Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Roads in Boston: Part II

Now that you've seen part i, i assume part ii will be less shocking.

This is a fork in the road.



So is this.



So are these.


WTF. So are ALL of these.



Imagine driving down a road, and GPS says "in the next 5km, stay right" (you know, cuz it's a fork), and in 5km, you see the fork, and your GPS says "stay right." You stay right pass the fork, and breathe a sign of relief....nope scratch the last part, because you immediately encounter another fork, before the GPS has time to react to tell you if you're supposed to stay right or left. Last time "two roads diverged in a yellow wood," we "took the one less traveled" and got stuck in an underwater tunnel that was five minutes long all the way to the airport, and had to pay tolls to come back.



Here are a billion "Washington Streets" in and around Boston, Massachusetts. Did i mention that every little district have the exact same street names as another?


Did you catch that there are TWO Washington streets in Boston alone? I highlighted all the other districts to show you how close each area is. These streets are literally five minute drives from each other. Make sure you know your damn zip codes when you are looking up addresses because last time we tried going to School Street in Boston, we ended up on School street on the other side of the town.

Today, i was in Woburn, 15 minute away from Medford; I drove on a street called Washington street, and every street it passed, it was called "Washington Place", "Washington Drive", "Washington Walk"...WTF

If you are feeling brave, try searching on Google Maps for a few other names like Broadway, Main, Cambridge, Tremont...and see how many suggestions googlemaps will give you in massachusetts alone.



This seems simple enough. How to go from Legal Seafoods in Back Bay to an apartment building in South Boston.

This is what happens when you click on the reverse button to switch the directions on Google. Not much more that needs to be said for this one.

Btw, you think my explanation sounds bad enough? Actually driving on these roads with no signs, no arial view, with trees and houses covering the streets...it's about 100 times worth.

oh, and wait for part III

4 comments:

some grad student said...

Lynn, your biggest problem is that the GPS says things like "5 km". That's clearly gonna get you somewhere in the wrong place. At least now you know where Mass Pike goes if you keep following it all the way east :D (I'm guessing that's what you ended up on)

Jenny said...

You clearly hate Boston. Why are you still there? Toronto is waiting for you to come home!

Ling Chung said...

Hahha. This made me laugh. I get your tweet now.

Lynn said...

timur: metric is the way to go...you guys need to get with the times!

jenny: or california?

ling: i'm glad this post made someone understand what i'm going through...haha