it is the tourists that go the wrong way up one way streets.
The first time I was ever in Boston, my mom and I arrived on a delayed flight that got in at 1 a.m. The cabbie who took us to our Uncle Dolph's place drove in a nearly perfectly straight line from the airport to Brookline Village, tootling the wrong way down any number of one-way streets and cheerily waving away our hesitant objections with the observation that it was one in the morning and since he was driving in a straight line and thus obviously not drunk, even if there were any cops around they'd never waste their time pulling him over. His insouciance was just a touch alarming.
We lived right behind T. Anthony's and In Your Ear records.
Wow, the fall of the second year after college (that would be 89) I moved into a basement studio on Naples road, which is one of the cross streets on that block (lived there for 9 years too - it was the last cheap deal I'll probably ever find). Fun-knee!
Not always the tourists. My Irish boyfriend learned to drive in Boston and my parents STILL talk about the time they were visiting and he drove them backwards up a one-way street the wrong way to get to a parking space.
All bets are off if you're looking for parking.
I hate to break this to you, but I've driven in most of the continental U.S., and only in Boston will someone pass you on the right in the same lane.
Hee! With the advent of so many SUV's, I think this happens less than it used to. Aggressive, yes, though.
I'm not a defender! Bostonians don't talk to pedestrians unless they've run over them! To pull over to talk to a pedestrian is a total out-of-towner move.
Really, we just like to scare people from out of town so they don't drive. This benefits us because a) they don't mess up our Boston-driving groove and b) more parking for us.
It's all about the parking.
Huh. I appear to be going to a basketball game tonight.
To pull over to talk to a pedestrian is a total out-of-towner move.
If he'd pulled over, it'd have been a wee bit less annoying.
Heh. I lived on the 4th floor of Shelton in my junior year. I recently reconnected with my roommate from that year on LJ, which is too cool.
If he'd pulled over, it'd have been a wee bit less annoying.
OK, that actually sounds like a local move (i.e. cut off and/or block anyone possible). Any idea where you were - certain neighborhoods/outlying towns of greater Boston I can totally see the "wrong way/stop to chat" thing going down.
Naples road, which is one of the cross streets on that block
I lived at 16A Winslow Road! Like the next street over. Our landlord Dick and his, as we liked to call her concubine, Peg lived in the bottom of the house. He seemed to work on taxi cabs for a living. There were always a ton of them parked in the parking lot behind the house. We thought his "work" on them consisted of turning back the odometers. He was a sketchy dude but a nice landlord. He never complained about us and returned our hefty safety deposit back in full, in cash when we moved out. Even though we had done a job on the house somewhat.
