Structural Causes and Fender Effects: Traffic And Driver Habits in New York City and Boston Compared

This is in fact a topic which I've been thinking about (as well as ranting, cursing, threatening, and cringing) about for some time- in fact, ever since I relocated from my native New York City (Manhattan) to the Boston metro area (Cambridge, to be precise). I have always been concerned with the behavior of other drivers for my vehicle's safety as well as my own; I rode a motorcycle in Manhattan, and in Boston I drive my TR6 with new bodywork. The former leads to hair-trigger responses for one's own safety, and the latter for one's paint job or worse.

First, the two cities have definite personalities, at least as far as the driving habits practiced by the majority of operators in each goes. What has always intrigued me is why they are in fact so different. Manhattan and Boston are not nearly as different as either one and, say, Los Angeles, that extreme outlier in U.S. traffic analysis. They share the traits of (among others) a suburban commuter population, limited downtown space for traffic or anything else, incessant construction, a road net operated beyond its intended capacity and thus in varying states of disrepair, and similar mass transit systems (bus/rail/commuter rail).

To quote Dennis, I don't want to get off on a rant here, but why hasn't this been explained?

The driving conditions in each as observed from the ground, however, differ wildly. In Manhattan, there is a much more predatory-yet-competent air; each vehicle behaves according to a reasonably predictable set of rules based on information garnered easily from their appearance. Let's start with that.

First, vehicle types are easily distinguished from each other in Manhattan. Here's the list (by no means complete) with corresponding identifying marks and behavior patterns.

New York City Vehicle Identification

Now, I realize this is an oversimplification. I'm merely using it to make a point. The point is this:  In Manhattan, the problem cases are usually readily identifiable, and the natives are usually fairly competent. The next question is why is this so?

First of all, New York traffic is fairly Darwinian. You know, survival of the fittest. Thus, those who drive in it most frequently and have been there the longest are likely the most skilled. Taxi drivers top the list in average technical skill; by this I mean skill at maneuvering their own vehicle for advantage without hitting anything. Their complete blindness to the importance of other vehicles' needs, while irritating, nevertheless makes them easy to predict. If you see a person waving for a cab on the left side of the street and there is a taxi directly to your right, chances are greater than 90% that the driver will accelerate and pull left across your lane, stopping with the rear of the cab still protruding into the second lane out, to pick up the fare. Cabs with no fare light on (in use) are in general better behaved; they're not on hair-trigger fare alert.

Bus drivers have one key piece of information. If they are driving an MTA bus and there is an accident, the assumption pending hearing (I believe) on the part of the MTA is that it is NOT THEIR FAULT. I have been on a bus which pulled out across two lanes of traffic to be rammed by a pickup, released a flood of Diesel across the avenue. The driver looked remarkably unconcerned once it was clear that no one was hurt, and I asked him why; that was the answer he gave me.

And so on. Natives are skilled if they're still in the game, and don't need to slow down to find out where they are going. A New York driver can produce a 'detour map' in his/her head almost instantly at any sign of traffic; this is because Manhattan is essentially a big grid. Thus, New Yorkers will zip from avenue to avenue looking for flow rate. Turn signals will be used for actual turns but not lane changes, generally; vehicles slowing for a turn are readily identifiable, and typically the side-most lanes have double-parked vehicles in them at some point meaning the turning car can pull over while waiting to turn, avoiding traffic blockage.

Now, let's move to Boston. What are my pet peeves here? This has been well covered in other fora, but here are mine:

• Nobody, and I mean nobody, uses turn signals (trafficators). Ever. There appears to be a large stigma associated with use of said device.
• Everyone tends to 'wander' around the road from lane to lane.
• ...Usually while driving very slowly.
• I can't tell who's who for purposes of threat assessment; Native Bostonians are OK but not great; non-Bostonians with no experience are bad, and commuters are worse, but ID'ing them is hard.
• Everyone tends to simply nose out into an intersection when stopped, with no sense of a crosswalk or of a stop line.

Okay, so why? Here are my theories; ignore, laugh at or dismiss at will.

First, the reason no-one ever uses turn signals is because they normally have no idea they're going to turn that far in advance, so why get into the habit?

Second, the reason everyone tends to wander across roadways is that if you're even slightly lost, you're in deep trouble because for some unknown reason, the avenues here DO NOT HAVE STREET SIGNS. This means that if you're on a major thoroughfare and aren't sure which, you may end up meandering from side to side hoping to find the elusive street signs, but FORGET IT, they're not there. In addition, on some side streets, there is a street sign only on one side of the avenue- which reinforces the above.

Everybody here has Massachusetts plates. This means I can't easily tell folks apart. Taxis don't have a universal color scheme, and there are enough junkers and delivery vehicles that the usual 'two-tone' job doesn't mean much.

Finally, on every street in the Boston area as far as I can tell, the stop line is set so far back that there is no way at all to see in either direction on the cross street. Therefore, you have to nose out practically into traffic to see if it's safe to go. If there's a stop light rather than a sign, you'll still get people nosing out to see if they can turn right on red.

To summarize, I have decided that a large portion of the variance in driving habits between these two cities can be traced to structural factors. More next time when I rant on how to change things for the better. (Hint: the right of way goes to the most heavily armed. And I'm not talkin' popguns, for the humor-impaired, I'm talkin' big-iron vee-hick-youle-ar weapons like flamethrowers and antitank guns. Didn't you people ever play Car Wars?)

Okay, now I feel better. Rant off.

Thanks for visiting.

-J.B. Zimmerman

If you're interested in more of his writing (fictional, in this case) it can be found here.

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