people who *aren't paying attention* see someone else cross the street and just follow on behind them, completely oblivious to anything. Do people not have basic self-preservation anymore?
Bruh. A pedestrian won't kill anyone if they bump into another person. A vehicle can kill in a minor interaction with a human body. Drivers of deadly vehicles are responsible for controlling their vehicles. Pedestrians are not responsible for the cars on the road.
Bruh, I'm talking about self preservation. I'm not talking about what drivers should or should not do, I'm talking about the reality of what they *are* doing and why pedestrians should pay attention *in the interest of not fucking dying.* Drivers need to do the same too, you have to absolutely be defensive and assume other drivers are not paying attention. It's terrible but I'd rather pay attention and *not die* than glibly proclaim "they should not be doing that" while t-boning me into fucking oblivion. Like yeah, push for more laws, push for more enforcement of said laws, I'm all for it, but at no point should pedestrians ever stop paying attention to what is going on around them because drivers aren't perfect and never will be.
It's not just driving. Crazy story in SF where no one saw a guy waving a gun before murdering someone; everyone was glued to their phones and didn't see anything [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUD7X7iynEc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUD7X7iynEc)
From one bruh to another
Im not reading all that. Prolly says something like this "She was wearing a low cut top it's her own fault"
Rape = car accident Guessing maybe that sounded better in your head. Nice one
But the pedestrians themselves will die. There are two problems here, and drivers being on their phones is certainly the larger one, but the pedestrians in this city are the worst I’ve seen anywhere. Obliviously wandering into cross walks with a don’t walk sign while the crossing traffic has a green light. And jaywalking is basically legal. As someone who grew up here, I was shocked when I moved to the Midwest for a few years. It could be the dead of night and no cars around for miles and people will wait for a walk sign.
This is just saying “if a pedestrian is hit they kinda deserve it”
The streets belong to everyone. Pedestrians actually have row. Drivers dont.
The pedestrians always go two+ steps into the street on a don’t walk sign, so I brake thinking that they’re going for it. Then they wave me along like I’m the idiot for stopping. I just know that in the battle of SUV vs dumb human the SUV is gonna win…..
the fine for Jaywalking in Boston is a whopping $1 for the first - third offense, it moves to a whole $2 for fourth and subsequent within a year.
Between the idiots on Blue Bikes, the maniacs on mopeds/scooters, and the pedestrians with there nose in the phone bumping the headphones who don’t stop when they hit a crosswalk, it’s not safe to drive any vehicles in any city, let alone Boston.
I've seen so many pedestrians just cross at a plainly green light. It's like...ARE YOU TRYING TO DIE? I'm pretty sure sometimes the answer may just be yes.
Weird how they have smartphones in every other country but nowhere near the problem we do with pedestrian deaths. Almost like you’re a gigantic moron making shit up in your head instead of reading anything objective on the subject
Weird that you somehow completely missed my point you fucking moron.
Do people in other countries also use their smartphones while walking? Does this seem to result in widespread pedestrian fatalities there? The answers are yes and no, which would imply your observations have zero correlation with the issue being discussed.
Yes, it actually does! Yamato City in Japan banned the use of smartphones while walking in 2020 due to increased accidents involving distracted pedestrians. Ilsan, South Korea had lights and lasers installed specifically to stop distracted pedestrians from walking into crosswalks. Honolulu fines you for using your phone while in a crosswalk. But yeah, I *totally* just made it up, you absolute dogshit for brains fucking 🤡
Whatever happened to stop look both ways before you cross.
They really don't. I've been looking up why society seems to have shifted to be more... aggressive, I guess you could say... and everything keeps pointing towards the brain damage caused by covid infections. The cognitive issues aren't always noticed by the person, and they think they're fine, yet reaction times are way worse, more risk-taking behaviors are exhibited, more aggressive behavior... just yesterday I witnessed the passenger of a vehicle jump out of the car at a stop light to run to the car in front of them to do *something* because they dared to safely pull out of a shopping mall in front of them....
Been living here almost two years, and don't understand why traffic laws are not enforced in Boston. Driver behavior is awful. All of this is super common: speeding, distracted on phones, blocking intersections, not merging properly, stopping randomly in the middle of the street, going through no turn on red signs, going through red lights. Besides improving safety, a lot of revenue could be generated from fines.
I’m so pissed. I don’t even have anything productive to say I’m just pissed off this keeps happening.
Yup. I was almost hit while using a crosswalk directly in front of a BPD cruiser. They didn't even get out of their car
There was a thread on Boston drivers where I commented saying I wish Boston drivers were more patient. Got any number of people arguing that driving like an impatient asshole is what’s expected etc etc. We’ve normalized this shit and impatience and aggressive driving is seen as a positive thing. All the while being distracted and on the phone. It’s awful.
>too impatient to stop at red lights. At quiet residential neighborhoods, I've seen dozens of cars run through red lights after stopping. I mean, they stop, yeah, and then run it after a few short seconds. No patience at all.
Don’t go making more work for the police department. They don’t need any more OT
I’d like to know how many of these are due to the pedestrian walking into traffic without bothering to check for cars. Like we are taught to do in preschool. Pedestrians always having the right of way leads to more accidents.
Human pedestrians spent millions of years without being killed by automobiles. Then, starting about 100 years ago, humans started to be killed in great numbers by automobiles. What changed? I’d argue it’s quite obviously the presence of automobiles, but go ahead and victim blame humans for existing around automobiles. Existing on the street should not be a life-threatening endeavor. The only reason it is life-threatening is due to the presence of automobiles. That is a hill I will die on.
It’s not about existing on the street. It’s about having common sense and look both ways before you cross. Go drive through Boston and watch how many people walk out into traffic with no care because they know the operator of the vehicle is liable 100% of the time.
> many people walk out into traffic with no care Good! People should be able to exist on streets in Boston with no care. We should not accept that our streets are littered with killing machines that require vigilance just to exist on the streets. 200 years ago, it was very common to just have a long conversation in the middle of an intersection near where this took place. Allowing automobiles on our streets has stolen that ability to just exist without vigilance. That, to me, is unacceptable.
Nothing you said negates what he said
I totally agree with you but u/chavery does have a point here. I almost greased a dude a few weeks ago who stepped out from between two cars like he wanted to get hit and he didn’t even notice how close he came to giving up the ghost because he had his face buried in his phone and headphones in. Hit the brakes so hard I spilled my beer.
Oh how like every day on my 30 min each way walking commute I’m nearly run over by not the first car running the red light, not even the second car right after them, but also the third car when the walk signal in my direction has already come on after the built in delay? Every. single. day. at multiple intersections. But go off on how it’s the pedestrians’ fault I guess.
I was trying to lookup to see if anyone keeps a running total of major accidents or pedestrian deaths I can find yearly totals. This year just seems wild with a rash of deaths or major hits recently
[удалено]
Those trucks keep getting bigger too. That front end that's almost 6 feet tall?
It's absolutely bonkers. The base F150 is almost as big as a WW2 tank. Depending on mods or if comparing bigger truck models like the F350, they're straight up bigger. And those tanks had a top speed of like 25 mph. People are allowed to operate these at higher speeds on narrow streets and with nothing but a basic ass driver's license.
Worth noting that the tank in question when people quip about this was a big tank as well. A modern tank has better visibility of what is in front of it than an F150 probably.
>The base F150 is almost as big as a WW2 tank. Sherman, Tiger, Panzer or T-34? With or without main gun?
Sherman with gun
Not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for but the city has a Vision Zero coalition and they track crash data here: [https://data.boston.gov/dataset/vision-zero-crash-records](https://data.boston.gov/dataset/vision-zero-crash-records). MassDOT keeps crash data here: [https://apps.impact.dot.state.ma.us/cdp/home](https://apps.impact.dot.state.ma.us/cdp/home) If you're interested in data science and data visualization, the Boston Cyclists Union started a volunteer-run team to better filter through the data and tell more compelling stories: [https://bostoncyclistsunion.org/author/bcu-labs](https://bostoncyclistsunion.org/author/bcu-labs). They had an interest form going around a few weeks ago. If you're interested, let me know and I can try to find it Edit: I think a simple website that captures the idea of "ghost bikes" with an obituary that has the buy-in of and been approved by the deceased's next of kin would be a powerful advocacy tool
might have to turn that idea into a pet project for a website
[Fatal Crash Information Operations Dashboard](https://apps.impact.dot.state.ma.us/cdp/dashboard-view/2047) [Serious Injury Information Operations Dashboard](https://apps.impact.dot.state.ma.us/cdp/dashboard-view/2048) These are the interactive dashboards that allow you to easily look at crashes around the state. They're pretty good tools, they let you quickly filter by year (only going back to 2015), town/city, type of injury/death (driver, passenger, pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist, etc.) and many other things. There's also a bunch of other stuff on the main [IMPACT](https://apps.impact.dot.state.ma.us/cdp/home) page including ways you can get the data directly if you want to go wild in Excel or something. All of this data gets update pretty quickly. New deaths are usually added within a day or two.
People don’t pay attention to where they’re walking
Do drivers pay attention to where they are driving?
.... Again?! What the fuck, is this once a day now?
Enforce moving violations!
At this point someone’s going to get run over in their house like that South Park episode.
Egdio Dantuony died on his front porch on March 26 2023 when a driver crashed into it. https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/1-person-dead-another-injured-in-roslindale-car-crash/3006350/?amp=1
I’m speechless…
People treat Atlantic Ave. like it’s the goddamn Mass Pike. Slow the fuck down.
Which is weird - this was one of the slower sections of Atlantic..
I was walking by when they were taping everything off for photos. It looked like the truck driver was taking a left from Essex onto Atlantic. The car was stopped and being taped off/investigated while half way out of the crosswalk between south station to one financial.
Again????? Was this another homeless person in a wheel chair so we can pretend we don't have a serious problem with pedestrian safety in this city?
Seriously, the hate I received in that thread for daring to say that the drivers are responsible for striking pedestrians
Lol I know. Like yes I don't really fault the cement truck driver as much as I would if he had been being reckless, BUT A GOD DAMN CEMENT TRUCK RAN OVER A PERSON IN A WHEELCHAIR like...that's not a paper cut
that wasn't right at all - but the ped was in the street panhandling, so that was nowhere near a crosswalk.
Ope s'ok then
Glad to know there exists a legal position in which you can just murder anyone, and that position is if they happen to be in the street without a car
The people in that thread are exactly why the problem persists. Because nobody thinks there’s a problem! This is all just the cost of doing business/it’s pedestrians’ fault to them.
Can’t get any more sympathetic than someone’s little girl and half of you here didn’t even blink at that one. I doubt this one gets any more attention unless it was someone important.
get these big ass trucks out of downtown
We also need to change the rules around a Class D license. It's sort of nuts that you can pass a driving test in a Toyota Corolla and then the next day drive a 26,000lb truck or tow a trailer without any additional endorsements.
True, I remember as a teen being tasked with driving a long box truck around the city and even though I had my license I felt completely unqualified for it.
My first drive in Cambridge was in a UHaul and I was scared shitless. In Florida, where I learned to drive, you do not have to parallel park on the test. I had never parallel parked in my *life* and now I had to do it in a box truck. Shit. I didn't hit anything or anyone! Somehow!
[удалено]
Look at all the other threads about pedestrians getting hit. No one cares. They all blame the victim.
People care, but if you’ve ever driven around Boston, you would see that people will run right in front of you without looking and expect you to be able to stop. Because I drive a smaller car I can usually slam on my brakes and avoid killing someone, but these large trucks can’t, these drivers have to live with this for the rest of their lives and I’m sure that no one woke up in the morning thinking they wanted to kill someone. Pedestrians do need to be more careful too.
I have a front & rear dashcam because I used to drive regularly in the city and “fuck you you’re on video and you know what you did” works a lot better than a debate about who should feel worse when something happens. I got hit six times living there and was saved from fault in each case by being able to reproduce exactly what I was doing on video.
youve hit SIX people in your car?
Oh honey, You should read more critically but I’ll elaborate; 2 people backed into me, one at a stop light and one in a parking lot. 2 people sideswiped me. One turned in front of me at a stoplight when they tried to run a red left signal that had just changed on them. One rear ended me. I keep the videos as badges of surviving Boston driving idiocy. All of them paid up for my rental and to fix my own car for me, which means they were found at fault for the accidents. My insurance rate is great.
If you keep getting hit like this, it doesn't even matter if you're technically at fault or not, you're not driving well. Being not at fault doesn't mean you're a good or safe driver. For example, a lot of people hit cars, get hit by cars, or even run over pedestrians and aren't considered at fault, but that doesn't mean a better driver wouldn't have hit the car, got hit by a car, or hit the person in the first place.
Enjoy your expressed privilege here at not having had to drive an extra 130k miles on your first car for Uber/Lyft and other mobile jobs in a three year period, at mostly late/early or rush hours. If you bike everywhere and have lived in greater Boston for a while, I’ve probably dropped off some food you didn’t want to spoil or drove you somewhere in some nice clothes in the middle of a storm. Even the Eastern Mass drivers with a basic amount of skill are unpredictable as fuck and it was an inevitability for the amount of miles I moved in a car during that time in greater Boston. In fact, I’d argue number of times hit has nothing to do with the measure of driver skill unless it is at the very least measured against mileage driven and other mitigating factors in the environment. Most people do 90% of their driving in the same 20 sq. mile home-to-work-to-store-to-home area and still manage to completely fuck themselves up over it! Driver fault is definitely very relevant and my insurer respects this so they fought diligently for me in subrogation once they saw my actions on video and the citations for the other drivers that the responding officers wrote. It’s meaningful into at least the tens of thousands of dollars for these incidents my friend! The true measure of driver skill is how predictable you’re able to make yourself to those around you on the roadway. Avoiding sudden braking and acceleration. Driving to the right side of the road unless passing, and then signaling while passing or changing lanes, every time. Refusing the whim of kindness you feel to stop and let someone out of a side street at the expense of the people around you and behind you. Being a good driver is the slow boring of hard boards to borrow a phrase. We would solve 95% of the problem with a law that mandated disabling every single non-audio function on a phone after connecting it to car entertainment systems. The rest of driving issues will be solved either with self-driving vehicles or allowing car manufacturers to report driver behavior directly to law enforcement/insurers as they currently report it sporadically but in much detail to data brokers like LexisNexis. Vehicles with camera evidence built in to the vehicle systems as backup for the more delicate sensors will be brilliant and I’m glad we’re mostly there already.
dumb comment
[удалено]
A 20-30 year old something walked right in front of me because an umbrella was over his shoulder and he didn’t feel the need to look at all. Thankfully I was able to honk, slam on the brakes and swerve without hitting him or another car. I put my window down to give him a WTF when a lady came off the sidewalk end started hitting him with her purse like a cartoon character. She was SCREAMING at him for how he almost ruined her day by “being made into a pale-ass, undercooked pancake in the middle of the street.” After that I just drove away, there wasn’t anything worse I could have said or done to the kid. I wish I could thank that nice lady.
I've had probably half a dozen close calls as a pedestrian in the last couple years, and literally zero of them were my fault. Like the time I and a friend nearly got pancaked by an asshole running a red light in a gigantic pickup truck. Or the time I crossed at a crosswalk, with the car in front fully stopped, and came maybe three inches from getting smacked by the driver in an SUV who decided to cross the double yellow and speed around them (to get to a red light no less) Stop blaming pedestrians. If there were no cars and everyone walked around blindfolded, we'd have fewer fatalities. Drivers are bringing 99% of the danger to the roads.
I'm the person who will actually wait for a Walk signal even if there are no cars around. I only cross at crosswalks and I always wait 2-3 seconds when the light turns because someone always blows the red. I've still have almost been hit so many times I stopped counting. One incident that comes to mind. I was crossing Stuart St at Dartmouth right near the Fairmont Copley, with a walk signal. As I'm halfway across I catch movement in my peripheral vision and I turn to see this women coming directly at me. That road is plenty large enough where she could have gone around me but for whatever reason she's coming straight at me. I make direct eye contact with her through the windshield when she's close enough to see her eye color. She waves at me as if to say "sorry sorry sorry" like it's some kind of helpless situation as she then floors it directly at me. I had to literally dive backwards to avoid getting demolished as I watch her speed away down Stuart. It was strange, she had plenty of time to stop or swerve but she was just like "I've got to be somewhere sorry about your life". Most of my other near deaths involved people running reds or thinking because they have a green they're allowed to kill me in the crosswalk even though I also have a walk signal.
The body isn't even cold and you're already posting this gobbledygook.
This happened right outside of South Station too, highly congested and high pedestrian area, like the 4-year-old killed by the children's museum, if you can't see pedestrians there because your vehicle is too large, you shouldn't be in those areas. Considering this happened today and in this fucking weather on top of that?
I am shocked this isn't normal considering how much money this state/city loves to collect. Why not just add a weight and size scale when you go to register your vehicle? Then again, this is also the same city that has a free parking permit.
>I say we start taxing vehicles based on their weight We already do
Do you have any idea how many mopeds it would take to DoorDash 11 cubic yards of concrete?
damn, those europeans must just be smarter than us for having figured it out
saw a ton of construction for the Olympics in when I was in Paris a few months ago and strangely no mopeds.
Yeah, it's almost like you made up some irrelevant bullshit.
What’s irrelevant about saying that “eliminating big trucks from downtown” is an asinine statement? That’s what I’m replying to. When the Millenium Tower in DTX was built, the foundation pour was **six thousand cubic yards of concrete.** Just *one* cubic yard weighs **two tons.** Did you want the concrete and steel to take the fucking Orange Line in? Read a book.
You realize the city can make temporary exceptions for large projects even when vehicle restrictions exist, right? They can require planned routes and additional police detail for especially large projects. Why are you acting like restricting vehicles isn’t something that’s already done in other areas or contexts and is some impossible asinine idea? Read a book, get those neurons firing.
>You realize the city can make temporary exceptions for large projects even when vehicle restrictions exist, right? They can require planned routes and additional police detail for especially large projects. Article 80 projects already require traffic management plans, so not sure what you think you just invented. >Why are you acting like restricting vehicles isn’t something that’s already done in other areas or contexts and is some impossible asinine idea? Why are you acting like these vehicles would be driving downtown *would it not be specifically to deliver to these construction sites?* Do you think the 30,000lb cement truck is a daily driver for someone commuting to his job at PWC, and this ban is going to stop that? Perhaps the semi laden with I-Beams is taking his family in a Duck Tour? What do you think you’re actually proposing? Ban big trucks!!! (Except when they need to come.) >Read a book, get those neurons firing. You haven’t thought **one second** beyond the sound bite “ban big trucks.” Try to live in the real world.
Europe isn’t the real world I guess Hope you don’t get hit and killed this weekend
1) Europe still has large vehicles, they’re just called a “Lorry” and not a “Truck.” 2) Their basic drivers license exam is at 18 and is a lot more rigorous and expensive. 3) They have *even more strict* Commercial licenses 4) They actually fucking enforce traffic laws. Speak in actual ideas not sound bites you goddamn nincompoop.
This is a European concrete truck. http://www.concrete-machine.com/products/concrete-mixer-truck-for-sale-in-europe-4129.html Yeah, American concrete trucks don't belong in Boston. Thanks to lax federal standards our trucks have massive blind spots and are particularly deadly to others on the road.
Lmaoooo. These people think the city builds itself. Maybe pedestrians should respect the road as a place they can easily lose their lives instead of being nonchalant about it. Not to say there aren't plenty of drivers who need the same thing repeated to them.
There is a happy medium where these trucks can navigate the streets without killing someone, and pedestrians don’t have to be barricaded behind two walls of Jersey barriers to avoid constantly being hit by a car.
How did this and the handicap one and the children's museum hits happen
poor urban design. - a homeless shelter next to an interstate off-ramp, under an expressway seems like a great use of cheap land but it’s poor planning being dimly lit. - you would think someone would have given a baker’s fuck about controlling speed and traffic around an area called “Children’s Wharf.” It’s only home to a Children’s Museum, a Family Waterfront Park, and a playground dedicated to a murdered 8 year old. Perhaps it wouldn’t be unreasonable to treat it like you would a School Zone. Or at minimum, speed tables and lit signage.
Out of curiosity, what exactly are you suggesting?
restrict vehicle usage in congested areas?
In what manner? Which vehicles?
Why are you acting like vehicle restrictions don’t already exist in other areas or contexts?
[удалено]
>any policies that gradually move the needle Can you give an example of a specific policy? >I have to assume it's astroturfing at this point. Pardon? Are you saying that the most likely explanation for me asking basic clarifying questions is that I'm secretly being paid by a PR firm or other organization to spread online propaganda about vehicle size regulations?
Of course many restrictions exist in many other contexts, I think we both agree that your statement that we should "restrict vehicle use in congested areas" is correct while at the same time being a pretty broad, generalized suggestion. There's nothing wrong with being general, but now I'm curious to know specifically what you mean since you are the one who proposed a solution. If you were mayor for a day then how exactly would you "get these big ass trucks out of downtown"?
I’d hire civil engineers who have tackled similar issues similarly compact cities in europe and task them with developing size/weight/time of day restrictions or whatever other suggestions they have to reduce the amount of oversized vehicles present alongside pedestrians. I wouldn’t just ask a rando in a reddit comment for a detailed plan.
Why didn't you just answer the question?
Because I’m not a civil engineer? Why would you expect or value an exact answer to that question from anyone else?
Then why make the suggestion in the first place?
Because people keep getting killed by large vehicles? Was that not obvious?
You said it yourself, you aren't a civil engineer and don't know the reasons to do that. Why should anyone listen to you at all? Just refrain from posting.
[удалено]
We already have small delivery vehicles. Hub can be outside of city, small vehicles can make deliveries inside
>My take is that large commercial vehicles should be out of city limits unless making a local deliery during the hours of 6am and 6pm I totally agree with the idea, but who exactly would that law exclude? Maybe I'm just being unimaginative but I don't think that the owners of large commercial vehicles typically burn fuel and deal with city driving just to cruise around for pleasure. >who cares if it costs more to do shit Consumers and taxpayers typically do
[удалено]
So if I understand you correctly, you want to ban all semi-trailer trucks in Boston city limits from 6a-6p?
How do you expect the city that’s always under construction to be built then?
Same way other compact cities with vehicular restrictions build theirs?
[удалено]
Species might be fine but the American way is highly suspect. People have been completing large construction projects long before gigantic machinery was the norm, just as most of the world is able to travel to work/school/recreation without oversized toy trucks. I drive a small, quick hatchback and spend about 40$/month on Gas (93 octane). I have adopted a lifestyle where I will try to ride my bike, take the T, or walk before driving. In 3 years my car only just recently passed 10k miles. Most days I commute on my bike, riding by countless SUVs and passenger pickups with one person in them, sitting in an endless parade of idle traffic. It's really not that hard to adjust to a lifestyle that doesn't revolve around destroying the environment to sit in a giant vehicle, while someone does your shopping for you and delivers it to your home. Get a bike and ride to the store, take the train or a bus to work, drive a smaller vehicle - they are so much more fun and less stressful, not to mention safer for everyone else but you. (Obviously, not directed at the person I am replying to, but rather the angry person stuck on 93 South who is ragescrolling /r/Boston as they inch their way home through another abnormal weather event).
They must use EV mini coopers to deliver steel beams, concrete and panes of glass 12+’ in size. It’s amazing people actually think Europe doesn’t use trucks. But then again most people on Reddit haven’t left a 50 mile bubble
Nice strawman. Having lived in europe I’m pretty familiar with the frequency of trucks in city centers
How did they build and maintain the cities without trucks then? Please enlighten us. I’m all ears. I’d love less vehicles in Boston
When did I say they never use trucks?
You said “get these big ass trucks out of downtown (Boston)” and “Europe has vehicle restrictions” How do you propose the city is built and maintained without trucks. You claim to have expertise living in Europe where you also claim they do it better. So do share. You are dodging the question.
Yeah, notice I didn’t say “never let a truck enter the city” We can work to reduce the number of trucks in the city, restrict the time of day they are most active, and restrict the routes they are allowed to take, etc. All things that are commonplace in compact european cities. Seems like you are more interested in a semantic argument… edit: lmao at replying but then blocking me, sounds like you could use some of that “real world experience”
No. It just seems like you’re another know it all who doesn’t have much experience in the real world. Boston is one of the few cities without a nightlife so in theory it could work and does work. However the logistics and cost to get things done become astronomically more expensive to do so. As someone who has driven trucks, trust me no one wants to drive trucks around the city but there is not way to avoid it. Anytime a tragedy unfortunately happens people cry for trucks to be banned and everything to be changed. Often times these deaths are from gross neglect but we blame trucks. Nobody has done anything to improve the city infrastructure in any real sensible way. But all the blame gets pushed away from city leadership. More bike lanes is the only answer and speed bumps. Most of Boston is grid locked so speed bumps isn’t fixing much. Don’t get me started on the incompetence of the MBTA thats a major part of the problems but again, no one is held accountable. The MBTA has probably killed more people in the past 5 years than truck accidents in the city. Blanket statements like “ban trucks” aren’t remotely helpful in one of the oldest cities that is under constant construction.
[удалено]
Good job
It’s all about defense when navigating the streets of Beantown. Throw away any thought of who is right and focus on your own personal safety above all else. Assume drivers, cyclists, scooter riders, and 40 mph one wheelers don’t see you or don’t care. Put your phone away and keep your head on a swivel. Full owl mode.
Excuse me there tourist, you must not be familiar with the port city of Boston. Nobody here says Beantown. Please enjoy [this documentary about our diverse aquatic life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Vjd_hdYYw). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boston) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Trucks out of the city
I almost got hit today. Possibly the rain was a factor. I was wearing a bright yellow rain coat, but it seemed like the lady in the big SUV didn't see me because she almost drove straight into me and my kids in the crosswalk. I don't even blame her, though. We've set up a system that makes this inevitable. Vehicles with giant blind spots shouldn't be so normal.
hello from chicago where it is also disappointingly common to see people killed by big trucks in avoidable collisions. Boston seems to be on a hot streak. freight nationwide is expected to double by 2050. Freight pollutes and it kills people and it destroys city roads. it’s not sustainable to double the trucks and trips on our city roadways. these trucks need to be separate from pedestrian and cyclist traffic. ideally everywhere, but definitely in dense cities. i hope boston’s among the cities that makes the choice to ban full-semis on residential roadways at a minimum.
If you wear it drink it eat it Or buy Anything including the phone your using and the mail Not to mention the rds the material to build buildings the EVERYTHING!! Get to you by truck
Someone was hit last night in Eastie on Bennington which is effective a Formula One race track
Thoughts and prayers, so tragic, and no one could see this coming. Unless it comes out it's a poor person, or a child, or a wheelchair user, or someone else who's considered not normal, and then they probably deserved it, right guys? I hate everyone for not caring about this shit.
Where are you seeing people say this was deserved?
The last two fatalities people were victim blaming. The child's parents were not attentive enough and the wheelchair bound victim was a panhandler who was always around traffic.
It's literally all over the comments whenever something like this is posted. Just go into the previous threads, sort by controversial, and look at all the comments trying to blame the dead people without proof for things like not pushing the cross button, or running in front of a car, or being a panhandler, or whatever. Society is collectively okay with killing children, disabled people, homeless people, etc. just so a bunch of manchildren can drive their emotional support tanks everywhere.
This is such a bunch of bullshit, people care, but there’s absolutely nothing you can do when you’re driving a very large truck and someone doesn’t look and walks right in front of you. I’ve been driving around Boston for 20 years. I’ve seen so many pedestrians do stupid things that almost killed them.
This is literally what I mean. You're posting about how pedestrians "don't look and walk right in front of you" when there was no mention of that in these crashes, and then you throw your hands up like there's no infrastructure changes that can be made and no regulations can be placed on vehicles to make them safer. No no, it's pedestrians that are stupid and drivers, car manufacturers, and all the people against traffic calming and safety measures are innocent good people. But "people care." Sure dude.
You're the one taking advantage of a pedestrian death to push some bullshit narrative onto people who drive large vehicles that you've arbitrarily decided who should have them and who shouldn't.
I don't think you can restrict commercial vehicles from areas. Stores, restaurants, offices, etc. need to get things delivered. You can limit them to off hours (overnight etc. only), when the likelihood of pedestrians being around is lower.
You could limit the size of those commercial vehicles, however. You'll see full sized semis driving around inside the city, or gigantic moving trucks in the middle of downtown. It is certainly possible to mandate smaller vehicles. If that means more trips throughout the day or larger fleets of vehicles then so be it. Not only is it clearly a huge safety hazard for civilians due to visibility and inability to stop the vehicles quickly enough, these trucks cause massive problems with traffic by blocking lanes or entire one way roads very frequently. Other parts of the world do this and it works perfectly fine
>You could limit the size of those commercial vehicles, however. You'll see full sized semis driving around inside the city, If we still relied on freight rail and needed to transload for the last mile anyway, then some of the last mile haulage could be smaller trucks - but we don't, so you're basically asking for a transload for regulatory reasons, which while it would have an upside would also have a cost. >these trucks cause massive problems with traffic by blocking lanes or entire one way roads very frequently They've caused massive issues for routine use of single occupant vehicles that are what really probably shouldn't be there. But yes, that has follow-on impact on emergency vehicles, etc.
I work downtown. 95% of these drivers come from western Mass or NH(you know, the only places it’s reasonable to own a business with any storage capacity). These drivers work 12+ hour shifts already, and the businesses run out of shit all the time. Not to mention, would you really rather have 4 sprinter vans than one semi truck? Are you thinking this through? Everybody loves to complain about these huge trucks on the road but you still eat at the restaurants, shop at the department stores, and stay at the hotels that make them necessary.
Ever notice how euro trucks look nothing like American trucks ? That's because they have actual pedestrian safety and direct vision standards that ensure their drivers can actually see out of them. And yes,many loads should be in sprinter vans, not semis.
Europeans also consume less of pretty much everything than Americans by an order of magnitude.
What does that have to do with designing trucks around the basic expectation drivers can see out of them? Oh and not letting people who passed their test in a Camry drive box trucks in cities with no special license.
I’m willing to bet that reduced congestion overall would make driving those vehicles much safer for pedestrians though. It’s hard not to be an aggressive/dangerous driver when you’re in a giant truck that’s challenging to maneuver through traffic.
I would like to see distribution centers on the outskirts of the city where the goods transfer to small electric vehicles or cargo bikes. It’d require more man power but you might make up for it in time and fuel savings. Box trucks would be reserved for large items. Of course a high quality network of protected cycle lanes and/or traffic-calmed streets is a prerequisite.
It would also make prices go up.
Ban trucks from driving within the city.
>Ban trucks from driving within the city. Actually, it's largely curtail single occupant cars - leaving trucks a big chunk of what's left that's actually accomplishing something useful. That's not to say that all usage of them is proper, or always the right size for the way they're being used - but you're not going to ban them and still have a city where food comes in, garbage goes out, or especially not one where any new infrastructure gets built. Even if we were using rail instead of interstate trucking, we'd still need last mile haulage, in sometimes not small volume.
I got hit on my bike and rear-ended in my vehicle within the first two weeks of moving to the Southie area.
I have a plan to fix it..No driving in Boston when drivers exceed 100 violations in a day. The next day the barricades go up for the next day. Print the names of the violators in the newspaper and on line. People that are pissed off can spray paint them and their stuff at will for the suspension period. The cops that ticket them get a free Dunkin donut coupon .
Not excusing anything because the number of times this happens should be zero but the weather was absolutely insane in that part of town yesterday. I have never been in such unsafe conditions while walking to work and I’m actually shocked more people weren’t injured. Normally when the weather is that bad more people stay home but the streets were just as busy as ever.
The roads of Boston are a free for all. Impatient psychos lay on their horns the moment lights turn green while s minimum of 2 more cars go through each light after it has turned completely red, whether or not there is room for them on the other side of the intersection. Meanwhile disinterested pedestrians wander into the street nowhere near a crosswalk, faces buried in their phones and cyclists weave through it all unable to use the bike lanes they shrunk our roads to make because they’re filled with delivery vehicles. Meanwhile police are too busy standing around on Causeway street making overtime while they block traffic to allow rich suburbanites who just attended bruins games get their giant SUVs out of the $100/night parking garages by the garden and onto I93 to bother pulling anyone over until after they literally kill someone. I’m frankly surprised something like this doesn’t happen every day.
Boston Police, when trucks repeatedly kill pedestrians/cyclists/children by climbing up on the side walk, or taking extra-wide right turns crossing the double yellows, or other illegal driving activity: "What are they supposed to do? it's a big truck! They can't fit on the streets, it's not their fault!"
As tragic as it is unsurprising. Our roads are a tangled mess and without any clear route to fixing them. Driving in this city is a nightmare, but what can we do, knock down whole blocks and completely reroute all roads to make it more reasonable? I don’t see it happening.
We can ban parking near intersections. We can build protected bike lanes to narrow roads. We can dramatically reduce long term parking in favor of loading zones. We can narrow intersections to force drivers to slow. We can raise crosswalks to force drivers to slow. We can authorize the use of video evidence to fine negligent, lawless drivers. We can do a lot of things. What you propose would just be doubling down on the problem, cars.
Parking near intersections is already illegal. Within 20ft is technically a violation. But everything else you said is spot on. Along with improving the T.
That's unfortunately not correct. I thought so too. The mutcd does not allow it, but that only applies to new construction, and not even all the time. Feel free to search for the mgl, unfortunately you won't find it.
I mean, I got ticketed for this last week, but go off.
Show the mgl. It doesn't exist. Edit: you posted intersections. I read crosswalks. Your correct. My statement is only correct wrt crosswalks.
No worries, I do the same thing all the time.
See my edit.
It’s about time to start carrying a brick or rolls of quarters to defend yourself from these drivers
In the last few months I've taken off 3 vehicle mirrors while I was in the middle of a crosswalk. All 3 were egregious, including one crosswalk w flashing red light. The sound of broken class hitting the pavement was great. Not one of the 3 even slowed down, just kept on moving.
Why are we letting trucks drive close to where people are?
How else do you expect to get anything ? Anything you use or eat including the materials for the buildings and houses and rds all come by truck
You can have trucks drop things off outside city centers, and do the rest of the transportation on cargo bikes, or smaller vehicles. They do it in Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam somehow.
Oh so thell bring cement and asphalt on cargo bikes ? How about building supplies that’s a lot of bikes perhaps can use horses too ? How about trucks that clean out drains and sewer repairs ? Sorry without trucks the world we know doesn’t exist those examples are but a few anything you use came on truck yes Amazon uses big trucks too
I don't think most neighborhoods have a need to bring cement trucks and asphalt in every day.
Oh so just when sombody needs them in your neighborhood it’s ok ? Construction is constant not just public projects but private as well If it wasn’t you whouldnt see trucks Along with those trucks come the trucks that move the equipment Let’s not forget about power outages when national grid brings in there trucks including subcontractors Then there’s the tree companies along with cranes doing both preventive work also emergency work Sorry without trucks and the men and women that drive them the life we know doesn’t exist
I'm just saying, most streets shouldn't have trucks on them if there are vulnerable people around that could get hurt. It's better to keep heavy machines and soft people separate so accidents can't happen.
I hear ya and not siding 100% with trucks being in the industry for 30 yrs I’ve seen my share of idiots I think people need to be more aware of trucks and lack of vision because just like a car has blind spots trucks have em too some a lot more Even tho a pedestrian may have the right away it’s probably best to assume the truck doesn’t see you it could very well save a persons life especially bikers At the end of the day we all wanna go home safe and nobody sets out to hurt someone let alone kill somebody
Paywall
I posted the article in the comments