Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Boston Drivers (beep! beep!)

I've been commuting to work every day by bike so I've seen lots of Boston drivers up close and personal in my month in Boston so far.  At first I just thought they were mean, but now I'm starting to understand their system.

There are two kinds of honk and they go as follows.

Mean Honk:
Beeeeeeeep!  You @$$hole!!!

Nice Honk:
Beep. Beep.

If know swearing is audible after the honk, I assume they have the best of intentions.

So here's the cool system.  You know how obnoxious it is to sit at a light and have to constantly stare at it so you know when it turns?  Well in Boston, there is one person on alert who honks their horn politely the instant the light turns so that all the other drivers know to go even if they weren't looking.  At first I thought the person doing that was just really impatient, but now I consider them considerate for watching out for everyone.  I think sometimes it's maybe even the person at the front who beeps to make sure everyone behind them knows to go. Maybe...

That's my optimistic theory anyway.  Who knows.

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