'DON"T BLOCK THE BOX'

In Boston, we can boast about many things, our great history, our distinct accent, and even our excellent driving skills. Well, two out of three is not bad. When it comes to driving skills, we are still a ‘work in progress’.

Occasionally, as I travel around the country, I tend to observe the living habits of the people in those cities. Recently, I spent time in a sister city, Philadelphia, PA .I noticed something odd, very little gridlock on the streets. 

Noticeably, the ‘City of Brotherly Love’ is a larger city than our comfortable Bean town. However, the automobile drivers are a bit more courteous. More importantly, something else was very different ……no serious traffic backups, even during rush hour!

It was puzzling to say the least.

I discovered this is not due to the good nature of the drivers alone. It appears that motorist, pedestrians, and bicyclists maintain a mutual respectful standard. It’s largely due to a single traffic law not easily found in Massachusetts.

The law is the ‘DON’T BLOCK THE BOX’ rule. 

Currently, some Massachusetts drivers independently observe this courtesy, there is no high level police enforcement existing to regulate this behavior in the Bay State……yet!

This law has existed in cities like New York, Baltimore, and Miami for many years. The law attempts to prevent gridlock on the roads by allowing traffic to continuously flow through the many busy intersections within a congested city.

‘DON’T BLOCK THE BOX’ signs are posted within those intersections with the heaviest traveled vehicular traffic. Specific roadway intersections are clearly posted. The crossroads with traffic signals make up the vast majority of all intersections selected. However, the rule can be applied to nearly every intersecting roadway in some sense.

If you drive within the metropolitan Boston area, or within any slightly congested section of a city, you can witness this frustrating vehicular maneuver daily. Drivers slip into the intersection trying to get far enough across to beat the red light. The problem is most times there is no room, and they get stuck in the middle of the intersection blocking the vehicular traffic traveling in the perpendicular direction, creating gridlock.

While one may think that’s not so bad…………think again. By blocking that intersection, the stuck traffic traveling the opposite direction, causes a domino negative effect potentially blocking another intersection a city block away, and so on, and so on!

 A few inconsiderate drivers can make a mess out of a busy area in just seconds.

The sad part is there is no need of this madness. In many U.S. cities, with the ‘DON’T BLOCK THE BOX’ law, you can receive serious fines, lose points on your license, or get surcharges on your insurance policy premium.

This courtesy could be adopted towards the entrances of streets, shopping market entries, or even a busy gas station entrances, or exits. If we just leave a little room between the cars in front of us, we could move up to allow someone else to enter, or exit, from the traffic line.

In fact, if we remember the old school rule, that if you can’t view the pavement below the car ahead of you, you’re already too close!

So let’s not give the politicians another opportunity to make more traffic laws, and take more cash from our already strapped pocketbooks. We have enough laws on the books! Each of us needs to use a lot of common sense, and a bit of driver courtesy while behind the wheel. It’s a team play.

We need to not ‘BLOCK THE BOX’ and keep the traffic moving. It does work try it out……..you’ll see the difference when you get by that intersection instead of sitting there wasting valuable time, and expensive fuel! Think it over.

Just a quick note on another subject…….. electronic messaging and driving. Remember it is against the law to text while driving, more importantly it’s unsafe. Please drive safely, summer is here and the children will be out of school shortly. Keep everyone safe by using your seat belts, & ‘NO MESSAGING TEXT WHILE DRIVING’! Let’s keep our roadways safe for everyone, including you.

Just another thought by Paul Maisano